Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman - Hardcover

Hamby, Alonzo L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195045467 ISBN 13: 9780195045468

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1995

Synopsis

Harry S. Truman is remembered today as an icon--the plain-speaking president, "Give 'em Hell Harry," the chief executive who put "The Buck Stops Here" on his desk. But Alonzo L. Hamby shows that there was more to Truman than the pugnacious fighter so prominent in popular memory. Insecure, ambitious, a man of honor, a partisan loyalist, an agrarian Jeffersonian Democrat who became a champion of big government, