Harry S. Truman: The American Presidents Series: The 33rd President, 1945-1953 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780805069389)

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 century--his 1948 whistlestop campaign 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 Jefferson's observation that the presidency is a splendid misery, but it was during his tenure that the United States truly came of age.

Author: Robert Dallek
ISBN-10: 0805069380
ISBN-13: 9780805069389
Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
Language: English
Published: 09/02/2008
Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.70h x 5.70w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/30/2008 pg. 171
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2008 pg. 684
Booklist 08/01/2008