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.

Listen to more of the definitive Oxford History of the United States.

©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)

excellent history

Good book of American history in the depression and WWII. Covers mostly the presidency of Roosevelt

insightful

Enjoyed it very much. The information on the New deal was interesting my grandfather's farm was saved by the new deal. and the many good things that happened as a result of programs that were of great help to the people of America people were ruined by a supreme court. who seemed to care little about us. The Balance of the court should never be ignored by people as a reason the vote.

Well paced

Despite being so long, I thought the book advanced at a great pace. It provided a great overview of two major historical events and included a good amount of detail without getting bogged down in unnecessary details or irrelevant asides. Highly recommend for the non-historian curious about the era.

Well Worth the Listen

What made the experience of listening to Freedom from Fear the most enjoyable?

A well written, well read, unbiased, unvarnished history of the period.

What did you like best about this story?

I am currently interested in the WWII era and this book covers it well.

What does Tom Weiner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He doesn't just read the book he adds the necessary emphasis without adding a bias.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The ruthlessness of the Japanese was particularly interesting.

Outstanding

As good as it gets. Well read with a quick pace, the book moves quickly painting a panoramic view of these years, scanning across the US as well as its relationship to the rest of the world. Very rapidly paced, well research, outstandingly read and presented. A great part of the Oxford history series. highly recommended.

Not what you learned in high school

If you could sum up Freedom from Fear in three words, what would they be?

Informative, absorbing, defiinitive

What about Tom Weiner’s performance did you like?

Tom had to read a lot. His voice did not get tiring. He pronounced words very well.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

This is 32 hours of audio, a real bargain in cost per minute terms! I really want to listen to it again! You will learn a lot about this era and it is delivered rapidly.

Entertaining; Enlightening; Impressive

The author took on a daunting task here, writing about not one but two of the most important and complex periods in American history. Plus, it's not like the two periods meld seamlessly into each other. The author covered an economic/social crisis in the first half of the book, and then covered the biggest war in the history of the world in the second half. Kennedy covers both very well.

This is an extremely detailed book. Kennedy does a spectacular job with facts and numbers on the Great Depression.

Early on he covers the debate concerning the famous stock market crash's impact on the general depression. This section is quite enlightening and should make many open minded listeners reconsider the issue.

Kennedy will certainly have many readers questioning their views of Herbert Hoover. One gets the sense that Hoover was to some extent a victim of circumstance. Some of the most interesting parts of this book concern the political interactions between Hoover and incoming president Franklin Roosevelt.

I wouldn’t say that Kennedy portrays Hoover as a sympathetic character, but he does not bury him as a villain by any means. Kennedy also pours cold water on the image of FDR as the hero who saved the country from Hoover. The book certainly carries on the now familiar refrain amongst scholars that the New Deal was in large part as futile as anything Hoover did.

The first 12 chapters of the book cover the Stock Market Crash, the Great Depression, and the New Deal. Kennedy must then transition to WWII and does an amazing job of bridging 1918 to 1939 in a relatively short space.

The author does great work on the politics between the Allies. A lot of great info on that. Also a lot of good info on the formations and makeup of the USA armed forces.

Towards the end, the book wraps up in a hurry. The reader may be surprised by the abruptness of this. However, Kennedy does a pretty decent job with the epilogue, covering both the world and the country.

I feel compelled to add that towards the very end the author does unfurl a fairly ruthless diatribe against the actions of America during the war. There is without a doubt plenty of merit in Kennedy’s statements but it’s a bit over-the-top in its harshness. All things considered, credit due to the author for hiding his feelings on the matter throughout the narrative up to this point.

On to the narration, which is always crucial for myself. For me, the highest achievement for a narrator is to make you totally forget that the narrator is separate from the work and the author at all. I don't mean that you literally forget that the book is not being read by the author (obviously); I mean that the narration fits so well that it becomes THE VOICE of the work, and impossible to separate from the book.

In other words, it's as if hearing another narrator read the same work would make it an entirely different book. Only a select few narrators have the talent/voice to do this. Grover Gardner and Nadia May come to mind as some of the readers that fit this elite description.

If this ultimate goal cannot be reached, the next highest achievement is to wholly convince the listener that the voice of narration holds the convictions as strongly as the author, and is as well versed and knowledgeable on the subject as the author. Natural talent isn't quite as important here. This is an easier level to achieve, but still difficult.

Tom Weiner fits into this second category. He is a terrific narrator and perfect for this sort of book. His voice is pleasant and also authoritative. He is a great fit for books on war/politics/history.

“Verbal typos” and mispronunciations can take away from a narrator’s performance. Depending on the frequency of these mistakes, they can destroy any chance of a narrator convincing the listener. I will say Weiner has a few curious pronunciations during his performance which are distracting, and this surprised me. Some examples of this: “debacle” pronounced as “de-ba-cle” rather than “de-bah-cle;” “clique” as “cleck” rather than “cleeck;” “reprise” as “re-preeze” rather than “re-prize;” “Carnegie” as “car-nay-gee” rather than “car-ne-gee.”

Fortunately, these slight issues are few and far between. Overall, Weiner nails the narration.

I wanted to get a better understanding of this period in American history

Monumental amount of information and well narrated, I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in FDR, The New Deal, Depression Era, WWII, Japan and Russian involvement& and the many details that were of importance at the time.

Big book for a big history

I have enjoyed many novels set in this period (1929-1945) plus a university class on the period, Having earned a Pulitzer for this work, I figured it would be worth investing the time (32 hours!) and it has been. I've taken a couple breaks to listen to lighter material but keep coming back for another 8-10 hour stint with this history. I think the author was very even-handed with his praise and criticism of the major players of the period. Kennedy is a terrific writer and researcher.

It's important to have a solid understanding of this period of our history as we deal with the ongoing problems.facing of our economy and government. Before listening to the history twisters on the left or right, check out this book for an unprejudiced account of what happened and why.

(I gave the narrator a less than 5 star rating because he speaks too quickly in the early hours of the book. I repeatedly needed to skip back and listen again. This may have been the responsibility of the director.)

Outstanding...Especially the Epilogue

This is the perfect place to start for a well-rounded introduction to the history of the USA between the Depression and the Second World War. I particularly enjoyed the Epilogue as it brilliantly summarized the momentous changes that occurred in that time with skilled writing.
David Kennedy deserves his Pulitzer for this work. His previous book on The First World War through American eyes is also quite good.