New Releases by Arthur Meier Schlesinger

The Politics of Hope and The Bitter Heritage brings together two important books that bracket the tempestuous politics of 1960s America. In The Politics of Hope, which historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., published in 1963 while serving as a special assistant to President Kennedy, Schlesinger defines the liberalism that characterized the Kennedy administration and the optimistic early Sixties. In lively and incisive essays, most of them written between 1956 and 1960, on topics such as the basic differences underlying liberal and conservative politics, the writing of history, and the experience of Communist countries, Schlesinger emphasizes the liberal thinker''s responsibility to abide by goals rather than dogma, to learn from history, and to look to the future. Four years later, following Kennedy''s assassination and the escalation of America''s involvement in Vietnam, Schlesinger''s tone changes. In The Bitter Heritage, a brief but penetrating appraisal of the "war that nobody wanted," he recounts America''s entry into Vietnam, the history of the war, and its policy implications. The Bitter Heritage concludes with an eloquent and sobering assessment of the war''s threat to American democracy and a reflection on the lessons or legacies of the Vietman conflict. With a new foreword by Sean Wilentz, the James Madison Library edition of The Politics of Hope and The Bitter Heritage situates liberalism in the convulsive 1960s--and illuminates the challenges that still face liberalism today.

The distinguished political historian''s journals provide an intimate history of post-war America, the writer''s contributions to multiple presidential administrations, and his relationships with numerous cultural and intellectual figures.

Explores the war in Iraq, the presidency of George W. Bush, and the future of democracy, warning about the dangers of America''s policy shift from containment to preventive war, and urging for continued patriotism in the face of dissent.

Publisher Description

Portraying the United States from the Great War to the Great Depression, The Crisis of the Old Order covers the Jazz Age and the rise and fall of the cult of business. For a season, prosperity seemed permanent, but the illusion came to an end when Wall Street crashed in October 1929. Public trust in the wisdom of business leadership crashed too. With a dramatist''s eye for vivid detail and a scholar''s respect for accuracy, Schlesinger brings to life the era that gave rise to FDR and his New Deal and changed the public face of the United States forever.

The Politics of Upheaval, 1935-1936, volume three of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and biographer Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.''s Age of Roosevelt series, concentrates on the turbulent concluding years of Franklin D. Roosevelt''s first term. A measure of economic recovery revived political conflict and emboldened FDR''s critics to denounce "that man in the White house." To his left were demagogues -- Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and Dr. Townsend. To his right were the champions of the old order -- ex-president Herbert Hoover, the American Liberty League, and the august Supreme Court. For a time, the New Deal seemed to lose its momentum. But in 1935 FDR rallied and produced a legislative record even more impressive than the Hundred Days of 1933 -- a set of statutes that transformed the social and economic landscape of American life. In 1936 FDR coasted to reelection on a landslide. Schlesinger has his usual touch with colorful personalities and draws a warmly sympathetic portrait of Alf M. Landon, the Republican candidate of 1936.

The first of three books that interpret the political, economic, social, and intellectual history of the early twentieth century in terms of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the spokesman and symbol of the period. Portraying the United States from the Great War to the Great Depression, this volume covers the Jazz Age and the rise and fall of the cult of business. For a season, prosperity seemed permanent, but the illusion came to an end when Wall Street crashed in October 1929. Public trust in the wisdom of business leadership crashed too. With a dramatist''s eye for vivid detail and a scholar''s respect for accuracy, Schlesinger brings to life the era that gave rise to FDR and his New Deal and changed the public face of the United States forever.

As special assistant to the president, Arthur Schlesinger witnessed firsthand the politics and personalities that influenced the now legendary Kennedy administration. Schlesinger''s close relationship with JFK, as a politician and as a friend, has resulted in this authoritative yet intimate account in which the president "walks through the pages, from first to last, alert, alive, amused and amusing" (John Kenneth Galbraith). A THOUSAND DAYS is "at once a masterly literary achievement and a work of major historical significance" (New York Times).

Originally published: 1986. With new introd.

Arthur Meier Schlesinger (1888-1965) was one of the most influential historians of the first half of the twentieth century. He encouraged new approaches to the study of history, and he played a founding role in the study of the city in American culture. His classic work, The Rise of the City, was first published in 1933 and was reprinted repeatedly during the next forty years. Beginning in the rural South and West and concluding with the triumph of urban civilization, Schlesinger definitively chronicled the fundamental shift from America as a rural agricultural society to America as an urban industrial center. He further suggested that the cities, not Frederick Jackson Turner''s frontier, have shaped our nation''s story. Andrea Tuttle Kornbluh has written a new introduction for this edition, placing Schlesinger''s achievements in the context of the development of American urban studies.

The New York Times bestseller that reminded us what it means to be an American is more timely than ever in this updated and enlarged edition, including "Schlesinger''s Syllabus," an annotated reading list of core books on the American experience. The classic image of the American nation — a melting pot in which differences of race, wealth, religion, and nationality are submerged in democracy — is being replaced by an orthodoxy that celebrates difference and abandons assimilation. While this upsurge in ethnic awareness has had many healthy consequences in a nation shamed by a history of prejudice, the cult of ethnicity, if pressed too far, threatens to fragment American society to a dangerous degree. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner in history and adviser to the Kennedy and other administrations, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., is uniquely positioned to wave the caution flag in the race to a politics of identity. Using a broader canvas in this updated and expanded edition, he examines the international dimension and the lessons of one polyglot country after another tearing itself apart or on the brink of doing so: among them the former Yugoslavia, Nigeria, even Canada. Closer to home, he finds troubling new evidence that multiculturalism gone awry here in the United States threatens to do the same. "One of the most devastating and articulate attacks on multiculturalism yet to appear."—Wall Street Journal "A brilliant book . . . we owe Arthur Schlesinger a great debt of gratitude."—C. Vann Woodward, New Republic

The bestseller that reminded readers of what it means to be an American is more timely than ever in this updated and enlarged edition, including "Schlesinger''s Syllabus", an annotated reading list of core books on the American experience. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

This volume, by the great American historian Arthur M. Schlesinger embraces the the Age of Andrew Jackson from its inception to its influence upon the history of our country. It captures the historical, cultural, economic and political life of the United States as it grew from Jefferson''s day to the violent early eruptions of financial and industrial forces that threatened the basic principles of our constitutional democracy. (Sep. 6, 2011).

A biography of the Senator who was assassinated in 1968, stressing the public and personal forces and events that shaped his life.

A selection of 15 essays with a 15-page introduction, a presidential chronology, and voting tables for 44 presidential elections.