This is a lovely, lovely book, beautifully researched, beautifully written and filled with superb details. Capitalizing on the strengths of great fiction—powerful, unforgettable characters, a riveting story line, fully-realized settings and eternal, compelling themes—this is popular narrative history at its absolute best.

The subject is President Truman's very consequential first four months in office. While not a full-fledged biography of HST there are strong biographical elements and a great stress of 'character'—not just the man's personal integrity and tenacity but his full, rounded character. His entire story is a fascinating one, as David McCullough has made clear, but here we see him under extreme pressure, as if the skies have opened and the weight of the universe has fallen across his shoulders. It is one thing to follow a popular and accomplished president, quite another to both end a great war and seek a peace under the most difficult of circumstances. Add to this the need to negotiate with the likes of Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill and make the decision as to the use of nuclear weapons.

Baime makes the point time and again that HST possessed two crucial characteristics: the ability to make hard decisions crisply and expeditiously and the possession of titanic integrity. While the author does not make the point here, I have always remembered HST's refusal to benefit financially from the presidency after he left office, declaring, with finality, that the presidency was not for sale. As we are reminded that HST cheated on his eye test to be able to fight in WWI and that he commanded an artillery battery in the Argonne and suffered no casualties (except for horses) I was reminded why he is now ranked toward the middle of our top ten presidents.

Without descending into the sentimental or the hyperbolic the author tells HST's story straightforwardly; the only problem is that that straightforward story forced this reader, at least, to read much of the book with moist eyes.

Every American should read this book and see how a modest man who had often struggled in his life ascended one of history's greatest stages and taught us all the nature of real leadership, real courage and real accomplishment.

I would have awarded even more stars if it was possible to do so.

N.B.: the author's book on the 1948 election is coming on July 7, 2020.

Brand	N/A
Rating	4.7 (10201 ratings)
Price	$18.7
Category	Asia

The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World