I finished Truman!! It took me a month, but at 992 pages of text and over 120 pages of notes I think I did well.

This is another 5 star book from one of my favorite authors. It ranks up there with his book John Adams, and I can certainly understand why it received the Pulitzer Prize.

The book covers an astonishing array of subjects, Truman's heritage and childhood, his work as a farmer, his shaky rise as a senator and vice president, his astonishing first days as president, the atom bomb, dealings with Stalin and Churchill, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall plan, the establishment of Israel, the rise of the Cold War and communism, Korea, firing MacArthur, assassination attempt against his life, rebuilding the White House, and his absolute commitment to his wife and daughter.

The book has a positive look at the president, but McCullough does also bring up the scandals in the administration. If you didn't like Truman before reading the book, you will after you read it! His energy and hard work, his strength of character, his decisiveness, his love for his wife, mother, and daughter will impress you. You may disagree with his policies and decisions, but you will understand the man like never before. Recommended.

I am 65 years old. I have spent my whole life thinking that politics was stupid and not worth knowing anything about; that even in a democracy, politics and therefore government offered no solution to the troubles of mankind. Now I have to eat at least some of my words and admit that as an American it is important for me to have a glimmering of how politics works. That is what reading this endless biography about Truman did for me.

I read it, in part, as research for my memoir. Harry S Truman was President the year I was born. I was inspired to read it because of a blog I discovered some months ago: At Times Dull.(http://attimesdull.blogspot.com) "In which Janet reads a biography of each American President in chronological order, learning things about America, its presidents, and the fact that the phrase 'at times dull' finds its way into every review of every presidential biography ever written."

Janet has apparently had to turn her attention to making a living (she is a staff writer for The Millions.) She got as far as Abraham Lincoln and has not posted on her blog for several months. But her proposed reading list includes McCullough's biography of Truman. It was at many times dull.

Ever since I was a hippie and took a firm position as anti-war, I figured I had to hate Harry S Truman because it was his decision which unleashed two atomic bombs upon the world. Now my eyes have been pried open as to what factors lay behind that decision. Two realizations followed:

1) Truman inherited WWII in much the same way that Obama inherited a decimated economy and the War on Terror. When things get that screwed up, the options shrink in terms of making decisions.

2) Truman, at least as presented by McCullough, was one of the more qualified presidents we have had due to a large amount of sheer nerve and having an unshakable moral compass.

So I'm glad I read it, glad I persisted all the way to the end. I know there is always more to learn but it makes me happy when I actually do learn new things.

I still hold most of the views I've held but without a deeper understanding of how the world actually works, those views are just pipe dreams. I would not ever want to work in politics or be the President of the United States, but I am now more interested in being involved in determining the presidents we get. (Yes, I voted!)

For a 992 page piece of nonfiction, there are times when this biography reads like a page turner. Because the late forties, early fifties is a time period all but ignored in most public school History classes I was ignorant of many aspects of the Truman presidency, and certainly about his life in general. This tome has cleared up that problem for me!
McCullough is obviously a good writer and researcher, one cannot dispute those facts. He is also clearly enamored of his subject, and at times this makes him less critical then perhaps the situation warrants. But the moments where the author's bias detracts from the text are very few and far between. McCullough certainly does not shy away from some of the less desirable aspects of Truman's (and his associates') characters. Thus, that criticism of this text is unfair.
The first 200 or so pages are the least interesting of the text, but that is mainly because they are about Truman's uninspired and uninteresting first 30 years of life. Harry S. Truman was a late bloomer! Then the text picks up as Truman starts a family and embarks on a political career. When he is nominated for vice president, the book kicks into high gear. The years of the Truman presidency were some of the most important in the twentieth century and McCullough gives great attention to events such as the conference at Potsdam, dropping the atomic bombs, the Marshall Plan, the beginnings of the Cold War, Truman's exciting reelection, etc.
Yet another strength of the text is the cast of characters assembled around Truman. McCullough fleshes out their personalities and lives and at times I felt I was as immersed as Truman must have been in his own life. Names from history books now have personalities and other aspects of humanity attached to them, and thus History takes on a whole new dimension.
It is rare that I will sit and read a work of nonfiction for uninterrupted hours at a time, but I found myself doing this numerous times with this text. McCullough knows, and proves, that History at its best is very exciting. This is a biography worthy of its subject. Truman's life incorporated period of immense change in the world (think about what happened from 1884-1972) and this text does an admirable job of catching the spirit and consequences of that rapidly evolving time.
Highly recommended!

