Dwight Eisenhower: A Life from beginning to end by Hourly History - Book Review

This is a short biography of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces during the Second World War and the subsequent US President, Dwight Eisenhower.

This book focuses on what made an average student, a pacifist by nature who joined West Point only for the sake of a free college education ended up as one of the most talked about military generals in modern history. It then shifts to his tenure as the President and his achievements, how he drew the ire of ultra conservative Republicans by pledging to end segregation and his policies towards Soviet Union.

The book, maintained the balance; the first half was on his military career and the second half was on his political career. It talked about how he rose to power in the military during peace time; a fact I knew from a lot of Second World War novel I have read wherein the soldiers often make a remark saying 'Eisenhower has never faced a real combat and so, he gives us impractical commands'. However, this book talked about the various strategic moves of Eisenhower which led to the eventual victory of the allies in the Second World War and then moves on to his political career; as to how he was able to mobilise votes for himself though not for his party and his relations with the Soviet Union and escalation of the Cold War (though, Eisenhower, personally, was still the pacifist).

The only downfall of this book is probably the fact that the book wasn't exactly hourly and it was quite long, would have taken me around hundred minutes to cover the whole book but it is good that the book had an equal focus on both aspects; unlike their book on Ulysses S. Grant.

I would award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating - 8/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

​