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    Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century
    Unavailable
    Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century
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    Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century
    Ebook621 pages8 hours

    Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century

    By Hendrik Meijer

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The idea that a Senator—Republican or Democrat—would put the greater good of the country ahead of party seems nearly impossible to imagine in our current climate of gridlock and divisiveness. But this hasn’t always been the case. Arthur H. Vandenberg (1884–1951), Republican from Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the model of a consensus builder, and the coalitions he spearheaded continue to form the foundation of American foreign and domestic policy today. Edward R. Murrow called him “the central pivot of the entire era,” yet, despite his significance, Vandenberg has never received the full public attention he is due—until now. With this authoritative biography, Hendrik Meijer reveals how Vandenberg built and nurtured the bipartisan consensus that created the American Century.
               
    Originally the editor and publisher of the Grand Rapids Herald, Vandenberg was appointed and later elected to the Senate in 1928, where he became an outspoken opponent of the New Deal and a leader among the isolationists who resisted FDR’s efforts to aid European allies at the onset of World War II. But Vandenberg soon recognized the need for unity at the dawn of a new world order; and as a Republican leader, he worked closely with Democratic administrations to build the strong bipartisan consensus that established the Marshall Plan, the United Nations, and NATO. Vandenberg, as Meijer reveals, was instrumental in organizing Congressional support for these monumental twentieth-century foreign policy decisions.

    Vandenberg’s life and career offer powerful lessons for today, and Meijer has given us a story that suggests an antidote to our current democratic challenges. After reading this poignant biography, many will ask: Where is the Vandenberg of today?
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateOct 16, 2017
    ISBN9780226433516
    Unavailable
    Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century

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    Reviews for Arthur Vandenberg

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    • 4/5
      5548. Arthur Vandenberg The Man in the Middle of the American Century, by Hendrik Meijer (read 2 Apr 2018) This is a carefully compiled biography, (with footnotes, a good bibliography, and an index,) detailing the life of Senator Vandenberg, who became a United States Senator from Michigan in 1928 and served in the Senate till he died on 18 April 1951. In the years before Pearl Harbor he was an isolationist but began to see the folly of continuing in that role during the War and was instrumental in leading some of his party to realize that in the 20th century America had to play a role in the world. He was a delegate to the San Francisco conference which dratted the United Nations Charter and astutely led his party and the Senate to adopt the Charter by a vote of 89 to 2. I found the book of high interest and much of Vandenberg's work was of great value. The author is mostly sympathetic to Vandenberg's work, though he rightly pokes subtle jabs at some of the Senator's pomposity and his reveling in the admiration he evoked. I lived through the Seantor's time in the Senate and followed events closely in the 1940s. I swas surprised to learn that he apparently carried on an extramarital affair with an Englishwoman in the early 1940s. But this is a good book and tells of the career of the Senator well. I was a little distressed that on page 186 the author calls Senator Gillette of Iowa a Republican although he was a Democrat, and that on page 355 the author says North Korea invaded South Korea in January 1950 when the actual invasion was in June of 1950. These lapses in accuracy affect one's faith in the author's knowledge because they are so obvious.. But I found the book good reading and an able recital of the vital events in which Vandenberg played such an important role..