Audible credit 54 hours 17 min. Narrated by Nelson Runger (A)

Review:
I was born in 1947, lived outside D.C, and my mother was an avid follower of the news (Chet Huntley and David Brinkly, Walter Cronkite) and the first president I remember is Dwight D. Eisenhower. As Republicans my parents probably voted for him. Before reading this biography, I had a vague negative opinion of Harry Truman perhaps because of his swearing. I still do not approve of cursing, but my opinion of Truman has improved 90 percent.
He wasn't a perfect man but who among us is? He is the prime example of how a common man without even a college degree could become the leader of the Free World and do a good job. Truman knew his greatest asset was his ability to make friends with men who had the experience he lacked. He was beloved by the the White House staff and his secret service agents "the little people." Friends from his childhood stood willingly behind him even during the darkest, most trying times, not because because was president but because he was Harry Truman, the friend. I loved the letters from Harry Truman to his mother, sister, cousin, daughter and especially his wife. These gave more real introspection of the man he was.

This is such a great biography! I only regret that it wasn't until last year that I discovered David McCullough. I have been working my way through his works starting with John Adams in 2021.

I love ice cream, and I admit I'm a snob. I'd rather have a pint of a quality product than a quart of lesser quality. As the end of Harry Truman's life was approaching, I felt like I was scraping the bottom of the container of my favorite mint chocolate chip. It was so delicious that I was sad to see it end!

For a truly remarkable review of this book read the one written by Stefania D from April, 2021. She's written a brilliant review!






Personal notes only I use a tablet for GR and don't have the luxury of saving a file.

