Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal

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This engrossing biography recounts the life of one of twentieth-century America's most celebrated--though ultimately tragic--public figures, a man who mastered both Wall Street and Washington. James Forrestal was a brilliant financier and military organizer, and he was the first United States Secretary of Defense. Townsend Hoopes and Douglas Brinkley follow Forrestal through his Irish upbringing in upstate New York--he was the son of immigrants--through Princeton University to his success on Wall Street during ...
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Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal

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Overview

This engrossing biography recounts the life of one of twentieth-century America's most celebrated--though ultimately tragic--public figures, a man who mastered both Wall Street and Washington. James Forrestal was a brilliant financier and military organizer, and he was the first United States Secretary of Defense. Townsend Hoopes and Douglas Brinkley follow Forrestal through his Irish upbringing in upstate New York--he was the son of immigrants--through Princeton University to his success on Wall Street during the Roaring Twenties, to his Gatsbyan life of privilege on Long Island, to his pivotal role in rebuilding the obsolescent U.S. navy during World War II, to his career as the architect of the national security state, and, finally, to his collapse and suicide at the age of fifty-seven. The authors portray Forrestal's large and crucial role in American efforts to complete the military victory of World War II, restore a shattered postwar world, and confront the ominous new Soviet challenge. But they also describe the bitter interservice rivalry over the unification of the armed services, and how the savage attacks on Forrestal by columnists Drew Pearson and Walter Winchell, as well as rebellious navy and air force officers, led to his descent into paranoia and self-destruction. In the end he became prey to hallucinations and distressingly erratic conduct, and was relieved by President Truman from a job that had become his life support system. A few months later he jumped from a window of Bethesda Naval Hospital. Hoopes and Brinkley probe deeply into Forrestal's contradictory inner life--his unfortunate marriage to Josephine Ogden, an intelligent but troubled and willful alcoholic; his cynical attitude toward society and wealth, yet his eagerness to embrace all their trappings; his inability to deal with adversity; his complex, elusive personality, which made it impossible for him to truly love another human being. Interwoven through the text are vivid portrai
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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
This first-rate biography examines the public career and dark private life of Forrestal, President Truman's Secretary of Defense. Photos. (Dec.)
Library Journal
The title accurately describes the controversial life of the nation's first secretary of defense. Former Forrestal aide Hoopes and Hofstra University historian Brinkley give a thorough account of Forrestal's Irish upbringing, Ivy League education, and successful business career. They delve into his involvement with government: as a special assistant in 1940 to President Roosevelt; as a crucial force in rebuilding the obsolescent U.S. Navy on the eve of World War II; as the architect of the national security state. Later years brought squabbles with the professional military, disputes with President Truman, and, finally, his tragic suicide in 1949. Using an impressive array of primary sources, including some previously restricted Forrestal papers and numerous oral interviews, along with current monographs, articles, and dissertations, the authors capture the essence of the man and his times. Well written, objective, and thorough, this volume supersedes Arnold Rognow's dated, out-of-print psychobiography Forrestal: A Study of Personality, Politics, and Policy (1963). It should serve as the standard biography for years.-- Charles C. Hay III, Eastern Kentucky Univ. Archives, Richmond
Kirkus Reviews
An unsparing profile of James Forrestal (1892-1949), Secretary of the Navy under Truman, by Hoopes (The Devil and John Foster Dulles, 1973, etc.) and Brinkley (History/Hofstra Univ.). This is a bold, strongly psychological investigation of a man who cut the ties that bind, made a spectacular success and a dangerous marriage (to Vogue writer Josephine Ogden), and took his own life after a dramatic breakdown. Born into a small-town lower- middle-class Irish Catholic family, Forrestal put his background quickly behind him upon entering Princeton—where he was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" before dropping out for obscure reasons shortly before graduation. Rather than return home, he took demeaning work for over a year before walking into the office of a Princeton Wall Street acquaintance. His classic Roaring Twenties career made him a millionaire: The authors' comparisons with Gatsby are not far-fetched. Controlled, polite, and mysterious, Forrestal was also respected and liked, an eligible and promiscuous bachelor member of the Wall Street elite, working with the legendary Clarence Dillon on epic deals that made financial history, accepted by old money as well as by celebrities like Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, and Gary Cooper. Meanwhile, his wife, "Jo," turned out to be as stubborn and original as himself, and their open marriage (his womanizing never stopped) was stormy yet successful. Forrestal was a logical inductee to the coming WW II war effort; but while his Washington career eclipsed his Wall Street success, his workaholic life was coming apart. By the time he became Secretary of the Navy, the authors say, his denial of his wife's alcoholism and schizophrenia presagedan abrupt and irreversible collapse, triggered by his dismissal by Truman. A powerful biography—critical but sympathetic—of a driven man whose dark side permeates the narrative. (Thirty-six photographs—not seen.)
From Barnes & Noble
Forrestal forged a career that took him from his working-class origins to the stratosphere of Wall Street, & from there to Washington & the roaring cataract of WWII. A study of an influential & interesting political figure.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780736625210
  • Publisher: Books on Tape, Inc.
  • Publication date: 9/1/1993
  • Format: Cassette
  • Edition description: Unabridged, 8 Cassettes

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
I Making Ready
Ch. 1 Forebears, Parents, and Siblings 3
Ch. 2 Growing Up Irish 13
Ch. 3 The Princeton Years 20
II A Swift Ascent
Ch. 4 Love and Marriage in the Jazz Age 33
Ch. 5 Getting Rich on Wall Street 49
Ch. 6 Surviving the Crash of 1929 69
Ch. 7 Family Life 75
Ch. 8 The Struggle for Wall Street Reform 95
III The Mightiest Fleet
Ch. 9 Washington 1940 115
Ch. 10 New Burdens 128
Ch. 11 Encountering the Navy 136
Ch. 12 Asserting Civilian Control 144
Ch. 13 Gathering Momentum 162
Ch. 14 Troubles with Admiral King 169
Ch. 15 Secretary of the Navy 184
Ch. 16 Ending the War 204
Ch. 17 Private Life in the Nation's Capital 215
IV The Communist Challenge
Ch. 18 The FDR Legacy 227
Ch. 19 No Return to Private Life 237
Ch. 20 The Emerging Anti-Communist Consensus 246
Ch. 21 The Godfather of Containment 260
Ch. 22 Controlling the Bomb 282
Ch. 23 Waging Cold War 290
V The Struggle for Military Unification
Ch. 24 "A Task of Greatest Difficulty" 319
Ch. 25 The Weak Compromise 338
Ch. 26 The First Secretary of Defense 351
Ch. 27 The Bitter Fight over Air Power 365
VI Exhaustion and Tragedy
Ch. 28 The Palestine Imbroglio 387
Ch. 29 Strategy Deadlock 405
Ch. 30 The Final Budget Fight 415
Ch. 31 Things Fall Apart 422
Ch. 32 Breakdown 446
Ch. 33 Final Honors and Assessment 469
Afterword 479
Notes 483
Bibliography 545
Index 563
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