How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions

Written by Susan Eisenhower

Narrated by Susan Eisenhower and Bernadette Dunne

"The work is clear-eyed but naturally imbued with a granddaughter's affection. Narrator Bernadette Dunne's amiable manner is a good match for the author's tone, objective but tinged with warmth...Dunne manages to go beyond the plain sense of the text to give us the author as an intelligent, sensible, well-spoken person who is examining an important life in a way that informs, pleases, and serves as a lesson for the present day." -- AudioFile Magazine

This program includes an audiobook exclusive introduction written and read by Susan Eisenhower and a newly remastered version of President Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell Address.

How Dwight D. Eisenhower led America through a transformational time—by a DC policy strategist, security expert and his granddaughter.

Few people have made decisions as momentous as Eisenhower, nor has one person had to make such a varied range of them. From D-Day to Little Rock, from the Korean War to Cold War crises, from the Red Scare to the Missile Gap controversies, he was able to give our country eight years of peace and prosperity by relying on a core set of principles. These were informed by his heritage and upbringing, his strong character and his personal discipline, but he also avoided making himself the center of things. He tried to be the calmest man in the room, not the loudest. So instead of seeking to fulfill his personal desires and political needs, he pursued a course he called the "Middle Way" that tried to make winners on both sides of a situation.

In addition, Ike maintained a big picture view on any situation; he was a strategic, not an operational leader. He also ensured that he had all the information he needed to make a decision. His talent for envisioning a whole, especially in the context of the long game, and his ability to see causes and various consequences, explains his success as Allied Commander President. Then, after making a decision, he made himself accountable for it, prizing responsibility most of all his principles.

Susan Eisenhower's How Ike Led shows us not just what a great American did, but why—and what we can learn from him today.

A Macmillan Audio production from Thomas Dunne Books

"[Susan Eisenhower] lays bare the essence of her grandfather’s leadership in war and peace—his singular devotion to the unity and security of the American people and the nation’s allies.” -- Wall Street Journal

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Aug 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781250752673

Susan Eisenhower

SUSAN EISENHOWER, one of Ike's four grandchildren, is a consultant, author, and a Washington, DC-based policy strategist with many decades of work on national security issues. She lectures widely on such topics, including strategic leadership.

Reviews for How Ike Led

[Zachary Herbst · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The perspective of a historian and the granddaughter of what the Greatest Leaders in American History are a must-read.

This is making me want to read more books about old Ike!