Review: Truman

Truman by David McCullough
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The background on Missouri during the John Brown / Jim Crow era was fascinating and deeply disturbing. 

I hadn't realized how many things happened during Truman's presidency:

The end of World War II, including the dropping of the atomic bombs

The creation of Israel

The Truman doctrine

The Marshall Plan

The Berlin Airlift

The Civil Rights Commission (the first one ever) was set up

The Truman balcony

And apparently his election to a second term was the biggest upset in presidential history

The Korean war started

The Cold War started

NATO was established

General Macarthur's firing

I was curious about this biography for several reasons. First of all, I knew that the switch of Southern Democrats to Republicanism occurred during Truman, but I wasn't really sure why. Also, I know President Biden keeps a bust of Truman in his office. This biography answered the first question, but I'm not sure it answers the second. The closest analogy I can find is that Truman had to deal with WWII when entering into office, while Biden has COVID. 

Truman was definitely a unique president. He was truthful and naive almost to a fault, but in a good way, and was convinced the truth would win out in the end. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. 

View all my reviews