| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Eisenhower Decides to Run: Presidential Politics and Cold War Strategy. By William B. Pickett. (Chicago: Dee, 2000. xviii, 269 pp. $27.50, ISBN 1-56663-325-7.)

Eisenhower at Columbia. By Travis Beal Jacobs. (New Brunswick: Transaction, 2001. xxii, 354 pp. $39.95, ISBN 0-7658-0036-5.)

Despite a voluminous body of literature on Dwight D. Eisenhower's command of Allied forces during World War II and subsequent presidency, the years of his life between the end of the war in 1945 and his election to the presidency in 1952 have received little attention—even from Eisenhower's biographers. During these years, as the Cold War gathered steam, Eisenhower continued to play a prominent role in public life. He served as chief of staff of the army, president of Columbia University, acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He was also one of the country's most popular, and most closely followed, political figures. His notoriety attracted considerable media attention; virtually every public utterance of the wartime hero was considered newsworthy. 1

William B. Pickett and Travis Beal Jacobs reexamine this period of Eisenhower's life and challenge long-standing interpretations in the historiography. Pickett revisits Eisenhower's decision to campaign for the U.S. presidency. According to conventional wisdom, Eisenhower did not seek the office; it sought him. Pickett thoroughly debunks this notion that Eisenhower was "drafted"—or compelled by popular demand against his wishes—to run for the presidency. He persuasively demonstrates that as early as 1943 Eisenhower was "deeply involved in promoting his presidential fortunes." . . .

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