My introduction to two great "wise men" Henry L. Stimson and Clark Clifford, each deserving of their own biographies.
George C. Marshall. David Lillianthal (TVA, civilin head of AEC) James Forrestal ( super carrier fire Vietnam Nam 1st Sec. Depart. of Defense), Dean Atcheson, Charlie Ross
Cincinatus the mythical hero championed by Geo. Washington also admired by HST.
HST knew that the alure of power was addictive like gambling and drinking.
Cutting the fat from the defense dept spending ultimately cut muscle and bone ultimately Truman's responsibility. HST ignored the advice of Forrestal at drastic drawdown after WW2.
Responsible for organizing the Berlin Airlift and the recognition of Israel as a country.
First president since Lincoln to back civil rights for blacks. Ordered integragration of the military and federal civil service jobs.
Douglas MacArthur prima dona Korea came as complete surprise Truman has no reservations about fighting in Korea but his greatest fear was of it becoming 3rd WW against Communists. He resisted using nuclear weapons.The war dragged on for years despite Ts best efforts to to arrive at an honorable peace. This peace did not come until the death of Stalin and that during Ike's first term.
Joe McCarthy's baseless hectoring and vile accusations of Communist agenda against the President, Dean Acheson ,and especially George Marshall.
The sudden loss of his boyhood friend Charles Ellis who had become his White House press secretary and advisor deeply affected him during his presidency as did the sudden death of his only close male friend Dean Acheson at the end of his life. HST took friendship seriously.
HT was never financially secure enough to even own his own home. When he and Bess were married, Truman moved into his mother-in-law's house where the couple continued to live throughout his career and until his death.When they first went to Washington, D.C. after his election as senator, they were forced to move five times trying to find a place they could afford. When he suddenly became president, they moved into the Blair house until Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry Hopkin's and others could vacate the White House. When they did move into the White House, it was in such poor condition, it was not only embarrassing it was dangerous. The floor was actually unsafe giving way underneath weight of the president's bathroom and his daughter's piano. They were forced to move back to the Blair House where they lived throughout most of the renovation but moved back into "the tax payers house", Truman felt deeply about maintaining original integriy and faithful restoration after the interior demolition. Three years four months later President and Mrs.Truman were able to move back into the most famous American house and HST pronounced it "lovely."
April 12, 1950 he wrote a letter refusing to run for presidency in 1952 and filed it away, and brought out to deliver two years later.
HST recognized leadership skills of D.D.E during WW2 and even offered to support him as Democrat for president. When DDE finally ran as a Republican, he snubbed HST even to to point of ignoring him in person. HST felt this personally because had held Ike in such high regard. After Ike was elected, HST offered to have Ike into his office to help bring Ike up-to-date and to help with a smooth transition of power, Ike refused his help. Ike even refused a dinner at the WH, and on the morning of inauguration even refused to come in for coffee though they were riding together. Ike was completely caught off guard to see his son who was stationed in Korea waiting at the inauguration. One of Truman's last acts as president had been to assure that Ike's son be released temporarily from his duties in Korea and flown to DC to see his father take the oath of office. Truman did what he thought was right and honorable without making it known to either man.
HST left for MO without a pension money he had saved from his salary as P invested in government bonds, no offers for a real job. He had to get a small loan from a DC bank to tide them over until he could "make do". He refused to peddle his position as President to be used in any way for financial gain.
Truman was devastated by the assassination of John F. Kennedy for whom he taken a great liking despite the fact that he hated John's father. He and Bess had even had dinner at the White House with President and Mrs. Kennedy. It brought back the unsuccessful attack on his own life years ago.
One his greatest joys was to become grandfather to four boys and he delighted in introducing them to his little WH in the FL Keys.
HST worked tirelessly to raise funds for his presidential library in his hometown of Independence, Missouri. His presence there and interaction with the visitors bought joy to the final years of his life. Great story of the painting of the mural.
Sorry to have to use Goodreads as a record of some of the highlights I have learned.

Can't say much that hasn't already been said - but you can't help but finish reading this book and not have a love of Harry Truman the man. I find myself gravitating these years towards biographies of men and women who had strong moral character and who always did what they thought was right even in the face of public opposition. Truman fits this mold and I can't help but be inspired by his example.

I actually put this book down for months about halfway through, even though it made me respect Truman a lot more than I did before. Why didn't I race through it? You see, I had been recommended this book after reading Robert Caro's superlative The Years of Lyndon Johnson series, my current gold standard for biographies. Truman was a walk-on character in Caro's books but he seemed like an interesting guy, and David McCullough, who is a fairly well-known historian (the recent John Adams miniseries was an adaption of one of his many award-speckled works), won a Pulitzer in 1993 for this thousand-page epic. While it was a fairly impressive biography, I have a few nits to pick. Firstly, it skips over a lot of context that would really enrich the book, like more details of the fight over Truman's attempts to introduce national health insurance. Given that this defeat is still having tectonic effects on American politics, its relative neglect was unforgivable, and there were a few other points where I felt that McCullough was passing up the big picture. Secondly, at the same time it's chock full of minutiae that feel pointless, like McCullough is just tossing in diary entries for the heck of it. Obviously he's too talented of a historian to do that so maybe it's just me, but see for yourself. Thirdly, McCullough is extremely interested in the personal habits of a guy who, in my honest opinion, is just not that interesting. I came away thinking Truman was an upstanding guy and a good President, but he doesn't exactly leap off the page. Fourthly, McCullough tosses in just a bit too much of that eye-rolling stuff about how Midwesterners and their homespun small-town Missouri heartland values just can't cotton to those snake-eyed Yankee city boys from back East and blah blah blah. I can't stand that shit, even if apparently that's what Truman was actually like. So I found it simultaneously too brief and too bloated, without the soaring epochal arcs I had hoped for. But it was pretty good overall, and it was certainly faithful to its underrated subject.

