Harry S. Truman
A Life
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- $49.99
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- $49.99
Publisher Description
Few U.S. presidents have captured the imagination of the American people as has Harry S. Truman, “the man from Missouri.”
In this major new biography, Robert H. Ferrell, widely regarded as an authority on the thirty-third president, challenges the popular characterization of Truman as a man who rarely sought the offices he received, revealing instead a man who—with modesty, commitment to service, and basic honesty—moved with method and system toward the presidency.
Truman was ambitious in the best sense of the word. His powerful commitment to service was accompanied by a remarkable shrewdness and an exceptional ability to judge people. He regarded himself as a consummate politician, a designation of which he was proud. While in Washington, he never succumbed to the “Potomac fever” that swelled the heads of so many officials in that city. A scrupulously honest man, Truman exhibited only one lapse when, at the beginning of 1941, he padded his Senate payroll by adding his wife and later his sister.
From his early years on the family farm through his pivotal decision to use the atomic bomb in World War II, Truman’s life was filled with fascinating events. Ferrell’s exhaustive research offers new perspectives on many key episodes in Truman’s career, including his first Senate term and the circumstances surrounding the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. In addition, Ferrell taps many little-known sources to relate the intriguing story of the machinations by which Truman gained the vice presidential nomination in 1944, a position which put him a heartbeat away from the presidency.
No other historian has ever demonstrated such command over the vast amounts of material that Robert Ferrell brings to bear on the unforgettable story of Truman’s life. Based upon years of research in the Truman Library and the study of many never-before-used primary sources, Harry S. Truman is destined to become the authoritative account of the nation’s favorite president.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ferrell, author or editor of eight previous books on Truman (Choosing Truman: The Democratic Convention of 1944) here presents a prodigiously researched and engrossing study of the 33rd president. Born and raised in Missouri, Truman (1884-1972) began his political career as a county judge backed by Kansas City's powerful Pendergast machine, which also supported his successful race for the U.S. Senate in 1934. A compromise candidate for vice president in November 1944, Truman became president five months later when Franklin Roosevelt died. Clearly an admirer, Ferrell presents his subject as an honest man of the people as well as a shrewd politician-not someone who just happened to be on the scene but a man who actively sought the presidency. He defends Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the quickest way to end WWII and details Truman's upset election victory of 1948 and his subsequent presidency, when the U.S. became involved in the Korean War. His description of Truman as a devoted husband and father agrees with earlier accounts.
