Customer Reviews

Truman

5 star:		(152)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Well researched and very readable, McCullough has produced the best biography of Truman yet published. McCullough's narrative is rarely critical of Truman's actions, but he's such a great story teller that you hardly notice. For readable biographies, this book is second only to Robert K. Massie's "Peter the Great."

Perhaps my view of the man has been contaminated by that of my Grandmother. She hated Truman. Really hated him. Thought he had no class. George Washington, Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt were her kind of people. Truman? A shabby haberdasher in everything he did. She would like David McCullough all right, but not his judgement.

Well, what about it? Was the old girl wrong? After reading this I'm not convinced she was. Sure, she was being superficial. But isn't a President's manner important? What about that rediculous(shabby) note of pretentious moralism that Truman scribbled to Eisenhower, the "Republican" presidential candidate? What about his acrimonious speech-making? And his hot-headed threat to punch that critic who had the good judgement (most likely) to call his daughter's musical talents into question? I suppose this is all way too superficial...but there is something "off" about the Truman cult. Does this guy really belong up there with Washington, Lincoln and TR?

This book could have benefited from the hand of an editor determined to cut out some of the slower moving passages. I skipped paragraphs and sometimes pages without finding I'd missed anything of consequence when I went back to see if I was being too harsh. Over all it is a good read but probably should have been a 750 page book instead of a thousand. It also tends to defend most of Truman's actions while criticizing those of opposite viewpoints. Truman's devotion to the political machine in his home state begs for more in depth analysis than the author gives it. All in all I reccommend this book but also suggest that other authors be read before forming a definitive conclusion on this complex and interesting person.

This is an excellent biography. It takes the reader from Truman's boyhood, through his presidency and back home to Missouri. I could not help but feel for him in his dark moments and rejoice in his triumphs.

McCullough shows how a seemingly ordinary man achieved extraordianry things, with one event after another flowing by, carefully cross-referenced. Nowadays it is fashionable to regard Andrew Jackson as an extraordinary hero, but in his time Jackson was seen as a rather basic and plain-spoken antidote to his patrician Presidential predecessors. Yet after reading McCullough's book one is left to wonder whether Truman's extraodinary career is because, rather than possessing extraodinarily heroic qualities, he simply turned out to be the right American in the right place at the right time, a key maybe to the American secret?

I had hoped to read more of his relationship with Pendergast, particularly about Truman's unprecedented attendance, as Vice-President, at Pendergast's funeral, and the great controversy it aroused. (Maybe one day someone, probably not McCullough, will try to write a book about Truman as Vice-President?)

Truman's nuanced relationship with General Marshall is especially well covered in McCullough's book, with the mindset and background to Truman's recognition of the State of Israel being described in great detail, but also with Marshall's considered viewpoint being well described, and in such a way as not to demonize either man, as some writers are wont to do, depending on their views.

Maybe the most extraordinary of Truman's achievements was to be the only leader thus far in history to 'press the nuclear button' in war, and make America look moral and virtuous in the aftermath. Only Nixon could have gone to China, only Truman could make nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki look beneficial to humanity, and McCullough does successfully bring out the persuasive and infectiously optimistic side to Truman's character, and the backgound to the fateful arming of Enola Gay.

In a day when some of the perceived shortcomings of the United Nations are carefully scrutinized, it is not without relevance to allude to Truman's sunny optimism and patronage of the UN's beginnings at the San Francisco Conference: maybe Truman's relationship to the UN could have been covered in greater depth also in McCullough's book, since it is one of his Presidency's far-reaching legacies.

I don't see how anyone could not enjoy this book. Looking at the history unfolding under Truman, in human cost and in its far reaching consequences, one may feel that our current preoccupations are pretty mundane.

This is a masterpiece of history-telling that should be part of anyone interested in American history.

I first read this book in 1992 when it was released. I've read it over several times since and each time I enjoy it just as much as the first. What a great person and what a remarkable life! This is one book that I can't possibly say enough about. IT'S OUTSTANDING!! Mr. McCullough obviously admires his subject, but he is objective and shows Mr. Truman warts and all. He had very few warts however. BUY IT and READ IT as soon as you can. You won't regret the time spent.

I admired the book for talking about Truman's friendship with Eddie Jacobson. He and Eddie were business partners in the 1920's and Eddie (a Jewish man) later influenced Truman to help found the modern state of Israel. I am still disappointd as I am also searching for talk about (probably) Truman's other mostly unsung achievement-the firing of Churchill and the birth of modern India and Pakistan. Sadly the book offers nothing about that aspect of Truman's career.

I decided to read this book for two reasons. First, I was/am an avid supporter of Howard Dean, and he often cites Truman as his favorite president, and knowing so little about Truman, I was curious why. Second, practically the only thing I did know about Truman was that he made the decision to use the Bomb, and I was extremely interested in what sort of man it takes to make such a decision.

The book is 992 pages long - daunting to someone whose only other 500+ page read had been Lord of the Rings.

But I found each page interesting and riveting. Never did I find it slow or dull. I had no idea how much impact the Truman administration had on the country and the world. Not only the Bomb, but the start of the Cold War, the Korean War, the first push by a President for universal health care, the first push by a President for equal civil rights. Truman, an ordinary farmer from western Missouri, is the absolute example of the American dream.

The book also answered both of my questions. The similarities in Truman's approach to politics and his agenda with Howard Dean's campaign for the presidential nomination are uncanny. And, to my surprise, Truman was not at all the sort of man I imagined making the decision to obliterate Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I feel like I've learned more from this one book than I learned in 17 years of schooling.

David McCullough is one of the best biographers I have ever read. This, along with McCullough's more recent book on John Adams, is one of the best books I have ever read. After reading this, you feel as though you truly know Truman. The greatness and the faults of the man come shining through.