Truman

After finishing David McCollough’s legacy redefining tome of the 33rd U.S. President Harry Truman, it is easy to see why “Truman” is largely considered a masterpiece and the gold standard of Presidential biographies. Although an intimidating 992 pages long, McCollough’s work is so well written and meticulously researched, it makes for a great read.Harry S. Truman has been placed in the upper echelon of great American Presidents, and it’s easy to see why. Never has a President been unexpectedly thrown into the breach of the office with so many ominous decisions to make, yet seemingly so unprepared for the highest and most powerful office in the land. After been reluctantly selected to be Franklin Roosevelt’s Vice President, Truman took the oath of office upon the death of FDR, the world was still at war, just 82 days into Roosevelt’s unprecedented fourth term. Upon learning of the President’s death, it is said Truman asked Eleanor Roosevelt if there was anything he could do for her; she replied, "Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now!"Truman’s rise to the Presidency is a great American story, which McCollough details vividly. The son of a Missouri farmer, which Harry himself became, Truman was truly a man of the people. Earnest, plain spoken, and hardworking, these were the characteristics that justly defined him. After serving as a Field Captain in World War 1, Harry returned to Independence, Missouri where he would marry his sweetheart Bess and become a haberdasher before he would find his calling in public service.After some aid from Kansas City Democratic Machine Boss Tom Pendergast, Truman would go on to become Jackson County Judge, an administrative position similar to that of a County Commissioner. Harry oversaw the County’s “Ten Year Plan”, which included the transformation of the county’s public works including updating the network of roads and a new county courthouse. He was elected the president of the Greater Kansas City Plan Association and made director of the National Conference of City Planning. As an urban planner myself, I found this to be great trivia!After serving 12 years as County Judge, Truman would go on to be elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934, again leveraging the aid of Boss Pendergast. Upon entering the Senate, he would be disregarded as “The Senator from Pendergast”. It was after being reelected to the Senate in 1940, where Truman would begin to make a name for himself, establishing the Truman Committee, charged with rooting out waste and war profiteering from the expansive war mobilization efforts of the Roosevelt Administration. It was during his time on this committee where Truman’s no nonsense and hard work allowed him to establish himself as worthy of a Vice Presidential candidate.Truman’s tenure as President is as consequential as any during the 20th Century. Soon after taking office he set off to Potsdam, Germany to meet with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin to discuss the postwar order of Europe. Within months, he authorized the use of the atomic bomb, quickly ending what would have continued to be an enduring and ghastly war with Japan. Upon taking the oath of office, Truman, even as FDR’s Vice President, had no idea the bomb was even in development, which is much more a reflection of FDR given his failing health. His presidency helped achieve historic institutions of monumental consequence including the creation of the United Nations and NATO. Ushered in the Marshall Plan which helped rebuild post-war Europe. Initiated the Berlin Airlift, a campaign to deliver food, coal and other supplies using military aircraft on a massive scale allowing the circumvention of a Soviet blockade to Western Europe. Instituted the “Truman Doctrine” of communist containment. Recognized the creation of Israel. All within his first term!The gripping account of the 1948 reelection bid is certainly a highlight of the book. Truman’s reelection campaign is on of political folklore, and McCollough details it masterfully. Down mightily in the polls to New York Governor Thomas Dewey, and with ever political pundit in the country counting him out, Truman zig-zags across the country by train speaking at every stop along the way. Truman’s plain-speaking approach and “give em hell, Harry!” style contrasting with Dewey’s lofty and empty rhetoric coupled with a lack of urgency ultimately wins the day. Even after garnering massive crowds, he was expected to go down in defeat as of election night. After emerging victorious the day after, Truman holds up the front page of the Chicago Tribune announcing “Dewey Defeats Truman”! Harry S. Truman was never a man to be counted out, and he earned everything he got.Truman’s second term was no less ominous than his first. Even as the economy was as strong as ever, the Korean War and labor strikes dictated much of his time. A lasting triumph of his second term was the desegregating of the military, an action that began to erode the Democratic party’s stronghold on the south. Truman left office after his second term a very unpopular President, succeeded by World War II hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower.It’s said that McCollough’s “Truman” helped to reshape his standing among U.S. Presidents, and it should. Harry S. Truman is proof that if you are given a job, it is your duty to give it all you got, and that hard work does pay off, and that only in America can a man of humble beginnings can soar to great heights.

This book was worth every penny as it highlighted the extraordinary contributions of President Truman.

