Frank gives us this ebullient, bookish, often cantankerous man in full... Frank does not so much puncture the Truman myth as let out just enough air to settle the man back to earth.” —The New York Times (Editors' Choice)
“....thoughtfully explores the unlikely triumph of one of the nation’s most consequential presidencies. Frank’s prowess as a storyteller brings to life the major episodes of Truman’s tenure while drawing an intimate portrait of his internal struggles as he clashed with foreign and domestic rivals and led a group of heavyweights that came to establish a winning blueprint for the Cold War.” —The Washington Post
"[Frank’s] revisionism is meant to illuminate, not debunk; he believes that a more realistic account of Truman’s limits will lead to a deeper appreciation of his greatness. .... With a new kind of Cold War heating up and the foibles of our chief executives an ever more intense matter of scrutiny and concern, [the] book is timely in ways he couldn’t have imagined when he started it. ... rigorously researched, thought-provoking and, not least, a pleasure to read." – Frank Gannon, The Wall Street Journal
"Frank is a brave writer for having taken on a subject that historian David McCullough had handled so exhaustively in Truman, his 1992 Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of the 33rd president. So it is a pleasure to report that Frank’s courage is to be applauded, since he has written a remarkably engaging narrative of what Harry Truman was like as president and the challenges he faced. Truman had a more eventful presidency than most occupants of the Oval Office have had, and Frank views the man and his virtues and flaws with an acute empathy that never slips into sugary sentimentality. Nothing tested Truman as much as the Korean War did, and what Dwight Eisenhower, his successor, wrote at the time bears a sobering truth: 'If his wisdom could only equal his good intent!!” — Air Mail
"Movingly depicted... Frank has made a case for a man who, when given the responsibility of the entire country, was able to thread many needles, based on personal confidence, trust in the right people, and healthy relationships with family and friends." —The Los Angeles Review of Books
"Frank is drawn to the human side of this story: the backroom sniping, the jockeying for position, the personality clashes, and the diplomatic pageantry that produced the postwar world order.... [He] recognizes a precious gift to the biographer: a subject who, miraculously and generously, takes the time to write down his innermost feelings and thoughts... For all the things that happened during Truman’s Presidency, Frank argues, the events that were averted deserve to be part of the historical discussion, too. Above all, the world did not descend into a nuclear-armed Third World War, a prospect that loomed over every minute of Truman’s Presidency and pervades every page of Frank’s book." — Beverly Gage, The New Yorker
"Truman made his mark not just in the organization-building... that helped transform the global order. He also broke political norms. Where and why he did is worth revisiting during a post-Trump period when Americans are reexamining the guardrails meant to guide public life and presidential power—and when the future of the country’s political parties seems more fraught than ever." — John Dickerson, The Atlantic
" Just terrific—with a perfect tone, and a perfect understanding of Truman's strengths and shortcomings. Frank has managed this with emphases on sociology, culture, and a profound and deep understanding of the human struggle.” – Bob Woodward
"Frank’s talent as a novelist is on display here. With this refreshing and much needed reexamination of Truman's life, Frank establishes himself as a source of value to any reader interested in mid-twentieth century America." —Richard Lawrence Miller, author of Truman: The Rise to Power and Lincoln and His World
“A remarkable window into America's great Cold War president. Because Frank is such a sublime writer, his heroic recounting of the Truman presidency is dazzling. This is intellectual biography at its absolute finest." — Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University and author of American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race
“Frank’s lively account of Truman’s time in office evokes a pivotal time with vivid, carefully-gleaned detail. And it’s an appropriate book for this political moment, when a lot of us are hoping that an ordinary man will turn out to be an extraordinary president.” —Adam Hochschild, author of ten books, including Rebel Cinderella
"A fresh, deeply human perspective... Frank’s sensitive, empathetic portrait gave me a new appreciation for this innately decent, caring man, who, for all his stumbles, was committed to making a better world for those who lived in it."— Lynne Olson, New York Times bestselling author of Citizens of London and Madame Fourcade's Secret War
"Pitch-perfect.... clear-eyed, wise, and compassionate—in a word, humane. Jeffrey Frank’s lovely book lets us see up close how Harry Truman’s decisions, sometimes considered, sometimes not, laid the foundation for the kind of world power the United States is today." —Louis Menand, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Free World and The Metaphysical Club
"Massively researched, engagingly written... An intimate, revealing history of a time, and of a president, whose straightforward persona masked a more complicated, sometimes tortured man during a truly extraordinary period.” — Robert L. Messer, author of The End of an Alliance: James F. Byrnes, Roosevelt, Truman and the Origins of the Cold War
“An intimate, vivid portrait of our 33rd president and his times.... a chance to rediscover one of the most improbable and compelling figures in American history.” — Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Liberation Trilogy and The British Are Coming.
