
Presidents at War
How World War II Shaped a Generation of Presidents, from Eisenhower and JFK Through Reagan and Bush
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Narrated by:
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Fred Sanders
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By:
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Steven M. Gillon
About this listen
Steven M. Gillon, historian and New York Times bestselling author, is back with the story of how WWII shaped the characters and politics of seven American presidents.
World War II loomed over the latter half of the twentieth century, transforming every level of American society and international relationships and searing itself onto the psyche of an entire generation, including that of seven American presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush.
The lessons of World War II, more than party affiliation or ideology, defined the presidencies of these seven men. They returned home determined to confront any force that threatened to undermine the war’s hard-won ideals, each with their own unique understanding of patriotism, sacrifice, and America’s role in global politics.
In Presidents at War, Gillon examines what these men took away from the war and how they then applied it to Cold War policies that proceeded to change America, and the world, forever. A nuanced and deeply researched exploration of the lives, philosophies, and legacies of seven remarkable men, Presidents at War deftly argues that the lessons learned by these postwar presidents continue to shape the landscape upon which current and future presidents stand today.
©2025 Steven M. Gillon (P)2025 Steven M. GillonListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Mr. Gillon’s war stories, gripping in themselves, encourage us to be skeptical of any unified theory applied to human conflict. Better, on this Presidents Day, to recognize a generation of American statesmen who demonstrated leadership long before they were entrusted with the greatest responsibilities on the planet.”—Wall Street Journal
“Political historian Gillon considers the effects of World War II on a generation of presidents … Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush … World War II shaped the political outlook of all these presidents, from Nixon’s endless grievances to JFK’s careful strategizing (and a few dirty tricks) and “bland good guy” Reagan’s hail-fellow-well-met approach to politics. War is hell—but also, this history shows, a good way to get elected.”—Kirkus
"Steven M. Gillon brilliantly blends vivid biographical sketches with astute political analysis to give us a fresh and authoritative take on the “Presidents at War.” With subtlety and grace as well as a thorough grounding in the sources, the author examines the powerful ways that World War II shaped the careers and outlooks of seven men who would go on to occupy the Oval Office. It’s an inspiring story, resonant with meaning for our own troubled age."—Fredrik Logevall, Harvard University and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Embers of War
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Story
Sitting beneath a stained glass window dedicated to his grandmother in the Atlanta church where his family had prayed for generations, preeminent American historian David Levering Lewis was struck by the great lacunae in what he could know about his own ancestors. He vowed to excavate their past and tell their story.
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Late Ottoman Gaza
- An Eastern Mediterranean Hub in Transformation
- By: Yuval Ben-Bassat, Johann Buessow
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In contemporary public discourse, Gaza tends to be characterized solely as a theater of the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. However, little is known about Gaza's society, politics, economy, and culture during the Ottoman era. Drawing on a range of previously untapped local and imperial sources, Yuval Ben-Bassat and Johann Buessow explore the city's history from the mid-nineteenth century through WWI.
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Academic, Relatively Neutral Study, with Important Insighte
- By Theo Horesh on 05-08-25
By: Yuval Ben-Bassat, and others
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President McKinley
- Architect of the American Century
- By: Robert W. Merry
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Republican President William McKinley transformed America during his two terms as president. Although he does not register large in either public memory or in historians' rankings, in this revealing account, Robert W. Merry offers "a fresh twist on the old tale . . . a valuable education on where America has been and, possibly, where it is going" (The National Review).
By: Robert W. Merry
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The Prosecutor
- One Man's Battle to Bring Nazis to Justice
- By: Jack Fairweather
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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At the end of the Nuremberg trials in 1946, some of the greatest war criminals in history were sentenced to death, but hundreds of thousands of Nazi murderers and collaborators remained at large. The Allies were ready to overlook their pasts as the Cold War began, and the legacy of the Holocaust was in danger of being forgotten. In The Prosecutor, Jack Fairweather brings to life the heroic story of Fritz Bauer who survived the Nazis as a gay Jewish man to force his countrymen to confront their complicity in the genocide.
