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Flight of the Eagle
A strategic history of the United States by the bestselling author of biographies of Roosevelt and Nixon
In this magisterial new history of the United States, spanning from the New World through the outcome of the 2012 presidential election, acclaimed writer and historian Conrad Black examines the rise of the world's supreme power, its recent decline, and its ultimate strengths and future, and the contributions of leading figures, including Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.
In this magisterial new history of the United States, spanning from the New World through the outcome of the 2012 presidential election, acclaimed writer and historian Conrad Black examines the rise of the world's supreme power, its recent decline, and its ultimate strengths and future, and the contributions of leading figures, including Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.
768 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
70 people are currently reading
483 people want to read
About the author
Conrad Black
47 books79 followersConrad Black is a Canadian-born British peer, and former publisher of the London Daily Telegraph, The Spectator, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, and founder of Canada's National Post.
He is a columnist and regular contributor to several publications, including National Review Online, The New Criterion, The National Interest, American Greatness, the New York Sun, and the National Post.
As an acclaimed author and biographer, Lord Black has published comprehensive histories of both Canada and the United States, as well as authoritative biographies of Maurice Duplessis, and presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Donald Trump.
Lord Black is also a television and radio commentator and a sporadic participant in the current affairs programming of CNN, Fox News, CTV, CBC, BBC, and Radio Canada.
He is a columnist and regular contributor to several publications, including National Review Online, The New Criterion, The National Interest, American Greatness, the New York Sun, and the National Post.
As an acclaimed author and biographer, Lord Black has published comprehensive histories of both Canada and the United States, as well as authoritative biographies of Maurice Duplessis, and presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Donald Trump.
Lord Black is also a television and radio commentator and a sporadic participant in the current affairs programming of CNN, Fox News, CTV, CBC, BBC, and Radio Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 1, 2022
Fantastic book on US strategic history. If I could only recommend one book on American history, it would be this one. Every major event is covered brilliantly along with every president from Washington to Obama.
July 11, 2015
July 6, 2015
A Review by Anthony T. Riggio of Conrad Black’s book “The flight of the Eagle”
I purchased this book in 2013 from Amazon after hearing a review and interview on the radio. It sounded very interesting and decided I wanted to read the book. When it was delivered, I was surprised to see that it was a “tome” of over 800 pages. Having just read biographies of John Adams, and Abagail Adams, I postponed reading Eagle for a time when my head was not so filled with historical data that I wanted to cogitate upon for a little bit. As is always the case, I forgot about the book until this year and took it off the shelf to read.
When I opened the book on June 21, 2015, and felt its heft, I knew that this was not going to be an easy and quick read. I finished it today on July 6, 2015. I had wished I bought the Kindle edition but I love history too much and like to keep worthy books in my library in print edition.
I was impressed with the introduction by Henry Kissinger and gave it a whirl. The book is not for the uninitiated into American History but some may find it very readable and very understandable, notwithstanding.
The book presents the almost entire history of the United States by a brief review of the early founding fathers and then goes through the administrations of each of the Presidents who have served this country through its infancy to almost the current times. The overriding theme, to me, was to point out how we became an exceptional country and why. Of course, we all know that our current President has disclaimed our exceptionalism and the reading of this book reinforced in my mind the why’s and how’s of our exceptionalism and I read it with the great pride of being an American. Contrary to current expostulations by some of our politicians and the current media, I am pleasantly reinforced in my thinking that we are not done being an exceptional model to the world.
Black’s heroes, it seems, are Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Truman and Eisenhower after Kennedy we lost some of our shine and were strangled by our world involvement and we sometimes did a good job but more often we failed especially during the administration of Johnson (I agree but probably for different reasons than those of the author). Reagan, it seems, put back some of the polish lost during previous reigns and we became a model for the world, de novo. When the reader gets to the post Reagan years one can easily sense the slippery slope we as a nation are on.
While Black does not really articulate why he feels as he does, it may be that he is not an American but born in Canada and living and being a Member of Parliament in Great Britain for a bit, I believe he is somewhat jaded by current events and in his last couple of pages talks about several social problems and how our penal system is unjust in comparison to other civilized countries. I am afraid this point got to my viscera as I was both an FBI Agent and responsible for putting several subjects in jail, especially for White Collar Crimes and Organized Crime. Consequently, I could not easily let this conclusion go by the boards. Then as I was digesting this, the author writes that for full disclosure purposes he served time (three plus years) in a Federal penal institution for white collar crimes. And then to mitigate, the author mocks the court system as to how they (the Federal government) charged him with a numerous amount of charges and then, reduced them by the judicial process to a lesser number of felonies. The key is one felony is one to many for any citizen and then tries to ameliorate this by saying 48% of Americans have “criminal records”. I am sorry but I do not buy this as an excuse for criminal wrong doing.
Notwithstanding my personal prejudice, after reading every word of this huge book, which was not easy, as a dictionary had to be in hand while reading this book; I am not negatively critical of this reality but his style and verbiage is certainly not inviting to the younger less educated reader. Unfortunately we know that almost 50% of our readers are “low information” voters and therefore not up to reading a book like this.
Now that I got that off my chest, I did enjoy reading this book and rated it as high as I could, given my stated prejudices, i.e., four stars out of five. The research and scholarship are quite good, but I was offended by the gratuitous conclusion that Andrew Jackson and James Buchannan were homosexual lovers but author are references and then states that he could not substantiate this postulation. This I believe was a cheap shot to either cause appeal or revulsion by some of the readers.
I will recommend this book with the stated observations and only to those friends desirous of this type of reading. Also, I found many of the maps and photos not congruous with their placement in the text.
A Review by Anthony T. Riggio of Conrad Black’s book “The flight of the Eagle”
I purchased this book in 2013 from Amazon after hearing a review and interview on the radio. It sounded very interesting and decided I wanted to read the book. When it was delivered, I was surprised to see that it was a “tome” of over 800 pages. Having just read biographies of John Adams, and Abagail Adams, I postponed reading Eagle for a time when my head was not so filled with historical data that I wanted to cogitate upon for a little bit. As is always the case, I forgot about the book until this year and took it off the shelf to read.
When I opened the book on June 21, 2015, and felt its heft, I knew that this was not going to be an easy and quick read. I finished it today on July 6, 2015. I had wished I bought the Kindle edition but I love history too much and like to keep worthy books in my library in print edition.
I was impressed with the introduction by Henry Kissinger and gave it a whirl. The book is not for the uninitiated into American History but some may find it very readable and very understandable, notwithstanding.
The book presents the almost entire history of the United States by a brief review of the early founding fathers and then goes through the administrations of each of the Presidents who have served this country through its infancy to almost the current times. The overriding theme, to me, was to point out how we became an exceptional country and why. Of course, we all know that our current President has disclaimed our exceptionalism and the reading of this book reinforced in my mind the why’s and how’s of our exceptionalism and I read it with the great pride of being an American. Contrary to current expostulations by some of our politicians and the current media, I am pleasantly reinforced in my thinking that we are not done being an exceptional model to the world.
Black’s heroes, it seems, are Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Truman and Eisenhower after Kennedy we lost some of our shine and were strangled by our world involvement and we sometimes did a good job but more often we failed especially during the administration of Johnson (I agree but probably for different reasons than those of the author). Reagan, it seems, put back some of the polish lost during previous reigns and we became a model for the world, de novo. When the reader gets to the post Reagan years one can easily sense the slippery slope we as a nation are on.
While Black does not really articulate why he feels as he does, it may be that he is not an American but born in Canada and living and being a Member of Parliament in Great Britain for a bit, I believe he is somewhat jaded by current events and in his last couple of pages talks about several social problems and how our penal system is unjust in comparison to other civilized countries. I am afraid this point got to my viscera as I was both an FBI Agent and responsible for putting several subjects in jail, especially for White Collar Crimes and Organized Crime. Consequently, I could not easily let this conclusion go by the boards. Then as I was digesting this, the author writes that for full disclosure purposes he served time (three plus years) in a Federal penal institution for white collar crimes. And then to mitigate, the author mocks the court system as to how they (the Federal government) charged him with a numerous amount of charges and then, reduced them by the judicial process to a lesser number of felonies. The key is one felony is one to many for any citizen and then tries to ameliorate this by saying 48% of Americans have “criminal records”. I am sorry but I do not buy this as an excuse for criminal wrong doing.
Notwithstanding my personal prejudice, after reading every word of this huge book, which was not easy, as a dictionary had to be in hand while reading this book; I am not negatively critical of this reality but his style and verbiage is certainly not inviting to the younger less educated reader. Unfortunately we know that almost 50% of our readers are “low information” voters and therefore not up to reading a book like this.
Now that I got that off my chest, I did enjoy reading this book and rated it as high as I could, given my stated prejudices, i.e., four stars out of five. The research and scholarship are quite good, but I was offended by the gratuitous conclusion that Andrew Jackson and James Buchannan were homosexual lovers but author are references and then states that he could not substantiate this postulation. This I believe was a cheap shot to either cause appeal or revulsion by some of the readers.
I will recommend this book with the stated observations and only to those friends desirous of this type of reading. Also, I found many of the maps and photos not congruous with their placement in the text.
June 28, 2016
One might not like Conrad Black, but that should not detract from the fact that Flight of the Eagle is quite the undertaking (at 800 plus pages) in it's dissection of American history. Black gives some mention to his own experience with the penal system in the end (perhaps an unnecessary diatribe in an otherwise excellent historical treaties), which at the very least might help give the reader some context to his own perception regarding the criminal charges against him. That said, the book essentially follows the American path from it's New World beginnings and the founding fathers through to the Obama administration. Along the way the chapters narrow in on the specific leaders under which American history was formed along the way.
What makes this unique as a historical narrative is Black's interest in the question of American exceptionalism, and of how American was meant to become great, became great and lost it's way. Lest we lose hope as we follow the narrative in post Reagan years (according to his opinion), he believes that America is still best positioned (in terms of a global perspective) to find it's way back to greatness again. There is no other region, Country or power that is better positioned in his opinion.
A large part of this question (of exceptionalism) is about understanding how and why this greatness is even necessary. Black navigates how America was founded on the notions of freedom and democracy that have come to form societies around the world, and through a course of history found itself thrust in to the Global view somewhat against it's own desires to remain inward looking. I found Conrad's insight in to how the wars that shaped America essentially demanded from the Country to step up in to it's role as a Global leader wholly interesting. Even when the Country wanted to focus on it's own development (and, as Conrad argue's, could have benefited from a more invested relationship with the America's as a united front), Global affairs would keep pulling it back to the waters of international concern.
This truth is balanced with the idea (as Conrad suggests) that the only true enemy of America is America itself. As a relatively young Country in comparison, it always had to focus inward on it's own growing pains (such as the civil war). It's wealth of resources assured that they were self-dependent, and their economic progress (outside of the binds of history) represented unprecedented growth. Where other Country's would carry their learnings and mistakes and successes of a long standing tradition and history, America was free to experiment with diversity and independence. And yet, even for as much as the American experiment remained a personal development of the New World hopes, the common bonds that unite history and develop our sense of right and wrong assured that America's own conscious drive it outward towards necessary conflict between this right and wrong. It is out of this that history has brought America in to different alliances, and pushed it in to certain battles. Not every leader made the right decisions along the way, but one thing remained constant. America became a symbol and remained a model for the world, and there has been little in terms of global conflict that has not involved the American moral conscious in some way, shape or form.
Where Black believes America has deviated is in it's near-sighted ability to forget why it needs to be great for the world. This is not about ego or might, but rather about the formation and reminder of what really matters when it comes to international affairs. It would be an oversight to neglect how important America is to anchoring this moral centre in a constant flux between the good and the harmful. And it would be an oversight simply to say that America needs to humble itself (which it does), which is only half the truth. America needs to humble itself to realize just how important it's role is. And it needs to take the weight of global cynicism and criticism and actually step up further to the plate where they can once again make a difference where and when it matters. Conrad Black believes this is what America has always done, and that it will be that again. There is negative in the idea of the Manifest Destiny (which was slightly misguided), but there is also a great responsibility that shows itself underneath the reality that America both created and was given it's own destiny by the world (whether the world likes it or not).
The book itself is not beginners history. It dives in to details that assumes the reader is somewhat familiar with the history itself. But the great part about it (for every day readers) is that it is not simply data, it is passionate rhetoric. This is what makes it readable and entertaining, even as it is educational. It is hard to disagree or to challenge Black on many of his takes when he takes such lengths to outline his position. And that is to his credit, even if you struggle with his own criminal charges.
What makes this unique as a historical narrative is Black's interest in the question of American exceptionalism, and of how American was meant to become great, became great and lost it's way. Lest we lose hope as we follow the narrative in post Reagan years (according to his opinion), he believes that America is still best positioned (in terms of a global perspective) to find it's way back to greatness again. There is no other region, Country or power that is better positioned in his opinion.
A large part of this question (of exceptionalism) is about understanding how and why this greatness is even necessary. Black navigates how America was founded on the notions of freedom and democracy that have come to form societies around the world, and through a course of history found itself thrust in to the Global view somewhat against it's own desires to remain inward looking. I found Conrad's insight in to how the wars that shaped America essentially demanded from the Country to step up in to it's role as a Global leader wholly interesting. Even when the Country wanted to focus on it's own development (and, as Conrad argue's, could have benefited from a more invested relationship with the America's as a united front), Global affairs would keep pulling it back to the waters of international concern.
This truth is balanced with the idea (as Conrad suggests) that the only true enemy of America is America itself. As a relatively young Country in comparison, it always had to focus inward on it's own growing pains (such as the civil war). It's wealth of resources assured that they were self-dependent, and their economic progress (outside of the binds of history) represented unprecedented growth. Where other Country's would carry their learnings and mistakes and successes of a long standing tradition and history, America was free to experiment with diversity and independence. And yet, even for as much as the American experiment remained a personal development of the New World hopes, the common bonds that unite history and develop our sense of right and wrong assured that America's own conscious drive it outward towards necessary conflict between this right and wrong. It is out of this that history has brought America in to different alliances, and pushed it in to certain battles. Not every leader made the right decisions along the way, but one thing remained constant. America became a symbol and remained a model for the world, and there has been little in terms of global conflict that has not involved the American moral conscious in some way, shape or form.
Where Black believes America has deviated is in it's near-sighted ability to forget why it needs to be great for the world. This is not about ego or might, but rather about the formation and reminder of what really matters when it comes to international affairs. It would be an oversight to neglect how important America is to anchoring this moral centre in a constant flux between the good and the harmful. And it would be an oversight simply to say that America needs to humble itself (which it does), which is only half the truth. America needs to humble itself to realize just how important it's role is. And it needs to take the weight of global cynicism and criticism and actually step up further to the plate where they can once again make a difference where and when it matters. Conrad Black believes this is what America has always done, and that it will be that again. There is negative in the idea of the Manifest Destiny (which was slightly misguided), but there is also a great responsibility that shows itself underneath the reality that America both created and was given it's own destiny by the world (whether the world likes it or not).
The book itself is not beginners history. It dives in to details that assumes the reader is somewhat familiar with the history itself. But the great part about it (for every day readers) is that it is not simply data, it is passionate rhetoric. This is what makes it readable and entertaining, even as it is educational. It is hard to disagree or to challenge Black on many of his takes when he takes such lengths to outline his position. And that is to his credit, even if you struggle with his own criminal charges.
May 10, 2015
Mr. Black has been on my radar for some time having written a well regarded biography of FDR, but having completed this history of American foreign relations, I have reason to doubt his abilities. Mr. Black starts with a strong examination of George Washington and Ben Franklin's vision of an independent America that their immediate successors did well to follow. I think he overstates his case a little bit and undersells Jefferson's contributions to America's growth, but mostly solid. However, as he moves further along in the timeline things begin to unravel. He slowly abandons the theme of strategy that he so highly emphasized in the title of this book and in the first few chapters and instead ors through each president and their contributions to America's growth in world stature, reaching a crescendo with FDR. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as he does a good job put to FDR of assessing each president, their impact and even includes information on third party presidential candidates that is too often left out of American history books. I wish he would've stuck to the overall strategy theme though. But after FDR things break down rapidly as his conservatism and personal experiences with the U.S. Justice system seems to blind him to the shortcomings of those historical figures he praises. He idolizes both MacArthur and Nixon, two figures who are worthy of both praise and scorn. He even goes so far as to whitewash Nixon's involvement in Watergate. Robert Dallek in his dual biography Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power did a far fairer job than Black could ever hope to. And his claim that the 2008 Obama campaign implied that a vote for Obama was a vote to absolve America of its history of slavery and segregation is absolutely outrageous. In short, this book has the hallmarks of both a fascinating and insightful book in the first half, but is ultimately too amateurish and biased post-World War II to be of any use to the serious history buff.
July 23, 2016
Excellent history book. I truly agree with Henry Kissinger's opening notes - must read for all students. Provides an orderly historical review from the perspective of all the U.S. Presidencies. Conrad Black (like him or not) has a unique writing style (first time I read one of his books and I'm impressed - although he isn't my favorite character). Well researched and not too opinionated - a well balanced book that I recommend everyone read (for those who care to understand how not only the U.S. came to what it is today, but also the WORLD).
October 15, 2024
Comprehensive read of American history with an emphasis on strategy and foreign policy. Black pulls from his own collections, and this was an ambitious project of a book to research and write. Definitely not an introductory US history book.
Black does a great job of staying well-balanced/bipartisan and adding some critiques of US leadership/strategy.
This was an excellent subject matter and I enjoyed the content, but found myself having to set it aside and come back to it multiple times. The writing, although colorful and descriptive, was at times wordy or hard to follow. I just couldn't give it 4 stars as I got too much out of it, and would like to reread eventually (somewhat less thoroughly.)
Black does a great job of staying well-balanced/bipartisan and adding some critiques of US leadership/strategy.
This was an excellent subject matter and I enjoyed the content, but found myself having to set it aside and come back to it multiple times. The writing, although colorful and descriptive, was at times wordy or hard to follow. I just couldn't give it 4 stars as I got too much out of it, and would like to reread eventually (somewhat less thoroughly.)
May 29, 2025
Quite a dense read and heavily focused on Presidents and their effect on the United States. Starts to feel like Conrad Black leans more to the right especially in regard to his interpretation of the Ronald Regan years and onward.
March 10, 2014
This is a massive book, as one would expect of a history of the USA from the initial colonization of the East coast to March 2013 when the book was published. It is ably written, and I didn't have any objections to Black's sometimes wordy & at times esoteric vocabulary & sentence structure.
My personal lack of interest in the mechanics & details of the battles in the early history(war of 1812, war of independence, Civil war) and of the political maneuvering underlying presidential & congressional elections, made me skip over some of the burdensome detail, but overall I found it an informative & mostly objective work of the evolution of a great & influential nation whose instincts were in the right place, though always riven by factional battles over issues like slavery, black rights, gun ownership, immigration, defense issues, and how to deal with both friend(UK, Europe) & foe(USSR, China)...to this very day. Black's conservative viewpoint is up front, and there is a brief but damning assessment of the justice system(with a reference to his own conviction & prison term in which he totally attempts to disculpate himself).
My personal lack of interest in the mechanics & details of the battles in the early history(war of 1812, war of independence, Civil war) and of the political maneuvering underlying presidential & congressional elections, made me skip over some of the burdensome detail, but overall I found it an informative & mostly objective work of the evolution of a great & influential nation whose instincts were in the right place, though always riven by factional battles over issues like slavery, black rights, gun ownership, immigration, defense issues, and how to deal with both friend(UK, Europe) & foe(USSR, China)...to this very day. Black's conservative viewpoint is up front, and there is a brief but damning assessment of the justice system(with a reference to his own conviction & prison term in which he totally attempts to disculpate himself).
September 3, 2013
Great book, Black reviews all of American History, President by President , with insight as to major US strategies, etc. Everyone who wants to refresh their understanding of major US historical events should read this book
March 8, 2025
Black (a Canadian)loves America, most American presidents and America’s place in the world. A review of the strategic history of the U.S. from Washington to Obama, this is not a leisurely read, but worth it.
Want to read
September 17, 2015painstaking meticulous detail
"Countries, like people, do what they think they can get away with, with impunity."
"Countries, like people, do what they think they can get away with, with impunity."
January 21, 2016
A essential reader for any understanding of US history
June 11, 2021
Exceptional book. Well researched. Nut graf: every president except Washington expanded the powers of the presidency. This has not been a good thing for the citizenry.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews