Truman had integrity.

There's more to say about this, definitely...but we'll start there for now.

In my quest to read a biography of every president, and my love of McCullough's works, I picked this up on audio book. Truman is a fascinating man, both an accidental politician and an accidental president. The biography set out with no agenda, its purpose to let the reader make decisions on Truman as a man and president, versus pushing a viewpoint, which I enjoyed. As always, McCullough's research and writing are on point.

What brings this from four or five stars to three stars is simply the length and detail. Truman was a prodigious diarist, McCullough a prodigious researcher and Truman's presidency was during a period of improved access to information dissemination and archiving, leading to a wealth of material, all of which it seems McCullough included. I found myself longing to skip through detailed accounts of cabinet meetings, election speeches, etc. The first third of the book, about Truman the man before the political story, was easily 5 stars and my favorite portion.

Certainly one of the best Presidential Biographies I've read, and I've read many.

I probably started this book in 1994. I used it in research for many papers in college, and by the time I graduated really felt like I'd "read" it.

When I discovered Goodreads 7 years ago, I realized that I had only chronologically gotten Truman up to WWI. However, even the invention of Kindle failed to get it very high up my priority list. Therefore, when I discovered Audible, I knew Truman should be one of my first choices. There's just something about the audio medium that lends itself to finishing big, thick tomes.

Nelson Runger's narration is slow, steady, and reassuring, exactly what's needed to narrate this epic.

Honestly loved this would have given it 5 stars if the family background section at the beginning was shorter!

Quite simply, the finest piece of non-fiction I have ever read. A very thorough account of the life of what I consider to be a misunderstood President who was never given his appropriate due. No President, in my opinion, has been more of an American's American.

McCullough’s engaging portrayal of Harry Truman depicts a man of integrity, a trait rare in politicians. As president, his simple straightforward approach often led to extreme unpopularity. His inexperience and initial indecisiveness took its toll. But Harry Truman’s best quality as Clark Clifford noted, “was Harry Truman’s capacity to grow.” Thrust into a job for which he was ill prepared, Truman overcame his shortcomings working through an onslaught of difficult problems to provide genuine leadership and unlike other presidents, maintain his principles while doing it. Even though unappreciated at the time, Truman proved to be a remarkable president.

McCullough covers every aspect of Truman’s life, but here I focus on his presidency and what I found most interesting, Truman’s ability to adapt while keeping his values. Truman’s character was shaped by hard work and hardship early in life. The same is true of LBJ. Both had fathers who failed financially making both highly motivated to succeed. Yet Truman developed morals while LBJ became Machiavellian, a difference which epitomized both their careers.

Truman was the compromise choice for FDR’s VP in 1944, acceptable to North and South, selected primarily on lack of political vulnerabilities rather than consideration of his ability to be president. This is somewhat surprising since FDR’s ill health was well known and Henry Wallace was dumped due to pressure from those who could not picture the extreme liberal Wallace as president. FDR let others pick his running mate in one of his typical political dances even though FDR knew his own health was failing. Even more disturbing, FDR did nothing to prepare Truman to assume the presidency, only meeting with him twice and never discussing anything of substance.

When Truman did take over, he was immediately faced with tough foreign policy issues in which he had absolutely no experience; How to end the war and deal with a postwar world with a communist Russia as a major power. His first test was meeting with Churchill and Stalin at the Potsdam conference as the war was winding down. Here, McCullough, whose affection for Truman shows throughout the book, cuts Truman some slack. He cites how well Truman prepared for his meeting with Churchill and Stalin. Truman prepared by reading background material and consulting with his Washington staff and his new Secretary of State Jimmy Byrnes, a former fellow Senator and ill-considered selection also with limited experience. Truman spent little time with his ambassador to Moscow, Averill Harriman (assisted by Kennan), who knew Stalin and Russian politics well. He also disregarded Churchill’s warnings about Stalin. Thus Truman approached Stalin idealistically thinking, as Roosevelt did before him, that he could deal with Stalin as a person of good faith. Harriman and his staff knew otherwise. Truman was completely fooled by Stalin. He thought well of Stalin and thought Stalin liked him. Stalin later told Khrushchev he thought Truman was “worthless”. Roosevelt and Truman were very different but both greatly overestimated their personal capacity to influence Stalin. Truman as he later admitted was naïve.

Preparation and organization were not hallmarks of Truman’s early presidency. Truman reacted to problems as they came rather than rigorously organizing an agenda. His hurriedly crafted a wide ranging liberal program announced upon his return from Potsdam that was not properly vetted or politically evaluated. His lofty propositions were rejected out of hand. Truman was over his head. He neither selected a competent staff he could work with nor did he master the art of delegation.

