Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #161897 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-02
• Released on: 2008-09-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Noted presidential biographer Dallek (An Unfinished Life) turns his skilled pen to the man from Independence. In brisk prose and with the confidence of his vast knowledge of the era, Dallek interprets the life of the simple man who, having unexpectedly and with little experience assumed the presidency when FDR died, surprised everyone by so skillfully shouldering huge burdens. In his day, that meant ending the war with Japan (by authorizing the bombs that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki), ordering American troops to repel the invasion of Korea, firing Douglas MacArthur and facing down the Soviets. It also meant protecting the New Deal from erosion, dealing with striking labor and taking unprecedented steps to desegregate the government and armed forces. Just listing these achievements makes clear why Dallek, like other historians, places Truman high on the list of American presidents. Like so many other biographies in the splendid American Presidents series, Dallek's little book is now the best starting point for knowledge of Truman's life and for an astute assessment of his career. (Sept. 2)
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From Booklist
The first paragraph of Dallek’s yeomanly contribution to the American Presidents series pontificates that, with the Roosevelts and Wilson, Truman is one of the “great or near-great” twentieth-century presidents. What follows suggests that he was the best of those four, anyway. FDR had told him nothing, even of the atomic bomb that he would have to decide whether to use. He got no immediate credit for his administration’s real achievements, such as the Marshall Plan. His party fractured beneath him when he headed the ticket in 1948. He got blamed for FDR’s failings, such as employing the Communists Joe McCarthy demagogued about, and for an early career beholden to crooked Kansas City Democrat Tom Pendergast. That he very quickly adapted to wartime leadership, prevailed in 1948 by sheer energy and common-man appeal, seized initiative against security risks before Congress did, and was the clean cog in Pendergast’s machine went largely unappreciated almost until his death. Dallek leaves little doubt that you must disagree with Truman philosophically to consider him less than a damn good president. --Ray Olson

About the Author

Customer Reviews

Nice brief bio of Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman's life story in a short, accessible biography. That's the premise of The American Presidents Series, and this is one of the most recent entrants in the stable. The late Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. was the series editor. In his introduction to each book in this series, he says (Page xvi): "The men in the White House express the ideals and values, the frailties and the flaws, of the voters who send them there. It is altogether natural that we should want to know more about the virtues and the vices of the fellows we have elected to govern us. As we know more about them, we will know more about themselves."

The book begins by noting that, traditionally, the 20th century presidents deemed to be great or near great include: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman. The "Preludes" section notes that (Page 1): "On the face of things, Truman's high standing is surprising. . . . Truman was notable for his ordinariness."

The book begins with his family background, his early years, his service in World War I, his early (failed) effort at a haberdashery business, and his decision to move into public life. The book well describes his moral dilemmas at one point: the corrupt Pendergast organization was willing to sponsor him for elective office. What would he do? Eschew the support of the machine? Or use its support and still try to stay clean? He did the latter and his political career began. By the way, to give a sense of The American Presidents' series, we come to see how and why FDR selected Truman as his Vice-Presidential partner by page 15!

Truman's time in the White House. . . . We see him reflecting on whether or not to use the atomic weaponry against Japan. We see him trying to adjust to the Post-World War II Cold War/Iron Curtain era. We see him trying to navigate between left and right in domestic politics, and sometimes seeming to drift. One intriguing line (Page 37): "And yet Truman was disinclined to confront the country with the emerging dangers he saw from Soviet aggression. . . ." This is a subtheme of the book, with the author, Robert Dallek, noting that on a number of occasions, Truman seemed to back off confronting difficult issues. It creates, in fact, a tension within this volume between the author commenting that Truman warranted his high rating by historians and then noting his occasional avoiding tough issues.

The story of his unexpected victory in 1948 over Thomas Dewey, the Berlin Airlift, the Korean War, and his rapidly deteriorating public approval. . . . It's all here, including his active post-presidential career.

A very nice brief introduction to Henry Truman. This book has motivated me to consider buying one of the larger biographies of the subject and exploring his life more deeply. . . .

Bad reading of a good book
Unfortunately, the reader, William Dufris, is apparently too young to have been aware of who was who in this book produced by Macmillan Audio. On disc one, the name of Chiang Kai-Shek (and then Mrs. Chiang Kai-Shek) is repeatedly pronounced as Chey-ang...(as in Chey-enne). On disc two, one finds David Lilienthal's name turned into Liliental, followed by Bernard Baruch, pronounced as Baroosh each time. After that, I couldn't continue -- the audio version was ruined for me.

I am surprised that no one at Macmillan Audiobook cared enough about the production of Dallek's book to either encourage the use of a name pronunciation dictionary for someone apparently too young to remember those major people on the world scene, or didn't check to see if Mr. Dufris knew what he was doing before letting him go on with the reading. As a commercial audiobook firm, Macmillan has fallen down on its responsibility to the listening public.

Good Biography of Truman but perhaps a bit too short
It goes without saying that the best biography of Harry Truman is the one by David McCullough. However Robert Dallek does a good job of creating an interesting brief bio of Truman that focuses almost exclusively on his presidency. While this is a very interesting aspect of Truman's life and as would be the case in any presidential biography of key importance, Dallek doesn't do what other authors have done in this series and try to paint a portrait of the person who sat in the chair.

While he makes the argument that Truman was a near great president very little attention is given to what made him the man he was. Much attention is given to Truman's modest upbringing yet few details are provided. There is the famous line about Truman which goes, he is the most complex simple man who ever lived and Dallek does a good job in capturing that aspect. Still I would have enjoyed reading more about Truman the man and how that helped to shape Truman the president. Still, I recommend this book to anyone interested in one of our most fascinating presidents!