The Year of Indecision, 1946: A Tour Through the Crucible of Harry Truman's America by Kenneth Weisbrode
The Year of Indecision, 1946: A Tour Through the Crucible of Harry Truman's America by Kenneth Weisbrode
In 1946, America had just exited the biggest war in modern history and was about to enter another of a kind no one had fought before. We think of this moment as the brilliant start of America Triumphant, in world politics and economics, but the reality is murkier. With new burdens and vulnerabilities at home and abroad, many Americans spent the better part of the year wondering, worrying, and fighting over what to do and how to do it. Nineteen forty-six brought friction between industry and labor, political disunity, bad veteran morale, housing crises, inflation, a Soviet menace -- all shadowed by an indecisiveness that would plague decision makers who would waffle between engagement and isolation, as the country itself pivoted between prosperity and retrenchment through the rest of the century.
Kenneth Weisbrode's surprising new book overturns the image of Truman as a can-do leader -- in16, in fact, marked a nadir in the troubled tenure of our accidental and unprepared president. Relations broke down with the Soviet Union and nearly did with the British. The United States suffered shortages and strikes of a magnitude it had not seen in years. In November 1946, the Democrats lost both houses of Congress. The counterpoint between fear and optimism expressed itself, too, in popular culture. Americans rejoiced in talent and creative energy, but a shift was brewing: Bing Crosby was making room for Bill Haley and B.B. King; John Wayne for Montgomery Clift. That year also saw a burst of spirit in literature, music, art, and film -- beneath the shadow of noir.
The issues and tensions we face today echo those of seven decades ago. As we observe in this portrait of the era just before our own, when America learned, piecemeal and reluctantly, to act like a world power, it tried, and succeeded only partially, to master fear. Indecision, Weisbrode argues, is the leitmotif of American history.
Viking Press, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 2016
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK. THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES.