Description
Product Description
The blockbuster #1 national bestseller, now updated with a new preface and postcript: Bret Baier, the Chief Political Anchor for Fox News Channel and the Anchor and Executive Editor of Special Report with Bret Baier, illuminates the extraordinary yet underappreciated presidency of Dwight Eisenhower by taking readers into Ike’s last days in power.
In Three Days in January, Bret Baier masterfully casts the period between Eisenhower’s now-prophetic farewell address on the evening of January 17, 1961, and Kennedy’s inauguration on the afternoon of January 20 as the closing act of one of modern America’s greatest leaders—during which Eisenhower urgently sought to prepare both the country and the next president for the challenges ahead.
Those three days in January 1961, Baier shows, were the culmination of a lifetime of service that took Ike from rural Kansas to West Point, to the battlefields of World War II, and finally to the Oval Office. When he left the White House, Dwight Eisenhower had done more than perhaps any other modern American to set the nation, in his words, “on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.”
On January 17, Eisenhower spoke to the nation in one of the most remarkable farewell speeches in U.S. history. Ike looked to the future, warning Americans against the dangers of elevating partisanship above national interest, excessive government budgets (particularly deficit spending), the expansion of the military-industrial complex, and the creeping political power of special interests. Seeking to ready a new generation for power, Eisenhower intensely advised the forty-three-year-old Kennedy before the inauguration.
Baier also reveals how Eisenhower’s two terms changed America forever for the better, and demonstrates how today Ike offers us the model of principled leadership that polls say is so missing in politics. Three Days in January forever makes clear that Eisenhower, an often forgotten giant of U.S. history, still offers vital lessons for our own time and stands as a lasting example of political leadership at its most effective and honorable.
Review
“Bret Baier has given history a great gift: a riveting account of Dwight Eisenhower’s determination to call on his vast experience to prepare America for the perils of the new war--the cold war.” -- Tom Brokaw, author of
The Greatest Generation
“Captures the essence of Ike’s leadership style. Through stories and the keen observations at the time, Baier makes Ike’s world view and philosophy come to life.
Three Days in January is a great read.” -- Susan Eisenhower, CEO and Chairman of The Eisenhower Group, Inc. and Chairman Emeritus at the Eisenhower Institute of Gettysburg College
“Bret Baier’s
Three Days in January brilliantly illuminates the genius and intrigue behind Eisenhower’s historic Farewell Address. Written with verve and deeply researched, Baier ably dissects fact from myth. A landmark achievement in U.S. presidential history.” -- Douglas Brinkley, author of
Cronkite
“Magnificently rendered, Bret Baier’s Three Days in January is destined to take its place as not only one of the masterworks on Eisenhower, but as one of the classics of presidential history. Impeccably researched, the book is nothing short of extraordinary. What a triumph!” -- JAY WINIK,
New York Times best-selling author of
April 1865 and
1944
“Brilliantly captures the drama of January 1961. ...
Three Days in January is the BEST book on Eisenhower to appear in a very long time.” -- DAVID EISENHOWER, Director, the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Public Service, and author of
Eisenhower: At War, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History
“A valuable contribution to our appreciation of Ike, describing some of his most important qualities of character, wisdom, and leadership, which are so needed in the public figures of our own era.” -- MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, author of
Presidential Courage
“Superb. ... A quintessential American