Truman by David McCullough
1993 / 1,120 pgs. (280,000 words) Biography, Politics, and History

Truman, what an outstanding annals and page turner. Many times, I found myself wanting to continue devouring another page beyond my mandatory hour obligation. All confession, I started this novel with a skeptical mindset if I would enjoy reading a vast biography. I was very pleasantly amazed at how much I genuinely enjoyed reading Truman.
  
This biography is a telling of Harry S. Truman from the day of his birth to his death and the real impact he had on the United States. It does not start off with the simple, Harry was born on 8 May 1884. McCullough starts with events that happen to Harry’s grandfather and father which would impact Harry throughout his life. The author builds a narrative that shows how actions of those, that even before you were born, could have a profound effect on our lives even almost a hundred years after the fact.

McCollough then builds from Harry growing dealing with having to wear glasses to wanting to attend West Point. Showing how Truman’s love of history and reading and how that would influence and even impact decisions and relations with political leaders during his presidency.

The underlying narrative with Truman which is well known today is how everything for Truman came later in his life than what normal people would expect with life experiences. For example, he went to fight in France during World War I as a Captain at the age of 33. Most of those under his command were between the ages of 18-23. Harry Truman was also the only President that deployed to France and served in combat in the first world war. He did not marry his love of his life, Bess Truman until he was 35 years old. 

There are many details of Truman’s time as a Presiding Judge, his relationship with the political influential family Pendergast. The same family that eventually helped Truman become Senator which, after his election, Senator Truman started the Truman Commission that monitored spending and corruption with New Deal Programs. Finally, how and why Truman became Vice President knowing that he would have to take over for Roosevelt because many, including Roosevelt himself, knew that the President wouldn’t live through his fourth term.

Naturally, I can expound more, this is a massive and detailed biography, however, I’ll give some of the juicy tales that I really enjoyed and showed the true Harry Truman like we’ve never knew before.  Harry wrote to Bess everyday and in one of his letters, while he was President, he called Bess his “Juno, Venus, Minerva, and Proserpina.” I’m not trained in the classics and had to look up Proserpina and it was a perfect name for Bess.

As an airman, we’ve also loved the fact that Truman signed the National Defense Act of 1947 that among its many actions created the United States Air Force.  He signed in on board “The Sacred Cow”, the presidential aircraft.  However, why he signed it on the plane is never explained. He was on the plane to fly home to see his dying mother and delayed the plane for an hour so he could sign the legislation. Once it was brought to him, he signed it on the plane and flew home, however, sadly, his mother died before he arrived in Missouri.  

This biography won David McCollough the Pulitzer Prize. He also received the Pulitzer for another biography, John Adams. I would absolutely recommend Truman. This is a masterpiece 

Enjoy a good cup of coffee and a delightful book!

Lopaka