Search results for ""author charles e. neu""

An in-depth look at the key advisers to Woodrow Wilson during the course of his tumultuous presidency.Nearly 100 years after Woodrow Wilson's death, historians continue to be divided over the impact of his presidency and his political leadership. The collapse of Wilson's health in 1919 and his failure to win Senate approval of the Versailles Treaty have tainted his legacy, as have the racism of his administration and its disregard for civil liberties after American entry into World War I. In The Wilson Circle, Charles E. Neu takes a new look at the Wilson presidency through the lens of his inner circle, a group of ten advisers. Some of these advisers, like his wife Ellen, were by his side at the start of his term, while others joined him as the challenges facing Wilson's presidency mounted. All of these advisers believed that, whatever Wilson's flaws as a leader, they had served a great man whose legacy would endure. Struck by his magnetism, his oratorical gifts, and the power and precision of his mind, they each became, to one extent or another, friends of the president. Looking back, they acknowledged that their relationship with Woodrow Wilson had transformed their lives.Challenging the publicly held assumption that Wilson was a remote, harsh president by exploring the intense emotional connection he developed with this tight-knit group, Neu argues that we can partially credit Wilson's remarkable journey in American politics to his ability to bring together such an impressive group of advisers. Wilson realized that, given his limited energy and experience, he had to rely on advisers to help him maintain his physical and emotional equilibrium and to achieve his far-reaching political goals. And as the demands on his presidency changed, changes also occurred in his group of presidential confidants. Informing vivid biographical sketches with a wide range of recent scholarship, The Wilson Circle shines a light on the exceptional people whose advice impacted the course of a presidency.

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Efforts to understand the impact of the Vietnam War on America began soon after it ended, and they continue to the present day. In After Vietnam four distinguished scholars focus on different elements of the war's legacy, while one of the major architects of the conflict, former defense secretary Robert S. McNamara, contributes a final chapter pondering foreign policy issues of the twenty-first century. In the book's opening chapter, Charles E. Neu explains how the Vietnam War changed Americans' sense of themselves: challenging widely-held national myths, the war brought frustration, disillusionment, and a weakening of Americans' sense of their past and vision for the future. Brian Balogh argues that Vietnam became such a powerful metaphor for turmoil and decline that it obscured other forces that brought about fundamental changes in government and society. George C. Herring examines the postwar American military, which became nearly obsessed with preventing "another Vietnam." Robert K. Brigham explores the effects of the war on the Vietnamese, as aging revolutionary leaders relied on appeals to "revolutionary heroism" to justify the communist party's monopoly on political power. Finally, Robert S. McNamara, aware of the magnitude of his errors and burdened by the war's destructiveness, draws lessons from his experience with the aim of preventing wars in the future.

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