Three Days in January

 Baier, Brett. Three Days in January. 2017. 368p. ISBN 9780062569035. Available at 973.92 BAI on the library shelves.

In January 1961, the presidency of the United States changed hands, from the Republican administration of Dwight Eisenhower to that of Democrat John F. Kennedy. The change were more than cosmetic. Kennedy was seen by many as the man who would usher the United States into the modern age, a dynamic young man's presidency for a dynamic administration. Many perceived the Eisenhower era to have been stale and unimaginative, a time where America fell behind the Soviet Union.

Three days before Kennedy taking the oath of office, Eisenhower delivered a farewell address. Much like George Washington, Eisenhower sought to warn the next president and the American public about challenges that needed to be tackled and pitfalls that threatened the survival of the United States. Remembered mainly for its criticism of the military-industrial complex, the address harked back to George Washington's own farewell address, and proposed ways to achieve universal peace.

Though the focus of the book is on the period from January 17 to January 20, the life of Eisenhower and the influences that shaped him are described. Each part of the speech is used to guide the chapters that follow. A man whose life followed an uncharted course, Eisenhower far from governed a steady era, but instead successfully engineered the only period in American history following the Second World War that did not initiate a military conflict. His farewell address was thus a warning as much as a blueprint.