For more than a decade, David Kennedy worked on his history of the United States during the Depression, the New Deal and World War II. "It was the No. 1 thing on my desk for all those years," says Kennedy, '63, who juggled the research and writing tasks with his teaching duties as the McLachlan Professor of History. Earlier this year, Stanford adapted part of the manuscript for a cover story ("Don't Blame Hoover," January/February). A few months later, the book, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-45, hit stores -- and Kennedy's been riding high ever since.
Reviews have been, well, spectacular. The New York Times called it "an engrossing narrative of a momentous time, the best one-volume account of the Roosevelt era currently available." Writing in the Washington Monthly, John Kenneth Galbraith observed that the 858-page book is "heavy to carry and light and very agreeable to read. [Kennedy] is merciless as to fact and detail but very kind to the reader." Of more than 20 reviews, says Russell Perreault, director of publicity for publisher Oxford University Press, "there hasn't been a bad one yet."
Kennedy spent much of the summer promoting the book. He visited about 10 cities nationwide (plus London), doing bookstore appearances, radio interviews and tv shows. (He'll be at Elliott Bay Bookstore in Seattle on September 13.) He was twice on C-SPAN, where host Brian Lamb impressed him with having "read most of the book quite carefully." He found the "stupidest" interviewer in Philadelphia, where a radio host introduced him as "David Kennedy from Stamford University up there in Connecticut" and gave the wrong title for the book. After the show, Kennedy quietly corrected him on the mistakes. "Oh, Professor Kennedy, don't worry," the radio man said. "My listeners will never know the difference."
