The trials of Harry S. Truman : the extraordinary presidency of an ordinary man, 1945-1953

The Resource The trials of Harry S. Truman : the extraordinary presidency of an ordinary man, 1945-1953
Label
The trials of Harry S. Truman : the extraordinary presidency of an ordinary man, 1945-1953
Title remainder
the extraordinary presidency of an ordinary man, 1945-1953
Statement of responsibility
Jeffrey Frank
Creator
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"The nearly eight years of Harry Truman's presidency--among the most turbulent in American history--were marked by victory in the wars against Germany and Japan; the first use of an atomic weapon; the beginning of the Cold War; creation of the NATO alliance; the founding of the United Nations; the Marshall Plan to rebuild the wreckage of postwar Europe; the Red Scare; and the fateful decision to commit troops to fight in Korea. Historians have tended to portray Truman as stolid and decisive, with a homespun manner, but the man who emerges in "The Trials of Harry S. Truman" is complex and surprising. He believed that the point of public service was to improve the lives of one's fellow citizens, and was disturbed by the brutal treatment of African Americans. Yet while he supported stronger civil rights laws, he never quite relinquished the deep-rooted outlook of someone with Confederate ancestry reared in rural Missouri. He was often carried along by the rush of events and guided by men who succeeded in refining his fixed and facile view of the postwar world. And while he prided himself on his Midwestern rationality, he could act out of emotion, as when, in the aftermath of World War II, moved by the plight of refugees, he pushed to recognize the new state of Israel. The Truman who emerges in these pages is a man with generous impulses, loyal to friends and family, and blessed with keen political instincts, but insecure, quick to anger, and prone to hasty decisions. Archival discoveries, and research that led from Missouri to Washington, Berlin and Korea, have contributed to an indelible, and deeply human, portrait of an ordinary man suddenly forced to shoulder extraordinary responsibilities, who never lost a schoolboy's romantic love for his country, and its Constitution." --
Assigning source
Amazon.com
Biography type
individual biography
Cataloging source
YDX
Dewey number
973.918092
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • plates
Index
index present
LC call number
E813
LC item number
.F695 2022
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Target audience
adult

Context

Context of The trials of Harry S. Truman : the extraordinary presidency of an ordinary man, 1945-1953

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