12/20/2021
The quintessential Middle American rose to the occasion in wrestling with issues of vast international import, according to this shrewd presidential history. New Yorker contributor Frank (Ike and Dick) recaps Harry Truman’s eventful seven years in office, during which he approved the atomic bombing of Japan, weathered the hottest stretch of the Cold War, and launched a key civil rights initiative by desegregating the armed forces. Frank’s Truman is sensible, determined, and decisive, but impulsive (he sent a letter threatening to rearrange the nose of a music critic who panned daughter Margaret’s opera recital); able to hold his own with Churchill and Stalin, but too deferential to his advisers and the military brass. (Truman’s greatest mistake, Frank argues, was allowing Gen. Douglas MacArthur leeway to invade North Korea, which brought China into that war.) Frank astutely analyzes the geopolitics Truman confronted while conveying his character in elegant, evocative prose: “He walked with a rapid, soldierly gait, eyes straight ahead, often smiling, managing to exude confidence despite what a top aide called a ‘wholesome sense of inadequacy.’ ” The result is a discerning portrait of a president who achieved a lot just by muddling through. Photos. Agent: Tina Bennett, Bennett Literary. (Mar.)
01/01/2022
Frank (novelist and former editor at The New Yorker and the Washington Post) crafts an expansive, appreciative review of a consequential, yet once-underestimated president who arguably grew into the job he unexpectedly assumed. Frank argues that Harry Truman (1884–1972) revealed himself to be contradictory, yet largely decisive and direct in addressing challenges that both he and the United States faced. These included: the use of atomic weapons and power; civil rights; recognition of Israel; maintaining the military at a "ready" state during the Cold War; and determining the extent of domestic subversion and methods to mollify both business and labor. Written in a conversational style, this book sees Frank seasoning his workmanlike narrative with a surfeit of side notes, making the non-specialist reader want to engage in purposeful browsing. Although he uses archival records himself, Frank dutifully cites abundant secondary works. It is helpful that the book references Truman's statesmen-advisors (as well as his home-state cronies), but somewhat distracting that it also details men's clothing, physical characteristics, and demeanors. VERDICT This biography is an accurate, synthetic account which readers will want to compare with David McCullough's Truman (1993), which Frank highly praises.—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.
Fred Sanders narrates this absorbing biography with the reverence and vocal charm it deserves. Listeners can relax as they take in the mid-century president’s life and times because Sanders is a nuanced interpreter with a wonderful pitch and phrasing palette. Truman was a complicated man. As vice president, he let his homespun manner take a back seat to Roosevelt’s outsized charisma, and as president, he revealed a fascinating mix of wisdom and naïveté during turbulent times. The self-educated Missouri farm boy also had a knack for communicating with ordinary people, which helped his reputation survive tests of his authority and competence. Fred Sanders’s performance makes this a most enjoyable way to learn about Truman and the critical challenges our country faced during his presidency. T.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Fred Sanders narrates this absorbing biography with the reverence and vocal charm it deserves. Listeners can relax as they take in the mid-century president’s life and times because Sanders is a nuanced interpreter with a wonderful pitch and phrasing palette. Truman was a complicated man. As vice president, he let his homespun manner take a back seat to Roosevelt’s outsized charisma, and as president, he revealed a fascinating mix of wisdom and naïveté during turbulent times. The self-educated Missouri farm boy also had a knack for communicating with ordinary people, which helped his reputation survive tests of his authority and competence. Fred Sanders’s performance makes this a most enjoyable way to learn about Truman and the critical challenges our country faced during his presidency. T.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
2021-11-16
An absorbing reexamination of Harry Truman’s two-term presidency and the critical years during which he held office.
Much has been written about the 33rd president, whose esteem has increased over the several decades since he left office. His colorful story has become somewhat legendary: the self-educated man from rural Missouri who was thrust into a demanding leadership role following Franklin Roosevelt’s untimely death. Though largely unprepared, Truman rose to the many challenges that confronted him. Among dozens of others, these included the decision to drop the first atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II, the founding of the U.N. and creation of the NATO alliance, and the fateful decision to intervene in the conflict in Korea. Frank, a former senior editor at the New Yorker and author of Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage, is also an acclaimed novelist, and his storytelling skills add significantly to this well-documented account. While not quite a revisionist history—the author’s assessment remains mostly consistent with prior biographies, most notably David McCullough’s 1992 Pulitzer-winning Truman—the book provides further depth and nuance to the character dynamics of Truman and his administration, including sharp portraits of James F. Byrnes, George C. Marshall, Dean Acheson, and James Vincent Forrestal, “who was destined to become one of Truman’s unhappiest appointments.” Ultimately, Frank delivers a balanced yet appreciative portrait of a president who, despite his limitations and flaws, proved largely capable of meeting the extraordinary demands of his time. “If he could never replace the masterful Franklin Roosevelt,” writes the author, “he became someone, or something, else: a man, burdened by a persistent absence of foresight, whose policies nonetheless brought stability to an unsteady world….He understood, and cherished, the task he’d been handed, and if he did not always seem big enough for the job, no one could question the size of the decisions he made while he held it.”
A well-researched, engagingly human portrait of this complex mid-20th-century political leader.