In foreign affairs he did not establish long term objectives around which to form a coherent policy. His indecisiveness encouraged the Soviet Union to do as it pleased and lost the respect of the American public. Stalin declared publically in February 1946 that Soviet and Western values were incompatible and another war inevitable. Truman reacted by speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Proponents of a hard line Soviet policy such as Admiral Leahy, Forrestal and Dean Acheson were sure the president agreed with them. Advocates of an accommodative policy such as Henry Wallace and Jimmy Byrnes were sure the President agreed with them.

More telling was his equivocation over Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri March 5, 1946. Truman invited Churchill to give the speech and traveled with him to Westminster, introduced him and supported Churchill’s hard line position in prior private conversation. Then Truman backtracked publically and completely once wide spread media criticism of Churchill’s speech appeared. He even invited Stalin, who he still said he liked, to America to give his own speech which Stalin declined. Just think what would have ensued if Stalin had accepted!

The public perception of the president as weak and befuddled weighed in domestic matters as well. In trying to resolve the 1946 railroad strike, one of many after the war, the president worked out a reasonable compromise. Truman’s top assistant, John Steelman, telling labor leaders they had to agree to a fair offer from the President of the United States, was told by them that nobody listened to this President. Ineffective in negotiations Truman decided to draft the strikers into the army. Told he was exceeding his constitutional limits, Truman responded that he wasn’t interested in philosophy. Think of a president saying that today! While the Senate voted down his proposed law, his speech to Congress was forceful and popular with the public. But this was followed by embarrassing disarray as Henry Wallace, Truman’s Secretary of Commerce, spoke out in direct contradiction of Truman’s Soviet policy. After more waffling and again looking weak, Truman finally fired Wallace, but the perception of his presidency was again one of incompetence. By the fall of 1946, his approval rating was 32%. A year earlier it had been 82%.

Truman’s fortunes ticked up in 1947 with the appointment of George Marshall as Secretary of State. Marshall was everything Truman hadn’t been: organized, a great delegator, a good judge of men. Marshall was also a team player something the man he replaced, Jimmy Byrnes was not. Marshall was respected and his choice reflected well on Truman. He was someone who Truman could work with and who would help him. Having also made Clark Clifford White House Counsel in 1946, with State Department Undersecretary Dean Acheson playing a more prominent role, the ascendance of George Kennan’s influence, Averill Harriman, Charles Bohlen and George Elsey staying on, Truman was finally assembling a talented team.

March 1947 marked a turning point when The Truman Doctrine advocating containment of Soviet expansion was presented to Congress and aid for Greece and Turkey requested. The Truman Doctrine was based partly on George Kennan’s famous “Long Telegram” and the internal Clifford-Elsey Report. Finally a coherent policy of how to deal with the Soviet Union was being promulgated. This was followed by formulation of the Marshall Plan which recognized America’s interest in Europe’s economic success. The National Security Act followed in July establishing the CIA, the National Security Council, and the unification of the services under the Secretary of Defense. Truman was leading with huge masterful strokes choreographed by his recently formed and exceedingly loyal staff.

Just as he grew in his ability to craft foreign policy, so he grew in terms of Civil Rights. Coming in with a Southern heritage, in office he realized his country needed to change. He was the first president to address the NAACP. He put forward Civil Rights legislation to abolish the poll tax, outlaw lynching and support equal rights when such a stand in 1948 was unpopular with most voters. Later he issued an executive order to end discrimination in the armed forces and the civil service.

He handled the issue of the partition of Palestine and recognition of Israel reasonably well, given a heatedly divided staff. Truman hesitated; looking wobbly again, but in the end came through. His Secretary of State, the extremely popular General Marshall, was adamantly opposed, but with deference and patience, Truman was able to get him to acquiesce and the US became the first nation to recognize Israel. This was also politically expedient. Truman’s response to the Soviet blockade of Berlin was smart and effective. The blockade could have easily led to capitulation or conversely war. Truman threaded the needle with his long term airlift which his advisors told him wouldn’t work.

Truman’s 1948 campaign is the signature event in his career, his fortitude overcoming all odds, his persistence proving the naysayers wrong. It is unusual in national politics to see one person so right in his course, so confident in his decisions, when virtually every pundit, every poll was against him. Dewey helped, overconfident and not personable, running a lackluster campaign. Truman knew how to take advantage and he did it by standing for the things he really believed in. His authenticity connected with the American people.