What a ride (a 55+ hour one to be precise, for those of you who are listening to this as an audiobook, as I did). Truman's life and presidency span what I think of in my made-up historical heuristics as "the olden times" to modernity (e.g. hey, my parents were alive for that!). From his bespectacled adventures in WWI to his early decisions re. Vietnam, the biography of Harry S (stands-for-nothing) Truman was a fascinating window into the makings of modern America.

As I've been concurrently reading Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power, I was particularly impressed with Truman's willingness to surround himself with and listen to the experts in his cabinet (spoiler alert: Nixon is kind of self-conscious when it comes to being the smartest guy in the room). This was all the more important given how naïve Truman could seem at times (e.g. his sweeping statements re. Hitler's suicide being the result of "reaching too far for too much").

The book itself is fantastic and epic (and I'm certainly not qualified to write a review of Truman's presidency). While Truman will never be my favorite HST (Dr. Gonzo Hunter S. Thompson will forever hold that place in my heart), I certainly have a new found appreciation for his unimaginably trying presidency and his quirky, uniquely human life.

I really wanted to like this but found it very difficult to complete. Truman was a fine man, a President with morals and ethics who saw his role as serving the people who elected him. McCullogh is meticulous in his detail and in his documentation. My issue was the style of writing. I just could not stay engaged and found myself skipping forward. For me, that is always a bad sign.

This biography was amazing. I enjoyed every minute of it (and there are a LOT of minutes in this audiobook).

McCullough has a real gift for making the reader understand the subject of his books, and while not necessarily agreeing with them, I can see why the people acted the way they did.

I didn't realize that Truman lived as long as he did. Had he hung on one more year, he and I would have overlapped :)

McCullough tackles a political biography sure to reveal much to the reader. For many, Harry Truman is “the president who dropped the bomb” and little else. Any reader who takes the time to digest all that is on offer (a great feat for those who first look at the length of the tome) will soon learn that Truman is much more complex than first presumed. McCullough chooses key moments in Truman’s life and expounds on them, one building off the other, leading to a better understanding of why Truman chose to do some of the more controversial things during his almost 8 years in the White House. While extremely detailed at times, McCullough treats the reader to much of the intricate details of the time and brings some of these ‘one-liners’ in the history books to life with exciting narration and key documents/quotes.

The early chapters of the book, understandably, discuss his life on a Missouri farm, his interactions with family a friends, and his plan to coax Elizabeth Wallace to marry him, that fine day he first saw her at Sunday School. When the US goes into The Great War, Truman, already enlisted, heads off to Europe and McCullough documents his perils and successes, as he rises, briefly, in the military before its end in 1918. Returning to America, Truman tries his hand at being a businessman before eventually making strong roots in the state Democratic Party and becoming a presiding judge.

McCullough gives much attention to Truman’s various roles on the national political scene. As Chair of a committee to examine American military spending during the war, he is catapulted from unknown junior senator to a Democratic up-and-comer. Still little known, even within his Party, in 1944, Truman becomes an unexpected potential contender for the vice-presidential role on the ’44 ticket, with McCullough detailing all the intricacies along the way. A mere 82 days as second in command, FDR’s eventual death thrust Truman into the spotlight, a place he was truly not expecting to be. McCullough pulls on much data and history to forge the Truman relationships with Churchill and Truman at Potsdam. While warming immediately to the British Prime Minister, Truman sees Stalin for the man he is, a power-hungry despot with a perverted communistic outlook. This sentiment is mirrored back in America, as the world watches the three superpowers kick the tires of a defeated Europe. McCullough peppers description of Potsdam with the need to decide on the A-bomb (remember, all this before Truman has had six months at the helm) in such a way that the intensity of both events take an immediate and intense toll on the man.

