Dwight D. Eisenhower: Thirty-Fourth President of the United States (Encyclopedia of Presidents)

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Summary: An informative juvenile biography of Dwight Eisenhower
Review: Jim Hargrove begins his juvenile biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower on the most pivotal day in his life: June 5, 1944, the day he made the decision to go ahead with the invasion of Normandy despite the prospects of bad weather. The D-Day invasion would succeed, the Nazi Germany of Adolf Hitler would be defeated, and all that Eisenhower would have to do to follow George Washington, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Ulysses Grant and other great American generals into the White House was decide to which political party he wanted to belong.

After telling the story of D-Day, chapters are devoted to Eisenhower's boyhood in Abilene, Kansas, his early military career, and his service during World War II when he became Supreme Commander of Allied Troops in Europe. Hargrove covers Eisenhower's two terms in a single chapter, focusing on the dominant issues of his administration, Communism (both the Cold War with the Soviets and McCarthyism at home) and Civil Rights. Young readers will get a sense of the times and how Eisenhower governed by reacting to the times rather than having a clear program of leadership. A final short chapter deals with his retirement to his farm in Gettysburg. The book is illustrated with historic black & white photographs and like all of the volumes in the Encyclopedia of Presidents series, is the most informative juvenile biography of Eisenhower you are probably going to find.