Robert Dallek
Robert Dallek is the author of An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 and Nixon and Kissinger, among other books. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, and Vanity Fair. He lives in Washington, D.C.
All Books By Robert Dallek
An Unfinished Life
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrator: Richard McGonagle
- Length: 9 hours 16 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: August 01, 2005
- Language: English
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3.97(10633 ratings)
Drawing on previously unavailable material and never-before-opened archives, An Unfinished Life is packed with revelations large and small — about JFK’s health, his love affairs, RFK’s appointment as Attorney General, what Joseph Kennedy did to help his son win the White House, and the path JFK would have taken in the Vietnam entanglement had he survived.
Robert Dallek succeeds as no other biographer has done in striking a critical balance — never shying away from JFK’s weaknesses, brilliantly exploring his strengths — as he offers up a vivid portrait of a bold, brave, complex, heroic, human Kennedy.
... Read moreCamelot’s Court
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrator: James Lurie
- Length: 16 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 08, 2013
- Language: English
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3.68(546 ratings)
Fifty years after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, presidential historian Robert Dallek, whom The New York Times calls “Kennedy’s leading biographer,” delivers a riveting new portrait of this president and his inner circle of advisors–their rivalries, personality clashes, and political battles. In Camelot’s Court, Dallek analyzes the brain trust whose contributions to the successes and failures of Kennedy’s administration–including the Bay of Pigs, civil rights, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam–were indelible.
Kennedy purposefully put together a dynamic team of advisors noted for their brilliance and acumen, including Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, and trusted aides Ted Sorensen and Arthur Schlesinger. Yet the very traits these men shared also created sharp divisions. Far from being unified, this was an uneasy band of rivals whose ambitions and clashing beliefs ignited fiery internal debates.
Robert Dallek illuminates a president deeply determined to surround himself with the best and the brightest, who often found himself disappointed with their recommendations. The result, Camelot’s Court: Inside the Kennedy White House, is a striking portrait of a leader whose wise resistance to pressure and adherence to principle offers a cautionary tale for our own time.
... Read moreFranklin D. Roosevelt
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrator: Rick Adamson
- Length: 29 hours 45 minutes
- Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post and NPR
“We come to see in FDR the magisterial, central figure in the greatest and richest political tapestry of our nation’s entire history” —Nigel Hamilton, Boston Globe
“Meticulously researched and authoritative” —Douglas Brinkley, The Washington Post
“A workmanlike addition to the literature on Roosevelt.” —David Nasaw, The New York Times
“Dallek offers an FDR relevant to our sharply divided nation” —Michael Kazin
“Will rank among the standard biographies of its subject” —Publishers Weekly
A one-volume biography of Roosevelt by the #1 New York Times bestselling biographer of JFK, focusing on his career as an incomparable politician, uniter, and deal maker
In an era of such great national divisiveness, there could be no more timely biography of one of our greatest presidents than one that focuses on his unparalleled political ability as a uniter and consensus maker. Robert Dallek’s Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life takes a fresh look at the many compelling questions that have attracted all his biographers: how did a man who came from so privileged a background become the greatest presidential champion of the country’s needy? How did someone who never won recognition for his intellect foster revolutionary changes in the country’s economic and social institutions? How did Roosevelt work such a profound change in the country’s foreign relations?
For FDR, politics was a far more interesting and fulfilling pursuit than the management of family fortunes or the indulgence of personal pleasure, and by the time he became president, he had commanded the love and affection of millions of people. While all Roosevelt’s biographers agree that the onset of polio at the age of thirty-nine endowed him with a much greater sense of humanity, Dallek sees the affliction as an insufficient explanation for his transformation into a masterful politician who would win an unprecedented four presidential terms, initiate landmark reforms that changed the American industrial system, and transform an isolationist country into an international superpower.
Dallek attributes FDR’s success to two remarkable political insights. First, unlike any other president, he understood that effectiveness in the American political system depended on building a national consensus and commanding stable long-term popular support. Second, he made the presidency the central, most influential institution in modern America’s political system. In addressing the country’s international and domestic problems, Roosevelt recognized the vital importance of remaining closely attentive to the full range of public sentiment around policy-making decisions—perhaps FDR’s most enduring lesson in effective leadership.
Harry S. Truman
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrator: William Dufris
- Length: 5 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: September 02, 2008
- Language: English
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3.86(423 ratings)
The plainspoken man from Missouri who never expected to be president yet rose to become one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century
In April 1945, after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the presidency fell to a former haberdasher and clubhouse politician from Independence, Missouri. Many believed he would be overmatched by the job, but Harry S. Truman would surprise them all.
Few chief executives have had so lasting an impact. Truman ushered America into the nuclear age, established the alliances and principles that would define the cold war and the national security state, started the nation on the road to civil rights, and won the most dramatic election of the twentieth century–his 1948 “whistlestop campaign” against Thomas E. Dewey.
