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Smith, Jean Edward. Eisenhower: In War and Peace. New York: Random House, 2012. 951pp. $40
When you mention Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, far too many people will hark back either to D-Day and the invasion of Normandy or to a mythical, almost lyrical presidency, when life was good, three martinis accompanied every lunch, and gas cost pennies a gallon. The truth, of course, is far different and far more interesting. In Eisenhower Jean Edward Smith has produced what may well be the best one-volume biography on this figure. The book moves fast and yet manages to leave nothing out.
In illuminating Dwight D. Eisenhower, Smith steps adroitly and rapidly through the years of his life, maintaining the reader's interest and never shortchanging his subject. It is a bravura performance. For example, Smith moves through Eisenhower's childhood at a gallop, while fully describing a family that was centered on a domineering, distant, and hot-tempered father but made bearable by the love and efforts of his mother, Ida.
Eisenhower's rise in the Army also speeds by, but not without explanation of the critical importance of Fox Conner, Ike's steadfast mentor and advocate; George Patton, who became...