On Freedom from Fear
Kennedy, David M. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. pp. 992. Paperback.
This is a good book that covers the period from Black Friday 1929 to V-J Day in 1945. The most interesting parts to me were about the height of the New Deal and the Home Front of the Second World War. A lot of the other stuff found in here, especially American wavering over neutrality and the conduct of the Second World War can also be found synthesized in countless other sources. This is probably near the top of the Oxford History of the United States series, although it tends to be a bit too “top-down.” I’d like to see more social history and views outside of presidential cabinets.