Here at last is the first full-scale biography of Harry S. Truman, his
life and times, by David McCullough, distinguished historian and
prize-winning author.
Huge, ambitious, ten years in the writing, and perfectly realized,
"Truman" is an American masterpiece about that most American of
presidents, "the man from Missouri, " the seemingly simple, ordinary man
who in fact was always much more than met the eye and who would achieve
a greatness of his own after coming to office in FDR's giant shadow.
No one but David McCullough, with his sure grasp of the American past
and his feeling for people, could have written this extraordinary,
deeply moving biography, at once spare in style yet rich in emotion and
insight.
Much of the story is drawn from newly discovered archival material and
from extensive interviews with Truman friends, family, and figures once
prominent in Truman's Washington. And much will com as a surprise to
many readers.
The story begins with Truman's origins in the raw, expansive world of
the Missouri frontier. It chronicles a small-town, turn-of-the-century
boyhood, family love, family tragedy, and young harry's years on the
farm - years of relentless, often brutal work always cheerfully
performed; of dogged learning, dogged courtship, optimism in the face of
defeat, and courage in the face of war in 19418, the experience that
changed everthing for Truman.
Here in colorful detail is the story of his political beginnings with
the powerful Pendergast machine that ruled Kansas City, and of Boss Tom
Pendergast who sent Truman to the United States Senate, where rapidly,
unexpectedly, he proved himself no small-time party hack but a man of
uncommon vitality andstrength of character.
With a telling account of Truman at Potsdam and his momentous decision
to use the atomic bomb, McCullough's "Truman" shows a gritty, untried,
unprepared new President facing responsibilities such as had weighed on
no man ever before, confronting a new age and the growing menace of
Soviet power, and, in a handful of years, under terrible pressures,
defining the course of American politics and diplomacy for the next
forty years.