McCullough’s underlying argument, that there is more to the man than a simple smile, comes through in spades as the world moves forward, sitting on the precipice of a Third World War, the COLD WAR. This term, dismissed by Truman, pervades the rest of his time in office and Stalin remains persona non grata numero uno throughout. Still, there is much more to be done as both superpowers toss insults and military hurdles at one another. McCullough uses his strong storytelling abilities to lay out much of Truman’s domestic, as well as international, policy. Detailed struggles with labour in a post-war America pits Truman against large swaths of the left, alienating some key Democratic support and devastates the party at the 1946 mid-term elections. Facing two Houses in opposition, Truman must push a strong program with strong international flavour to ensure legislative passage. Both the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan come from this highly divisive political period, which paves the way for the 1948 Campaign.

McCullough saves the best research and description for this campaign. Truman has alienated the Party, creating the need for the Dixiecrats, and an apparent sure Republican victory with Thomas Dewey. Minute shifts during the campaign make for sensational reading as the reader absorbs all there is on offer. Interestingly enough, no one (press or public alike) gave Truman a chance in '48, leading to an explosive election-night turnaround.

McCullough posits fleshing out a name for Truman’s middle initial, ‘S’. At times a strong statesman, Truman carries a torch towards the creation of the State of Israel, highly controversial at the time, both domestically and on the international scene. Alternately, Truman is a simpleton, much less a politician and more a family man who finds himself in a position of great power. Through his numerous letters to family and friends McCullough shows that Truman never forgets those who helped shape him, finding great insights in these letters not well documented in the history books. Personal opinions of other world leaders, fellow members of Congress, and thoughts about the world around him, Truman’s inner self comes to the surface. He does not have that typical thirst for power of desire to cut throats to achieve victory.

McCullough goes so far as to present Truman as one who does not see anyone wanting to be president. Worried more about America than his own political success, Truman breaks free from the preconceived notions of president. He seems to ignore the larger political picture, choosing instead to promote Civil Rights, while his party turns on him for such radical ideas.
In the latter part of the book, McCullough devotes much time to the Cold War world in which Truman finds himself. At the helm during the creation of NATO and the UN, Truman uses these bodies to bolster his 'protection of Europe and capitalist values'. When the Korean War emerges out of this ideological tug-of-war, McCullough offers detailed accounts of the fighting and the toll it takes on Truman back in the US. His health takes a hit, as does his personal judgment. A need to 'clean house', both in Korea (with the firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur for speaking out against the Administration) and at home (with cabinet posts and the literal renovation of the White House) leave Truman spiraling downward towards the end of his term in office. That said, an attempted assassination cannot derail his plans to ensure that the Democrats retain the White House, fighting against the greatest hero of the day, Dwight Eisenhower.

The story does not end on January 20th, 1953. McCullough dedicates the last part of the book to the post-POTUS Truman and all that came with it. Truman did not enter the White House a wealthy man, nor was he upon his exit. Looking at life after the spotlight does offer a sobering view of the man and how he coped with being a regular US citizen again. Wonderfully juxtaposed with his lengthy rise to power in the centre portion of the book, McCullough returns to his tenet that Truman is the everyday man President.

Kudos, Mr. McCullough for such a thorough and entertaining political biography. I took so much away and was enthralled from beginning to end about the man ‘who dropped the Bomb’. I can only hope that some of your other work is just as intricate and that I can praise it as highly. Highly recommended for any passionate history buff who wants their eyes opened as much as Robert A. Caro does in his LBJ biography.

A very detailed bio of President Harry Truman. It got a little long for me at times but I learned a lot about the times and about Truman as a person and as president. I was surprised that he was quite prejudiced in his younger days and said things that would be considered not politically correct but later learned to be a president for all people. He also had his share of scandal, which surprised me as I didnt think Harry had any scandals.

David McCullough does a masterful rendition of the life and times of Truman. These were very spirited times with many colorful charictors such as Truman, Stallin and the like. He covers the attack of Japan to the cold war to the Corrian war. I recommend this who are interested in this portion of American history.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond