Truman

New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. 20th Printing [stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. 1117, [3] pages, illustrations, source notes, bibliography, index. Slight cover wear. Inscribed and signed by the author. Inscription reads: For Tom. This book has been cleared for good Republicans! David McCullough, 1993. David Gaub McCullough (born July 7, 1933) is an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award. McCullough earned a degree from Yale University. His first book was The Johnstown Flood (1968); and he has since written nine more on such topics as Harry S. Truman, John Adams, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Wright brothers. McCullough hosted American Experience for twelve years. McCullough's two Pulitzer Prize-winning books, Truman and John Adams, have been adapted by HBO into a TV film and a miniseries, respectively. A monumental biography of an extraordinary president, Harry Truman--the man who brought the country solidly into the 20th century. Drawing from archival materials and extensive interviews, McCullough chronicles Truman's life, but it is Truman's emergence as a decisive and confident president that forms the heart of this book. Derived from a Kirkus review: A gargantuan but surprisingly agile and spellbinding biography of the plain-speaking, plain-dealing Man from Missouri. As depicted by McCullough, Truman, though the first President of the nuclear era, was fundamentally a throwback to 19th-century midwestern ideals of honesty. The pre-Presidential Truman most impresses McCullough as a battler against overwhelming odds: the failed farmer and haberdasher; the WW I captain who kept his unit together under deadly fire; and the scorned product of the Kansas City machine who won Senate colleagues' respect by chairing an investigation into WW II defense spending and winning a ferocious primary contest. The narrative proceeds with whirlwind force, following Truman from his assumption of the Presidency upon FDR's death, through the decisions to drop the atomic bomb; confront Stalin at Potsdam; send troops to Korea, and fire MacArthur. The book's main event is the legendary "Whistle-Stop Campaign" of 1948, when Truman pulled off the political upset of the century. McCullough weaves his spell, convincingly limning a politician who didn't lie, steal, pay attention to pollsters or pundits, or quail in the face of diplomatic or political combat. Truman apparently really was, as his Secretary of State Dean Acheson said, the "captain with the mighty heart." Rich in detail, enthralling, and moving: a classic Presidential biography.