I picked up Truman, primarily because I wanted to understand a little more about the post WW-II events and decisions that so marked the latter half of the 20th century. What I got was something much more. An opportunity to live alongside one of the most remarkable and unlikely lives in American History.Harry Truman was the second to last US President to have been born in the 1800s. His grandparents lived during the era of the Missouri frontier and the Civil War. “The arc of his life spanned more change in the world than in any prior period in history…he had to assume command of the most powerful industrial nation on earth at the very moment when that power, in combination with the stunning advances in science and technology, had become an unparalleled force in the world.” There is a romance to the life, a seemingly fictional element in the biography. Truman did not go to college, nor did he get involved in politics until midlife. He worked a decade as a farmer until his early 30s, went to war in Europe and returned only to get married and start a men’s clothing warehouse. In many ways he was a normal middle American man, who had his share of ups and downs and financial debts.Truman was not bred for the Presidency, nor trained for the global decisions he would have to make like an FDR or a Churchill. His rise to power could not have been more unforeseen; but with the Pendergast (a powerful Missouri political boss) backing he proved to be very successful in state government. From there, there was no looking back.From state government to US Senator, from Senator to Roosevelt’s Vice President, from Vice President to President, from President to the creation of United Nations and Victory in Europe and Potsdam and the dropping of the atomic bomb. These first 4 months were riveting to read. And from that point the story does not cease to amaze: from a very low approval rating as President to an exhausting campaign and a most improbable victory over Dewey. Truman’s story is an unfolding of one unlikely event followed by another unlikely, momentous event. Truman’s second term included the founding of the state of Israel, the unpopular start of the Korean War, and the eventual firing of Douglas MacArthur.It was not just the decisions and the policies implemented that really struck me as a reader. To be sure I did learn a lot more about the post-WWII world; but I found myself becoming very much attached to the key figure in the story. Truman is an admirable protagonist with a noble heart. He is just, moral, upright, wary of the temptations that come with power. He makes mistakes. His persona exudes vitality and industrial energy that is contagious to everyone who works with him. Throughout his life he possessed a deep desire to “do the right thing” no matter what. If modern generations look back on the atomic bomb or the “dangerous foreign intervention precedent” of Korea with disdain—they should read this book. Time and time again Truman is faced with two deeply flawed options in real time: drop a bomb or allow a world war to continue; intervene in Korea or watch on from a distance; use extreme governmental measures or let the crippling strike go on during wartime. An imperfect decision had to be made and rarely was there a third option.At his farewell address in 1953 Truman said:“When Franklin Roosevelt died, I felt there must be a million men better qualified than I, to take up the Presidential task. But the work was mine to do, and I had to do it. And I have tried to give it everything that was in me... Good night and God bless you all.”To sum it up, this was a very enjoyable ride. I found myself at times staying up until the early morning binging, because I was so engrossed in the narrative. I was sad to finish, just like I am sad when I finish any good biography. You walk so far with the characters it is almost an emotional experience when they pass on and a new era arises.As for the writing, David McCullough in one of the best historians alive and his prose is perfect as always. A remarkable story teller to match a remarkable life.

The depth of this writer's exploration is.truly amazing.

Undeservedly in the shadows of FDR and IKE, Truman was a master politician. This book does him justice. A man of integrity, came to the presidency at a critical period and did a superb job. The biography is really fact-filled, vastily researched yet wonderful to read. What can I say? Buy it. Read it. Appreciate it.

A very well written Biography about the life of the accidental president his life a true inspiration also a must read for history buffs

Meinem Sohn, der Anglisitik und Amerikanistik studiert, gefällt diese Buch ausgesprochen gut. Daher kommt von mir eine klare Empfehlung dafür!

I knew far too little of Truman before listening to and reading David McCullough’s fine biography of him (on Audible and Kindle, respectively). All I could say about him was that Truman was a president to admire, one who’d won himself an enviable reputation. He was also a man of honesty and principle, prepared to take difficult decisions and accept responsibility for them.This biography confirms the truth of those beliefs. But it does far more than that. It reveals Truman not just in his successes but in his failures, and there were many of them. Most notably, he spent many years as a farmer, with mixed results, and later attempted to set up a haberdashery shop, where he went broke. Perhaps more worrying still, he worked closely for many years with political bosses in his native Missouri, some of whom were found to be deeply corrupt.Ironically, it was the dubious associations that led to his successes. Though he worked with some questionable individuals, it’s clear that he never engaged in any murky activities of his own. He maintained personal integrity in poisonous circumstances. But the Missouri bosses were his springboard into politics.He was also a leader of men. Despite his poor eyesight and his lack of any previous military experience, he became an artillery captain during the First World War, distinguishing himself both by his personal courage and by his ability to forge men into a highly-efficient unit. He pulled off that achievement with a disparate group of men who were not soldiers but civilians in uniform. As well as a leader he was, truly, a fighter.That was the quality that most marked his political career. He showed it most clearly at two key times: when he stood for re-election to the Senate in 1940 and when he ran for President in his own right in 1948 (he was elected Vice President in 1944 with Roosevelt, and inherited the presidency when the latter died).On both those occasions he showed a tireless ability to campaign even when all around him were telling him he had no chance of winning. He covered huge distances speaking to crowds and individuals at every opportunity. Above all, he established a personal bond with thousands, who passed the message on to many times that number of others.Against the odds, he won both those elections, astounding friend and adversary alike.I found another quality of his just as striking: his ability to build consensus. Even after he had taken a decision, for instance to build a Hydrogen bomb, he would allow his subordinates to debate the issue, leading many of the discussions himself. Eventually, they would come around to the view that he had already adopted, at which point he put it into application knowing that his team was behind him.Nor did he ever duck responsibility for the choices he made. We might not agree with his decision to build a Hydrogen bomb, or to use the Atom bomb against Japan, or to involve the US in the Korean War. It’s hard, however, not to admire the resolution with which he took those decisions, knowing that they were his responsibility and his alone, and accepting that criticism for the consequences had to be directed at him.Told with a great deal of humour and in the clear and gripping language which always marks David McCullough’s work, this biography brings out all these aspects of the man. That provides us with a work that is a pleasure to read (or listen to) full of vital insights into a remarkable personality.