The Glory and the Dream

A Narrative History of America, 1932 - 1972

By: William Manchester

Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach

Length: 57 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

This great time capsule of a book captures the abundant popular history of the United States from 1932 to 1972. It encompasses politics, military history, economics, the lively arts, science, fashion, fads, social change, sexual mores, communications, graffiti...everything and anything indigenous that can be captured in print.

The Glory and the Dream chronicles the progress of life in the United States, from the time William Manchester and his generation reached the beginning of awareness in the desperate summer of '32 to President Nixon's Second Inaugural Address and the opening scenes of Watergate. Masterfully compressing four crowded decades of our history, Manchester relives the epic, significant, or just memorable events that befell the generation of Americans whose lives pivoted between the America before and the America after the Second World War.

©1974 William Manchester (P)1994 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Fantastic cultural and political history

Written like a biography of America, with profiles of important people, story lines covering important events, and broad, colorful descriptions of pop culture, demography, and every day life. Particularly fantastic perspectives on political events, from the perspective someone who lived though all of these events (the author was born in 1922), with many of these events covered during the 17 years in which this book was written (1957-1974). Without a doubt, this is what allowed the author to give this book it's remarkable, almost autobiographical feel.

Most important books on US from 1937-1972

Would you listen to The Glory and the Dream again? Why?

Matybe. It is very very long -- over 40 hours. I listen as I get up in the morning, drive to work and come back. Wonderful experience.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Glory and the Dream?

Too many to review: It's history. Lots and lots of critically important information and dates.

Have you listened to any of Jeff Riggenbach’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

He's amazing.

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

Lots. Again, in the history of 40 or so years, it's a wonderful story.

Any additional comments?

Everyone should listen. It's wonderfully written -- full of color and lively. Well recorded. Transfixing.

Lots of Fun

Wonderful book. Description of the 1960's not altogether accurate and sometimes annoying but the 1930's, 1940's and 1970's presentations are memorable -rich and entertaining.

Great story of America

William Manchester is a wonderful historian. His prose is wonderful, and he paints such a nuanced picture of this country. I love the narrative and the texture of the story. The narrator does a remarkable job.

Exhaustive study of America masterfully narrated

This a big book that tells a big story - the history of America during the American century. The history is complete and deeply researched though the stories do have a heavy political slant. That is fine when dealing with the likes of FDR, Eisenhower and Nixon but the book seems to be stretching when dealing with the less impartial Presidents. I felt the book spent too long on the likes of Truman and Johnson at the expense of the world around them. We learn a lot about the corridors of power but little about the consequences of the actions of these poet players on Americans. Still, this is an informative book and it does go into great detail. The writing is also of the highest quality. Written in a lyrical and natural style there were are no dull patches to be found. The writing is sparse and neutral mostly, although the writers opinions are not glossed over.

But the strength of this book is the narrator, Jeff Riggenbach. He was obviously trained to narrate and it shows on every page. He hits every accent and highlight with authority and does so with a balanced, experienced delivery. The narrator adds an element to this book that can only be described as a masterclass in reading narration. The audio is as informative as it is entertaining.

Not bad.

A pretty interesting look into us history from an outsider. As a brit he leans soft towards unions, and his economics isn't great, but his narrative is quite good as a whole.

Great read

I had read other reviews about the fast pace, general dissatisfaction with the narrator and the choppiness of the way material was presented.
But none of this deterred from my enjoyment. The audio is a bit compressed occasionally but overall this was one of the best books on tapes I have received

It is good to remember the past

Excellent book! Long but very enlightening as to the mood of the country at various times but also why certain decisions were made. Listening to the prices of not very long ago, I am shocked at what inflation has caused. It was good to hear about the mistakes of the past and the arrogance of the men who made them. Learn from the past. if we don't we will make the same mistakes.

Another fine one by this author

Short declarative staccato sentences imparting a wealth of information and woven together so very well into the myriad of stories. A wonderful book.

Interesting, but dated. Needs a sequel.

More narrative than history. Read it once, but don't use it as a history reference book. Manchester relies too often on contemporary popular journalism, and a lot of the material has been contradicted by more recent and more scholarly research. After reading the book 20 years ago, I felt I "knew" a lot of things that are now considered just plain wrong. Further, as the book approaches the end-point of 1973 it becomes myopic. (For example, the phony Howard Hughes biography seemed far more important in '73 than it does now.) The Watergate onion was just starting to be unpeeled when the book closes and Nixon is reelected, so we're left hanging, feeling like we've lost the last pages of a mystery novel. Had Manchester known the conclusion of the Watergate scandal, the part of the story he did write about would need to be reshaped.

That said, the book has a great narrative sweep, and a sort of elegant architecture. Forgotten trivia, fads, and cultural artifacts are exhumed and examined. Astonishingly fatuous political utterances and marmoreal editorial pronouncements from the past are trotted out and given the raspberries they deserve. Moreover, Manchester is a lucid storyteller, and refreshingly, his political tendencies (left) give the whole enterprise some spine and forward motion. He successfully shows how, and why, the United States went from point A to point B over 40 event-filled years, and I came away feeling I understood my grandparents, my parents, and my country a little better.