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Truman

david mccullough

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The Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Harry S. Truman, whose presidency included momentous events from the atomic bombing of Japan to the outbreak of the Cold War and the Korean War, told by America’s beloved and distinguished historian.

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.

1120 pages, Paperback

First published June 15,1992
Literary awards
pulitzer prize, francis parkman prize, lionel gelber prize, national book critics circle award, national book award finalist, 

This edition

Format
1120 pages, Paperback
Published
June 14, 1993 by Simon Schuster
ISBN
9780671869205
ASIN
0671869205
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Harry S. Truman

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About the author

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david mccullough

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David McCullough was a Yale-educated, two-time recipient of both the Pulitzer Prize (Truman; John Adams) and the National Book Award (The Path Between the Seas; Mornings on Horseback). His many other highly-acclaimed works of historical non-fiction include The Greater Journey, 1776, Brave Companions, The Great Bridge, The Wright Brothers, and The Johnstown Flood. He was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the National Humanities Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in addition to many other awards and honors. Mr. McCullough lived in Boston, Mass.

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
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99 reviews All reviews
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ZenAverageIQ
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Excellent, human biography of the self-underrated president who led the U.S. during a period of unimaginable change and danger. McCullough writes wonderfully, with a dramatist's flair but without gilding the lily whatsoever. This is a richly rewarding experience for history buffs and anyone interested in great biography.
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Robbed
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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McCullough is a good writer, though not a gifted wordsmith like Laura Hillenbrand, Ron Chernow, or Edmund Morris. Where he shines is in his impeccable research, his insightful analysis, and the clarity of his narrative structure and pacing. While his biography of Truman is perhaps a trifle overlong at a thousand pages, the narrative flow is always interesting and never feels forced. McCullough does a good job of capturing and displaying Truman's personality, while also offering perceptive thoughts on Truman's strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and failures. The last few pages, where McCullough summarizes Truman's character and accomplishments, are particularly thought provoking. While long, this book is worth the investment of time for anyone wanting to get to know Truman, the man and the president.
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Aidenlittlefire
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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David McCullough's Truman takes an exhaustive, commendably objective look at America's 33rd President. Despite its length (over 1,000 pages!) it's consistently compelling thanks to McCullough's engaging writing style, chronicling Truman's rise from small-town Missouri to the Presidency with verve and excitement. What impressed me most was how willing McCullough to analyze Truman's faults and failures (a marked turn from John Adams, where he seemed eager to airbrush his subject). Truman's involvement with the Pendergast machine, his casual bigotry and slowness to evolve past it; his penchant for surrounding himself with friends and crooked cronies; his naivety towards Stalin (and rebirth as a zealous Cold Warrior), fueling the postwar Red Scare and mishandling Korea all receive fair and copious attention. Even so, these seem to enhance Truman's positive traits: his personal integrity, penchant for decisive (if sometimes misguided) action, and his surprising intelligence and clearheadedness in assessing world events. McCullough marks his assuming office after FDR's death, the adoption of the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift and the creation of Israel as Truman's great accomplishments, assessments which may vary depending on your own perspectives. Nonetheless, it's a rich, convincing and very human look at a man who, if not an all-time great president, nonetheless seems refreshingly honest, flexible and decisive compared to recent chief executives.
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nicetush
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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This is a great biography as fits a great man. Harry Truman was the leader who defined the world we now live in. Franklin Roosevelt feeling the desperate need to defeat Hitler made the momentous decision to ally the US with the USSR. It was Harry Truman who grasped that Russian-American alliance had served its purpose and had to end.

It was Truman who united the Free World against the Communist countries. He led the US into the Korean War, brought an end to the Communist Insurrection in Greece and created NATO. The Political Equilibrium that he created is with us today.

Truman was a infinitely charming person. He is the last President not to have attended University. He was from a family of modest means. When their finances were in dire straits, he chose to forego higher education in order to be a family breadwinner.

Truman loved classical music and was a highly talented pianist. He vigorously encouraged his daughter in her brief career as an opera singer. He never let his own musical talents decline and in 1960 performed a concert at the White House featuring the compositions of his live-time idol Ignacy Paderewski.

Like America, Truman possessed multiple talents and great virtues. David McCullough's book is a glorious tribute to this wonderful man. As a Canadian I admire the United States for having produced a leader of this quality. I hope that in the future many more politicians of Truman's stature will occupy the White House; the entire world will be the better for it.

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popfood
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Having read McCullough's life of Harry Truman, I feel like I know a President that I had felt I knew but not intimately. This book gives you the most intimate view of Truman and his granite-like greatness as the forger of the American future, if not the world's. McCullough's research focuses on his ordinariness and how it becomes, when needed, extraordinary. The author details these instances for more than a 1,000 pages including notes.

I wouldn't call it titillating, but it does answer almost all of our questions. One might say, "Who asks about Truman, and why should we care?" He happened to be in the White House when he was most needed, and according to McCullough, that's how the Founding Fathers intended it to be--like the good luck the U.S. had with Lincoln.

If I were a political science or American history professor, this would be required reading for my course, since it is almost a textbook of how our government works and what a good citizen, such as Harry S. Truman , should resemble.
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MadDanchi
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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This was fantastic. It does take commitment to get through. This book is HUGE. I’ll be honest, I almost gave up during his senate years (after about 400 pages) but after reading the many positive reviews, continued. I’m glad I did. I loved how McCullough showed Truman has human. He made many mistakes. However, I also loved how genuine he was. I’d forgotten how many momentous events in US history Truman was a part of. Yet, he remained true to himself. This is one I’ll be thinking about for a while to come.
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2time
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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This is a brilliant book about one of our finest

David McCullough's "Truman" has won many accolades and awards, chief among them the Pulitzer Prize. After reading this wonderful book from cover-to-cover in less than a week, I'm convinced that this book deserves all of the praise it has received, and more.

"Truman" is the ultimate, complete package in a presidential biography. Even a novice of 20th century history (this writer included) would have a list of important events that he or she would want to read about in a Truman bio. McCullough covers them all, and in detail: the decision to drop the atomic bomb, FDR's death and the transition to the Truman administration, the Potsdam conference, the creation of the United Nations, the Korean War, the firing of MacArthur, the 1948 election, his decision to not run in 1952, etc. McCullough touches all of the bases beautifully.

The highest compliment I can think to give McCullough for this book is the sense of balance in his writing and how he brings Truman to life. Mostly absent from this book, thankfully, is the rampant cheerleading and bootlicking that plague other presidential biographies. McCullough isn't a Truman admirer who puts a positive spin on every significant event during Truman's presidency. It's obvious that McCullough thinks highly of Truman, but he grapples with the controversies of Truman without softpeddling, unlike Stephen Ambrose's one-volume "Eisenhower: Soldier & President," where Ambrose neglects important events and spends entirely too much time raining down praise on Ike.

This thoroughly researched book presents Truman in a fair and balanced manner, and much of that research is based on Truman's diaries. "Truman" covers the president's bad decisions as well as his good ones, with the president's rationale behind those decisions.

I highly recommend this book and I believe it sits high atop the heap of the many available presidential biographies. McCullough is one of America's finest historians. Buy this book, read it, and in the end, be disappointed that it's over. (Orig. Review Dec. '04)
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NeonCera
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Author David McCullough’s writing flowed with an ease and clarity that made this biography of Harry S Truman read like a novel. It captured the complexity beneath Truman’s common man exterior, his capacity to grow and ‘prove equal to tasks seemingly too large for him’ and brought a sense of drama to the events and accomplishments of his presidency. For me, the greatest revelation in the book was how limited Truman's options were when he made the decision that ended WWII and that he later refused to consider using nuclear weapons against China during the Korean war.

Overall, this was an outstanding portrait of an extraordinary man and a fascinating overview of a pivotal time in American and world history. It has been my evening quiet time companion for several months now and I will genuinely miss reading it.

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