Rising Star, Setting Sun
Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and the Presidential Transition that Changed America
Rising Star, Setting Sun explores the complicated, poignant, and consequential transition of power from Dwight D. Eisenhower to John F. Kennedy.
The exchange of leadership between the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth presidents of the United States marked more than a succession of leaders. It symbolized—and triggered—a generational shift in American politics, policy, and culture.
During this dramatic ten-week transition, Eisenhower reluctantly relinquished the Oval Office to Kennedy, whose successful campaign ridiculed and repudiated the Eisenhower administration and ultimately defeated his vice president, Richard Nixon. This distinctly American story evokes universal and timeless themes: the transitory nature of power, the allure of change, the wisdom of age, the impetuousness of youth, and the perpetual misunderstandings between generations.
Ike and JFK remain a study of contrasts, with sharply different families, educations, spouses, working styles, and visions for the nation they served. They came from different generations and even different Americas. But the rivals were forced to work together to negotiate the most momentous change of power in the world, as crises raged in Cuba, the Congo, Berlin, and Southeast Asia.
The transition between November 1960 and January 1961 stands out in history, in part, because it involved four men who would ultimately led America: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon Johnson. Equally important is the fact that it culminated in two of the greatest speeches in American history, delivered just days apart: Eisenhower’s Farewell Address and Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the country’s “military-industrial complex,” while Kennedy implored his nation to boldly “pay any price, bear any burden” in tackling the challenges of the Cold War.
Drawing extensively from primary sources, including memoirs and memos of the time, Rising Star, Setting Sun paints a vivid picture of what Time called a “turning point in the twentieth century.”
PRAISE
“Rising Star, Setting Sun is a riveting account. Shaw provides snapshots of the trends that coursed through American society in the 1950s-1960s. He deftly handles matters related to that era’s economic vitality, demographic shifts, cultural happenings, scrappy partisan politics, and international dilemmas. His analysis of rival types of statecraft, particularly in the foreign policy field, rewards close reading as he compares the cautious, prudent, skeptical Eisenhower with the taut, enthusiastic, gung-ho Kennedy.”
—David Mayers, Boston University, author of America and the Postwar World
—Larry J. Sabato, author of The Kennedy Half-Century and Director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics
—Richard Cohen, chief author of The Almanac of American Politics
—Betty K. Koed, Historian Emerita of the United States Senate
—Publishers Weekly
“With telling details and anecdotes, a keen understanding of the principals and their times, and a vigorous narrative that sweeps the reader through his story, Shaw provides a colorful and constructive account of American democracy at work—and of two determined men who loved their country, worked to keep it strong, and, in Shaw’s words, ‘are destined to stride together, in a remarkable pairing, throughout the long march of American history.'”
—Jay Strafford, Richmond Times-Dispatch
IN THE MEDIA
C-SPAN Book TV, October 2018
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Rising Star, Setting Sun Interview
InFocus, WSIU Public Broadcasting, June 2018
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AirTalk, LAist, Southern Calif. Public Radio, May 2018
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Rising Star, Setting Sun Interview
The Roundtable, Northeast Public Radio, May 2018
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