Description
In Search of History is the story of Theodore H. White's search for the connection between American power and American purpose. White retraces a route that takes him from the Boston of his boyhood to a China torn apart by war and revolution; from the thunder of victory in Asia to ravaged postwar Europe, where American power rescued its parent civilization; then home to the America of the tranquil Eisenhower years and the dramatic years of John F. Kennedy; and on to the subsequent upheaval in American politics and its power systems. Along the way, the reader will meet those men of power who have made our times the most turbulent and exciting of this century: Mao Tse-tung, slouched in his Yenan cave, cooly preparing to lunge for revolution; Joseph Stilwell at the moment of his tragedy; Douglas MacArthur, first as an outcast, then as a conqueror; Jean Monnet, the tough-minded French dreamer whose dream remade Europe; Dwight D. Eisenhower, preparing to take off his uniform and march into politics; John F. Kennedy, breaking all the old rules, throwing open the gates for all to play in the new political game. White's story begins with the recognition that power is what moves history. This book tells how he has seen men grab for power, get it, use it, and waste it. And how power so often backfires on those unaware of its narcotic effect on judgment.