
Purchase
The American Presidents Series: The 33rd President,
Times Books
September 2008
On Sale: September 2, 2008
Featuring: Harry S. Truman
208 pages ISBN: 0805069380 EAN: 9780805069389 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Biography
The plainspoken man from Missouri who never expected to be president yet rose to become one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century In April 1945, after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the presidency fell to a former haberdasher and clubhouse politician from Independence, Missouri. Many believed he would be overmatched by the job, but Harry S. Truman would surprise them all. Few chief executives have had so lasting an impact. Truman ushered America into the nuclear age, established the alliances and principles that would define the cold war and the national security state, started the nation on the road to civil rights, and won the most dramatic election of the twentieth centuryβhis 1948 βwhistlestop campaignβ against Thomas E. Dewey. Robert Dallek, the bestselling biographer of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, shows how this unassuming yet supremely confident man rose to the occasion. Truman clashed with Southerners over civil rights, with organized labor over the right to strike, and with General Douglas MacArthur over the conduct of the Korean War. He personified Thomas Jeffersonβs observation that the presidency is a βsplendid misery,β but it was during his tenure that the United States truly came of age.
 Media BuzzLou Dobbs Tonight - October 24, 2008
|