A gargantuan but surprisingly agile and spellbinding biography of
the plain-speaking, plain-dealing Man from Missouri. As depicted by
McCullough (Brave Companions, 1991, etc.), Truman, though the first
President of the nuclear era, was fundamentally a throwback to
19th-century midwestern ideals of honesty. Like the young Teddy
Roosevelt in the author's Mornings on Horseback (1981), the
pre-Presidential Truman most impresses McCullough as a battler
against overwhelming odds: the failed farmer and haberdasher; the
WW I captain who kept his unit together under deadly fire; and the
scorned product of the Kansas City machine who won Senate
colleagues' respect by chairing an investigation into WW II defense
spending and winning a ferocious primary contest. With the stage
thus set, the narrative picks up whirlwind force, following Truman
from his assumption of the Presidency upon FDR's death - when "the
sun, the moon, and the stars" seemed ready to fall on him - through
the decisions to drop the atomic bomb; confront Stalin at Potsdam;
send troops to Korea (the most important decision of his
Presidency, Truman felt); and fire MacArthur. The book's main
event, however, is the legendary "Whistle-Stop Campaign" of 1948,
when Truman puffed off the political upset of the century. Readers
jaded by Vietnam and Watergate may ask: Could any President be this
serene, honest, and courageous? Yet McCullough weaves his spell,
convincingly limning a politician who didn't lie, steal, pay
attention to pollsters or pundits, or quail in the face of
diplomatic or political combat (his major fault seems to have been
excessive loyalty to cronies who betrayed his trust). Truman
apparently really was, as his Secretary of State Dean Acheson said,
the "captain with the mighty heart." Rich in detail, enthralling,
and moving: a classic Presidential biography. (Kirkus Reviews)
The life of Harry S. Truman is one of the greatest of American stories, filled with vivid characters -- Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Wallace Truman, George Marshall, Joe McCarthy, and Dean Acheson -- and dramatic events. In this riveting biography, acclaimed historian David McCullough not only captures the man -- a more complex, informed, and determined man than ever before imagined -- but also the turbulent times in which he rose, boldly, to meet unprecedented challenges. The last president to serve as a living link between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, Truman's story spans the raw world of the Missouri frontier, World War I, the powerful Pendergast machine of Kansas City, the legendary Whistle-Stop Campaign of 1948, and the decisions to drop the atomic bomb, confront Stalin at Potsdam, send troops to Korea, and fire General MacArthur. Drawing on newly discovered archival material and extensive interviews with Truman's own family, friends, and Washington colleagues, McCullough tells the deeply moving story of the seemingly ordinary "man from Missouri" who was perhaps the most courageous president in our history.
General
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