Truman’s second term brought no respite. Only restraint and persistence saw him through. Russia acquiring the atomic bomb, the decision to develop the H-bomb, the Klaus Fuchs atomic secrets spy scandal, Joe McCarthy’s lists of “communist infiltrators”, North Korea’s invasion of South Korea and last but far from least Douglas MacArthur’s public defiance. As Truman related in retrospect, he was probably too patient with MacArthur. He and the country would have been better off if he had fired MacArthur months earlier. Truman deserves kudos for leadership. Firing MacArthur was extremely unpopular and Truman accepted the heat. He wasn’t devious, no FDR shell games. He fired MacArthur straight out knowing the firestorm of protest that awaited him.

Truman left office unloved and unwanted (22% approval, Nixon had 24% when he left office) by a public lost in McCarthyism and the tail fins growing on their cars. Only time would reveal his true legacy. Cast in a role he never envisioned, he got off to a shaky start, but in the end he held his own in the most demanding times in the most demanding job in the world even if the public did not appreciate it. And he did it the right way, without resorting to deceit, backhand deals and quid pro quos. He guided America through many complex and dangerous challenges. We in America were very fortunate to have him as our president. Truman was a great leader and McCullough’s book is a great testament to his accomplishments.

Born in Missouri a generation after it was the western frontier of the young nation, he led an emerging superpower into the atomic age at the end of the largest war in human history. Truman is all-encompassing biography of the 33rd President of the United States by one of the best biographers and historians of the past half century, David McCullough.

McCullough begins by quickly covering the lives of Truman’s grandparents and parents who relocated and lived on the frontier of Missouri beginning 40 years before his birth. McCullough then guides the reader through Truman’s childhood as his father attempt to succeed in various businesses with mild to no success while young Harry went through school and attempt to strike out on his own in nearby Kansas City until finally joining his family when they went working his maternal grandmother’s large farm that he would continue to work until he joined the Army in 1917 where he would see combat as a Captain of the artillery during the Hundred Days Offensive that led to the armistice. After the war, Truman opened a business that started well but failed during the recession of 1921 after which he turned to attention to politics and becoming a part of the Pendergast political machine. Successful in his first campaign to be a county administrative judge, he failed in reelection only to succeed in the next election to becoming the presiding judge which was a position he used to transform Jackson County with numerous public works that eventually gets him noticed by the new Roosevelt administration that eventually got him a position in the New Deal programs in Missouri. After Pendergast rejected Truman for a run for governor or Congress, he selected him a run for Senate in 1934 and Truman’s victory in the primary he was considered the Pendergast Senator not a Missourian. Through hard work during his term, Truman became a respected member of the Senate but when he went to be reelected, the Pendergast machine was in disarray due to various federal criminal trials and the Roosevelt administration didn’t support him, he was in a uphill battle. In a forerunner to his 1948 upset, Truman outworked his opponents and received support from the St. Louis political machine, which had opposed Pendergast’s Kansas City machine for decades, to a slim victory. During his second term, Truman became a national figure with his Select Committee to Investigate Defense Spending that investigated wasteful spending that saved roughly $15 billion that eventually would get him to be selected as Roosevelt’s 1944 Vice Presidential running mate that was essentially a nomination to be Roosevelt’s successor because everyone knew he would not live out his term. Truman’s nearly 8 years in office cover nearly 60% of the book that started off with his decisions and actions for the five months that dealt with challenges that no other President save Lincoln had to deal with. The challenges of a post-war America especially in the economic sphere led to a Republican takeover of Congress that many blamed Truman for, who used the loss to his advantage to stake differences between both parties that would eventually lead to his strategy for the 1948 Presidential campaign that led to him becoming President in his own right. Truman’s second term was dominated by his decision to military intervene in Korea that would lead to a confrontation with General Douglas McArthur that put civilian control of the military at stake, but also would continually lead to charges of Communist subversion of government jobs that reached a fever pitch with Joseph McCarthy. Once out of office, Truman transitioned to a regular citizen and began figuring out how to financially support his family, which eventually lead to Presidential pension laws for Truman and future holders of the office and creating the Presidential Library system that we know today. But after leaving office very unpopular, Truman’s popularity grew over the two decades of his post-Presidency so upon his death he was genuinely mourned by the public.

McCullough’s writing reads like a novel with his subject his main character and every other individual in a supporting character to reflect upon the protagonist. As I noted in my synopsis, most of the book covers Truman’s time in office that McCullough documents with detail and when doing a Presidential biography of the man who essentially had to deal with the end of the largest war in human history and the beginning of the Cold War is to be expected. With documentation of Truman’s early life not a prevalent, McCullough’s decision to turn a spotlight to his grandparents and parents at the beginning of the book and throughout Truman’s life added depth to the man and the also the area where he grew up and shaped him.

