American Empire

Starred review from April 2, 2012
Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center history professor Freeman examines a postwar dominant America, and it couldn’t come at a better moment, when its citizens are rethinking its global influence. Covering the glory years of 1945–2000, Freeman is at his best when he turns his critical eye on America’s turbulent internal affairs, delving into Truman’s contested Fair Deal reforms, the McCarthy communist witch-hunts, Eisenhower’s cautious civil rights record, LBJ’s ambitious Great Society programs, Nixon’s Watergate disgrace, the return of “corporate capitalism” and Reagan conservatism. Freeman deals with the Clinton administration’s economic policies, which, he says, gave many Americans a higher standard of living, and global conflicts, followed by the Republican victory in 2000. Though at its peak, America’s power exceeded that of the Roman and British empires in cultural, economic, military, and political terms, the nation’s postwar dreams were never completely fulfilled, says Freeman. “And the 21st century’s “prolonged warfare, fearfulness, and economic troubles... owe more than a little to decisions made in the earlier epoch.” Freeman’s epic survey provides a fuller understanding of America’s postwar achievements and challenges, without the bias, drama, or despair of other books on these important issues.

Starred review from June 1, 2012
A terrifically useful wide-lens survey of the United States in the last half of the 20th century. Freeman (History/Queens Coll. and CUNY Graduate Center; Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II, 2000, etc.) has full command of his vast material, fashioning a structured history that is both readably general and restrained of scholarly matter as well as nicely specific regarding meaty information--e.g., he names important court cases and offers occasional quotes by contemporary observers and newsmakers. The author demonstrates how postwar economic growth helped spur the great process of democratization that placed America in the first rank among nations in terms of standard of living and basic rights for all citizens. Yet, along with the rise of consumerism, globalism and prosperity, the power shifted from the public to the private realm, specifically corporate. From the 1970s onward, Freeman shows how incipient economic inequality, unharnessed military spending and burgeoning political conservatism threatened to check much of that social progress at the end of the century. The expansion of government with the New Deal promoting socially benevolent programs generated an ongoing debate about whether government should be a muscular arm of progressive reform in the fashion of FDR or more restrained, the latter conservatism given new energy by Barry Goldwater's ascendancy in 1960. Freeman comes down fairly hard on Kennedy's "hyperbolic rhetoric" and "obsession with manhood and virility," while the sections on LBJ and the "democratic revolution" of the 1960s, including civil-rights legislation and the antiwar movement, are masterly and thorough. With the dawn of the '70s, the country moved from "dreams to nightmares," from equal rights for women and gays toward an utter contempt for government amid Watergate, urban decline, manufacturing shutdowns, stagflation, new corporate models, deregulation and Reaganism. A liberal-minded but still evenhanded primer for all students of U.S. history.

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May 15, 2012

Historical surveys of the era since World War II are not rare, and many are quite good, e.g., Randall Bennett Woods's Quest for Identity: America Since 1945 and James T. Patterson's two magisterial volumes contributing to the "Oxford History of the United States." Nevertheless, Freeman has crafted a solidly researched and well written account, the fifth volume in this series from Penguin. The book deserves attention for its able synthesis of the vast array of literature on various aspects of a remarkably complex era. Freeman (history, Queen's College-CUNY; Working-Class New York) charts the nation's postwar economic growth; the struggles of African Americans, women, and other minorities to attain a political voice; and the nascent American empire's global impact as it confronted Communism and, later, Middle East tensions, culminating in the horror of 9/11. Freeman traces the development of these themes through the decades, showing how they became defining challenges as the century headed towards conclusion. Of course, the arrival of the new century has not signaled the resolution of these issues, many of which are just as troubling as they were 50 years ago. VERDICT An important book for both general and scholarly audiences.--Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2012
An installment in the Penguin History of the United States series, Freeman's narrative covers postWWII America's economic growth, extension of civil rights, and foreign policy during a time that also saw its population double, segregation end, and the federal government expand the welfare and regulatory state as it waged several hot wars and one cold war. Freeman's accounts of these fundamental contours depict social and political trends that pushed one way or another, such as the baby boom and immigration, which yielded a higher census, and the economic and demographic impetus that pushed American power centers from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. While Freeman does not represent history as a process of anonymous forces at work, he does shorten the stature of influential individuals, especially presidents. While conceding their importance, especially on questions of war and peace, Freeman circumscribes them within the ascendance and decline of liberalism and the more conservative cast of national politics that has prevailed since the Carter presidency. Also referencing pop culture, religion, and the revolution in sexual mores, Freeman shows a nation in dramatic flux.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)