Best Selling Books by Arthur Meier Schlesinger

Originally published: 1986. With new introd.

Publisher Description

Examines the economic facotrs that contributed to the American Revolution.

Examines the lessons of one polyglot country after another tearing itself apart or on the brink of doing so, and points out troubling new evidence that multiculturalism gone awry here in the United States threatens to do the same.

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.

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.

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

The author considers events that occurred during his lifetime and that contributed to America''s rise to world power status, as told through his personal experiences in childhood, in college, and during war times.

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

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.

With a new introduction by the author The Vital Center is an eloquent and incisive defense of liberal democracy against its rivals to the left and to the right, communism and fascism. It shows how the failures of free society had led to the mass escape from freedom and sharpened the appeal of totalitarian solutions. It calls for a radical reconstruction of the democratic faith based on a realistic understanding of human limitation and frailty.

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).