Search results for ""Author Robert Dallek""

In a striking reinterpretation of the postwar years, Robert Dallek examines what drove Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, De Gaulle, and Truman, among others, the leaders of the most powerful and populous nations around the globe, to rely on traditional power politics in spite of the catastrophic violence they had endured. The decisions of these leaders, for better and often worse, had profound consequences for decades to come, influencing relations and conflicts with China, Korea, and in the Middle East. "The Lost Peace" is a penetrating look at the misjudgments that caused so much strife and suffering during this critical period, from the closing months of World War II through the early years of the Cold War. Dallek has written a cautionary tale that considers what might have been done differently to avoid the difficulties that strong and weak nations around the globe encountered in the mid-twentieth century. Provocative, illuminating, and based on a lifetime of research, "The Lost Peace" also offers extraordinary lessons for today's leaders, who might learn from the mistakes that were made in the years leading up to the cold war and engage in a more successful era of international cooperation.

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Fifty years after John F. Kennedy's assassination, presidential historian Robert Dallek, whom The New York Times calls "Kennedy's leading biographer," delivers a riveting new portrait of this president and his inner circle of advisors-their rivalries, personality clashes, and political battles. In Camelot's Court, Dallek analyzes the brain trust whose contributions to the successes and failures of Kennedy's administration-including the Bay of Pigs, civil rights, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam-were indelible. Kennedy purposefully put together a dynamic team of advisors noted for their brilliance and acumen, including Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, and trusted aides Ted Sorensen and Arthur Schlesinger. Yet the very traits these men shared also created sharp divisions. Far from being unified, this was an uneasy band of rivals whose ambitions and clashing beliefs ignited fiery internal debates. Robert Dallek illuminates a president deeply determined to surround himself with the best and the brightest, who often found himself disappointed with their recommendations. The result, Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House, is a striking portrait of a leader whose wise resistance to pressure and adherence to principle offers a cautionary tale for our own time.

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Robert Dallek's masterful John F. Kennedy: An Unfinished Life was a number one national bestseller, and it remains the most widely read one-volume biography of the 35th President. Now, in this marvelous short biography of John F. Kennedy, Dallek achieves a miracle of compression, capturing in a small space the essence of his renowned full-length masterpiece. Here readers will find the fascinating insights and groundbreaking revelations found in An Unfinished Life. The heart of the book focuses on Kennedy's political career, especially the presidency. The book sheds light on key foreign affairs issues such as the Bay of Pigs debacle, Khrushchev's misguided bullying of Kennedy in Vienna, the Cuban Missile crisis, the nuclear test ban, the race for space, and the initial dealings with Southeast Asia, especially Laos. It also highlights the difficulties Kennedy faced getting a domestic agenda passed, from a tax cut to spur the economy, to federal aid to education, Medicare, and civil rights. Dallek reveals the thinking behind Robert Kennedy's appointment as Attorney General and convincingly argues that Kennedy would never have expanded the war in Vietnam the way that Lyndon Johnson did. The book also addresses questions about Kennedy's assassination and concludes with his presidential legacy and why he remains so popular despite serving only a thousand days in office.

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Robert Dallek's brilliant two-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson has received an avalanche of praise. Now Dallek has condensed his two-volume masterpiece into what is surely the finest one-volume biography of Johnson available.Based on years of research in over 450 manuscript collections and oral histories, as well as numerous personal interviews, this biography follows Johnson, the 'human dynamo', from the Texas hill country to the White House. In these pages, Johson emerges as a man of towering intensity and anguished insecurity, of grandiose ambition and grave self-doubt, a man who was brilliant, crude, intimidating, compassionate, overbearing, driven. Gracefully written and delicately balanced, this singular biography reveals both the greatness and the tangled complexities of one of the most extravagant characters ever to step onto the presidential stage.

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From the acclaimed author of John F. Kennedy: An Unfinished Life, the biography of one of America's greatest presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt.'Meticulously researched and authoritative, heroically objective and wide-angled ... Roosevelt is with us again in Dallek's outstanding cradle-to-grave study' Douglas Brinkley, Washington Post'Assuredly the best single-volume Roosevelt biography' Eric Rauchway, The Times Literary Supplement'Essential ... a master of the presidential biography captures Roosevelt's compassion and sense of solidarity' Greg Grandin, Guardian'An insightful, incisive and intelligent one-volume work - and a pointed primer on how things in Washington get done. In a period defined by division, Dallek crafts a pointillist portrait of the four-term president, who knew almost intuitively how to reach consensus' Peter M. Gianotti, Newsday

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Updated edition of the authoritative single-volume biography of John F. Kennedy. Drawing upon first-hand sources and never-before-opened archives, prize-winning historian Robert Dallek reveals more than we ever knew about Jack Kennedy, forever changing the way we think about his life, his presidency and his legacy.Dallek also discloses that, while labouring to present an image of robust good health, Kennedy was secretly in and out of hospitals throughout his life, soill that he was administered last rites on several occasions. He never shies away from Kennedy's weaknesses, but also brilliantly explores his strengths. The result is a full portrait of a bold, brave and truly human John F. Kennedy.

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