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Story
- By janine on 03-25-25
By: Jack Fairweather
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Daughter of Daring
- The Trick-Riding, Train-Leaping, Road-Racing Life of Helen Gibson, Hollywood’s First Stuntwoman
- By: Mallory O'Meara
- Narrated by: Mallory O'Meara
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Helen Gibson was a woman willing to do anything to give audiences a thrill. Advertised as "The Most Daring Actress in Pictures," Helen emerged in the early days of the twentieth-century silent film scene as a rodeo rider, background actor, stunt double, and eventually one of the era’s biggest action stars. Her exploits on motorcycles, train cars, and horseback were as dangerous as they were glamorous, featured in hundreds of films and serials—yet her legacy was quickly overshadowed by the increasingly hypermasculine and male-dominated evolution of cinema in the decades that would follow her.
By: Mallory O'Meara
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Israel
- A History
- By: Anita Shapira, Anthony Berris - translator
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 24 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Written by one of Israel's most notable scholars, this volume provides a breathtaking history of Israel from the origins of the Zionist movement in the late nineteenth century to the present day.
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It’s in depth coverage of Israel
- By Gus on 04-30-25
By: Anita Shapira, and others
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Penman of the Founding
- A Biography of John Dickinson
- By: Jane E. Calvert
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
- Length: 24 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Despite the key part he played in the country's founding, few Americans today have heard of John Dickinson. Early chroniclers and historians, seeking to create a patriotic narrative and taking their cues from his political enemies, cast him as a coward and Loyalist for not signing the Declaration. Many later historians have simply accepted and echoed this distorted and dismissive view. Jane Calvert's fascinating, authoritative, and accessible biography restores him to a place of prominence in the nation's formative years.
By: Jane E. Calvert
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Pseudoscience
- An Amusing History of Crackpot Ideas and Why We Love Them
- By: Lydia Kang MD, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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From the easily disproved to the wildly speculative, to straight-up hucksterism, Pseudoscience is a romp through much more than bad science—it’s a light-hearted look into why we insist on believing in things such as Big Foot, astrology, and the existence of aliens. Did you know, for example, that you can tell a person’s future by touching their butt? Rumpology. It’s a thing, but not really. Or that Stanley Kubrick made a fake moon landing film for the US government? Except he didn’t. Or that spontaneous human combustion is real? It ain’t, but it can be explained scientifically.
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Same old stories…waste of time to read.
- By Kelly on 05-20-25
By: Lydia Kang MD, and others
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Fuel and Power
- Energy, Trade, and Russian Foreign Relations from Lenin to Putin
- By: Jeronim Perović
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a very timely study of Russia's development into a global energy power from the Russian Revolution to the present day. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Russia emerged not only as a key producer but also as one of the world's leading exporters of oil. Russia's transformation into a modern global power was connected to its ability to make use of its vast natural resources and produce energy in increasing quantities.
By: Jeronim Perović
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Lincoln's Peace
- The Struggle to End the American Civil War
- By: Michael Vorenberg
- Narrated by: Landon Woodson
- Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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We set out on the James River, March 25, 1865, aboard the paddle steamboat River Queen. President Lincoln is on his way to General Grant’s headquarters at City Point, Virginia, and he’s decided he won’t return to Washington until he’s witnessed, or perhaps even orchestrated, the end of the Civil War. Now, it turns out, more than a century and a half later, historians are still searching for that end.
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El Narco
- Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency
- By: Ioan Grillo
- Narrated by: Paul Thornley
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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El Narco is not a gang; it is a movement and an industry drawing in hundreds of thousands, from bullet-riddled barrios to marijuana-covered mountains. The conflict spawned by El Narco has given rise to paramilitary death squads battling from Guatemala to the Texas border (and sometimes beyond). In this "propulsive ... high-octane" book (Publishers Weekly), Ioan Grillo draws the first definitive portrait of Mexico's cartels and how they have radically transformed.
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Good story, terrible narration
- By Jay Culley on 03-19-25
By: Ioan Grillo
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From Trenton to Yorktown
- Turning Points of the Revolutionary War
- By: John R. Maass
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In this masterful, yet accessible narrative of America’s fight for liberty, John R. Maass identifies the five decisive events that secured independence for the 13 hard-pressed but determined colonies. These include not only the obvious military victories such as Trenton, Princeton, and Yorktown but also the leadership and reforms that ensured Washington’s forces were capable of enduring the harsh conditions of the winter of 1778.
By: John R. Maass
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