The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972

The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972 – William Manchester

What a shockingly pleasant surprise.  I bought this on impulse. It showed up on one of my “Kindle Deals of the Day” lists.  I’ve learned that one must be wary of such books that appear on these lists.  Yes, there truly are some great books featured from time to time, but there’s quite a lot of garbage as well.  The selling point for me was the author. I read his Winston Churchill trilogy as well as his biography of Douglas MacArthur, so I knew he had substance. Not only did I enjoy this book, but I have to honestly say that this was one of the best “history” books I’ve ever read.   And I’ve read a lot. I think that if I was a teacher who taught 20^th century American History, I would make this book required reading.

This book is incredibly in depth - 1300 pages covering 40 years of history. The author focuses on the news making headlines during the time, so the bigger the event/subject matter, the more detailed he gets.  Does everything get covered? Well, no, but one doesn’t feel cheated if there was a particular event that gets ignored or brushed over.  He begins the book around the time when the country in the midst of arguably one of the worst times in its history – the Great Depression.  The first event covered is when the angry World War I veterans stormed the nation’s capital to demand that they get their war benefits early. They need these benefits. They’re starving. Yes, we must remember that you could starve to death in this country back in 1932.  The Herbert Hoover administration, however, is obdurate and chooses to ignore the event that captures the worst of the period.

Why did William Manchester choose to start this book in 1932? I’m not sure.  As I mentioned, the book is over 1300 pages, so had he started any earlier, he would have had to add several hundred pages to an already massive volume.  He stops the narrative in 1972, which, I’m guessing, is when he wrote the book.  That’s the only minor gripe I had.  I wasn’t ready for the book to end.  I wanted more. History now shows us that 1972 is an odd place to stop when telling the story of America. Vietnam still wasn’t over, and Watergate was just beginning its belligerent brew.  So, yes, we do read about the initial stories that led to Nixon’s eventual resignation, but we’re stopped mid-story.  Manchester seems to have a premonition, though, that things were about to escalate in a very bad way.  One wishes that another author, somewhere, would pick up where Manchester left off and continue this wonderful narrative.

With 1300 pages, a lot of ground can be covered, and it times you forget that you’re reading about 40 years because the author focuses so narrowly on one event, and we become happily immersed. When we read about the Truman years, for example, there is so much wonderful material to read about (good and bad), that when the author shifts gears and talks about another event around the time, you tend to think “Oh yeah.  I’m not reading a book about Harry Truman, am I?” And one almost feels disappointed.

A lot of pop culture is discussed as well and many more events that may seem minor in retrospect. The infamous Orson Welles Martian radio broadcast, post war Levittown housing boom, the invention of the hula-hoop, and on and on and on.

Like all strong historical books, there are many parts of history than one wishes never happened. I’ve heard some critics bash this book because it leans towards the left, but I didn’t come away with that impression. All characters that he focuses on are portrayed quite honestly, and many of the events show us again and again that humans are imperfect sinners. As one, such as myself, who read this in 2017, it actually gives me hope. With all of the negative headlines that permeate the internet, one tends to reflect and be thankful that things might be bad, but don’t nearly seem as awful as they were in, say, Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.

This book is thick. It’s dense.  I’ve already stated many times it’s over 1300 pages, but that bears repeating. You won’t finish this over a weekend, or probably even within a month, but it’s oh so worth it.