Freedom from Fear

The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945

By: David M. Kennedy

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 31 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Between 1929 and 1945, two great travails were visited upon the American people: the Great Depression and World War II. This Pulitzer Prize-winning history tells the story of how Americans endured, and eventually prevailed, in the face of those unprecedented calamities.

The Depression was both a disaster and an opportunity. As David Kennedy vividly demonstrates, the economic crisis of the 1930s was far more than a simple reaction to the alleged excesses of the 1920s. For more than a century before 1929, America's unbridled industrial revolution had gyrated through repeated boom-and-bust cycles, wastefully consuming capital and inflicting untold misery on city and countryside alike.

Freedom from Fear explores how the nation agonized over its role in World War II, how it fought the war, why the United States won, and why the consequences of victory were sometimes sweet, sometimes ironic. In a compelling narrative, Kennedy analyzes the determinants of American strategy, the painful choices faced by commanders and statesmen, and the agonies inflicted on the millions of ordinary Americans who were compelled to swallow their fears and face battle as best they could.

Both comprehensive and colorful, this account of the most convulsive period in American history, excepting only the Civil War, reveals a period that formed the crucible in which modern America was formed.

Please note: The individual volumes of the series have not been published in historical order. Freedom from Fear is number IX in The Oxford History of the United States.

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©1999 Oxford University Press, Inc. (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Pulitzer Prize, History, 2000

“An engrossing narrative of a momentous time.” (New York Times Book Review)

“This is the kind of book prizes are made for.” ( Chicago Tribune)

“[Traces] the American people through three of the most important and widely written about epochs in the century…and provides us with consistently original and sometimes startling conclusions.” ( Washington Post)

Understandable history

Kennedy has both the intellectual skill and creative storytelling to cover a very complex time without the reader dozing.

Obvious Pulitzer Prize winner

I read a fair bit of military history. This book, while much more than that, is a great concise history of WWII. Most interestingly, the author gets into the motivations of the military leaders and it comes across excellently. There is some bias, but that is a minor distraction.

I would recommend this book to any history buff, military history buff, and anyone just interested that period of time in US history. The political science is also very interesting.

An FDR Tour de Force

No question, this book is very complete, and very long. But, for anyone who wants to study this period in history serious, I think it is a must read. What really comes through is the amount of experimentation that FDR tries to end the Depression, and how many times those results are mixed or worse. Still, it is difficult not to side with FDR's irrepressible enthusiasm, even though a honest evaluation may lead to the conclusion that now of the agencies he created had much effect on the overall state of the nation. One thing I especially liked about the book was the fairness displayed toward Herbert Hoover, inheriting the mess from the Coolidge years of laissez faire financial speculation.

"American People In..."

Overall this book is a great comprehensive look at the Depression and the War. I have read from this Oxford series before and have been pleased with each volume's scope. I was expecting that the book would spend more time focusing on "the American people" such as with the issues of the home front. While it did, it spent more time than expected on the military events. I enjoyed the book but if you are looking for more of a history of the home front, you would do better to find an alternate read.

Excellent overview

This is an excellent overview of the three decades to the end of WWII, including a deft race through the war itself. Lively and detailed, never cumbersome. Good narration, though with a few surely preventable mispronunciations of foreign words. Recommended.

Freedom From Fear

Loved this book. The book was so interesting and so informative. This should be required reading in High School history classes. History for me in school was one long boring line of events that meant nothing. The only thing I remembered about the Depression was there was no food and farmers poured milk in the street. This makes the years covered come alive. You understand what happened and you can see the exact same events unfolding today. Reading this you find out where many of the stereotypes about people came from. The book educates the reader not by just dates and events but by letting you see into the lives of the people at the time and how they perceived the government and their lives. Never wanted to stop listening to this book..

Covers a lot of ground

Not enough on the monetary policy revolution FDR brought in but pretty comprehensive history of the New Deal and Great Depression
And of the US role in WW2. No complaints

Well-researched; well-written.

Great book. Well-written, thorough, well-researched. I found the narration to be short of the quality of the book itself. The narrator read as if the book were one 30-hour long run-on sentence.

Good Overview of the New Deal and WWII

This book offers a good overview of the history of the United States in the Great Depression and the Second World War. It is in line with most American historiography of the era, but with fifty years' distance from its subject, which allows the author to be more dispassionate and frank about the failures and flaws of both the New Deal and World War II policies. Overall, well balanced and thoughtful, a good place for an interested everyday reader to start a study of the era.

Freedom from Fear

A very through and comprehensive rendering of this turbulent period in the history of America. There was so much going on during this 15 year period that it is easy to loose the forest while looking at the individual trees. Mr Kennedy keeps the narrative moving without falling into the trap of to much detail. Two items that I take issue with are the treatment of Japanese Americans post Pearl Harbor and the length of time spent on WWII. Mr Kennedy doesn't even mention the interment of Japanese American citizens in internment camps nor the role that the army battalions of these volunteers played in WWII (442 the most decorated battalion in the army and the role that japanese speaking intelligence officers played). The role of Native Americans played in the pacific theater (wind talkers). Other than that this is a great over view of this period.