Truman brings the humble man from Missouri to life for those that have only seen him in black and white photographs and film, David McCullough’s writing hooks the reader from the beginning and makes you want to see how Harry S. Truman’s life played out in all facets.

Wow! McCullough's "Truman" is a tour de force with brilliant vibrancy that helps bring Harry Truman's character to life.

Absolutely magisterial! The definitive biography of any historical figure.

It is very hard to separate Truman the person from his biography. I find it almost impossible to criticise any aspect of the book because in my mind it is so enmeshed with the character of Harry Truman. He was a man that was self-taught who was thrown into the maelstrom of history even though he never expected nor wanted to be president. In fact his only quality when chose as vice-president was that he wasn't Henry Wallace.

He defied expectations and managed to rise to the challenge and become a great world leader at a time of great crisis. He had to make very difficult decisions, the toughest one being the dropping of the nuclear bombs on Japan. He managed to reverse some of the disastrous policies of the Roosevelt administration which appeased Stalin and he stood up to the Soviets and fought against the spread of Communism. He saved Berlin supporting the airlift, promoted the Marhsall plan to rebuild Europe, participated in the foundation of NATO and involved the US in the Korean war and saved South Korea.

Even though he was a man of his time, he was also very dedicated to civil causes and he promoted desegregation even at the risk of losing the election and the support of his party. He also tried to bring medicare to the US but did not manage to pass it through. He was an everyday man, a great autodidact who didn't go to college but read history and understood it very well. He definitely wasn't infallible and made some mistakes, for example seizing the steel mills, approving the US retreat from Korea too soon after World War II.

Without a doubt Harry Truman is one of the greatest presidents of the United States. He influenced world history in so many ways and the book does him great justice. Detractors like Oliver Stone should read this book carefully and take note. David McCullough has written the book of a lifetime and I can't wait to read more of his books, especially George Washington's biography.

Meticulous research, clear, evocative writing, and brilliant story-telling. No wonder this won a Pulitzer. Truman’s personal story is more interesting than I expected for a politician reaching the summit of political aspirations. McCullough shows us Truman’s unlikely path to authority and his personal anomalies: never went to college, fascinated with history, always guided by a strong personal code for fair dealing, honesty, and honoring obligations. But the book is so much more. It's the story of corrupt Democratic machine politics that dominated many or most American cities in the first half of the twentieth century. It’s the story of FDR, who backed Truman for reasons we can only guess, though my theory is that FDR saw Truman’s incorruptibility and Truman’s work ethic and thought he would be the best next president. It’s also the story of the atomic bomb, the Truman Plan, the hydrogen bomb, and the Marshall plan that shaped the cold war and our present world. And also the story of President Truman, planning to quash a coal-miner’s strike by drafting the miners, then disrupting a steel-workers strike by seizing steel mills. Truman may not have been the president with the biggest influence on US progress, but no president did more to restore Europe in the face of Soviet aggression. All while keeping the peace.

SECOND READING: The degree of difficulty to get five stars is considerable. I've read it before, so there's no novelty. This isn't Churchill or Kennedy with a writer's sense of exhortation to his times. The book is huge, and the hour is late, at least with any ambitions toward one's book count. Yet, by David McCullough's faithfulness, Truman's voice, Truman's very briskness comes through the whole thing. I will be visiting again.

VERY GENERAL RECOLLECTIONS OF FIRST READING: The fact that he read every book in his town's library speaks to his ability to grow where he was planted, college education or not. His ascension as a politicall late-bloomer who used his status to serve rather than pad his own ego is also inspirational -- and rare.

I originally read this book in 1997. I remember the year because Clinton's intern scandal was making the headlines and a comment Truman made about him having no respect for politicians who fooled around stood out. He felt someone with such poor character was unqualified for public office. Hey, it could be a way to shrink government!

I remember that Truman got just about all of the important decisions right, even though he was not very popular at the end of his presidency. I thought it would be worth revisiting the book and compare his performance to our current president. I found the book on audio at my local library. It was only an abridgment, but it had a couple of bonuses that make it worth listening to. First of all it is read by the author, David McCullough, who is as good a narrator as he is a writer. Second, because it is an audio book, they include many sections with recordings of Truman speaking. He even plays the piano at the end of the book.

Don't be scared away at the length of the book. Sure it may be the longest book you have ever read, but McCullough is a masterful story teller and Truman is a fascinating subject. You will be sad when you finish reading it that the experience is over. And if you just can't dive into a book of this length, the audio abridgment is a excellent substitute.