Robert Dallek, the bestselling biographer of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, shows how this unassuming yet supremely confident man rose to the occasion. Truman clashed with Southerners over civil rights, with organized labor over the right to strike, and with General Douglas MacArthur over the conduct of the Korean War. He personified Thomas Jefferson’s observation that the presidency is a “splendid misery,” but it was during his tenure that the United States truly came of age.
... Read moreHow Did We Get Here?
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrator: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hours 29 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: May 26, 2020
- Language: English
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3.54(83 ratings)
The award-winning, New York Times bestselling historian considers the vast array of triumphs and failures of America’s modern presidents that paved a path to Donald Trump, offering an understanding of our current moment and hope for a way back to true leadership.
The struggle to preserve the Republic has never been easy or without perils. The rise of conflicting political parties, which the founders opposed, and President John Adams’ Alien and Sedition Acts repressing First Amendment rights made Franklin’s observation at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention–“a republic, if you can keep it”–seem prescient.
In the twentieth century, America endured numerous struggles: economic depression, World War II, McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Iran-contra scandal, the war in Iraq–all of which gave rise to demagogues, as did the growth and reach of mass media. But this wasn’t the Founding Fathers’ vision for our leadership. The resistance to putting a demagogue in the White House survived the anti-Communist agitation of the 1950s and the Vietnam War in the 1960s. But the latter opened the way for Richard Nixon’s election in 1968 and Watergate, which again tested our democratic institutions and the rule of law. Nixon’s resignation in August 1974 moved Vice President Gerald Ford, his successor, to declare, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”
But was it? Donald Trump’s 2016 election has presented a new challenge. How did past politics and presidential administrations pave the way for this current assault on American democracy? Our nation’s history provides reassurance that we will restore our better angels to government. Yet it must be considered that earlier administrations and public outlook facilitated the rise of such an un-presidential character as Trump in the first place. In How Did We Get Here?, Robert Dallek considers a century of modern administrations, from Teddy Roosevelt to today, shining a light on the personalities behind the politics and the voters who elected each. His cautionary tale reminds us that the only constant in history is change, but whether for good or ill the choice is Americans’ to make.
... Read moreNixon and Kissinger
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrator: Eric Conger
- Length: 11 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: April 24, 2007
- Language: English
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3.88(2389 ratings)
More than thirty years after working side by side in the White House, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger still stand as two of the most compelling, contradictory, and powerful leaders in America in the second half of the twentieth century. Both were largely self-made men, brimming with ambition, driven by their own inner demons, and often ruthless in pursuit of their goals. From January 1969 to August 1974, their collaboration and rivalry resulted in the making of foreign policy that would leave a defining mark on the Nixon presidency.
Tapping into a wealth of recently declassified documents and tapes, Robert Dallek uncovers fascinating details about Nixon and Kissinger’s tumultuous personal relationship and the extent to which they struggled to outdo each other in the reach for foreign policy achievements. With unprecedented detail, Dallek reveals Nixon’s erratic behavior during Watergate and the extent to which Kissinger was complicit in trying to help Nixon use national security to prevent his impeachment or resignation.
Illuminating, authoritative, revelatory, and utterly engrossing, Nixon and Kissinger provides a startling new picture of the immense power and sway these two men held in affecting world history.
... Read moreThe American Presidency
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrator: Robert Dallek
- Length: 8 hours 9 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: October 03, 2008
- Language: English
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3.7(47 ratings)
The 20th-century American Presidency is something of a mystery. Some Presidents performed exceptionally well in office, displaying strong leadership and winning the respect of the American people as well as the rest of the world. Others fell short of expectations and are remembered at best as marginal chief executives. What was it that allowed some to rise to greatness while others failed? What elusive mix of character traits, circumstance, and determination combine to mold the shape of a Presidential Administration? This course explores the tenures of the men who held our nation’s highest office during the 20th-century. The lectures look at each President and examine their strengths and weaknesses as well as the times in which they served. Through this analysis listeners will develop a better understanding not only of this supreme office and how it has taken shape, but also how it has shaped America and, indeed, the modern world.
... Read moreThe Lost Peace
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrator: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 15 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 19, 2010
- Language: English
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3.7(258 ratings)
“Robert Dallek brings to this majestic work a profound understanding of history, a deep engagement in foreign policy, and a lifetime of studying leadership. The story of what went wrong during the postwar period…has never been more intelligently explored.” —Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Team of Rivals
Robert Dalleck follows his bestselling Nixon and Kissenger: Partners in Power and An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 with this masterful account of the crucial period that shaped the postwar world. As the Obama Administration struggles to define its strategy for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dallek’s critical and compelling look at Truman, Churchill, Stalin, and other world leaders in the wake of World War II not only offers important historical perspective but provides timely insight on America’s course into the future.
... Read more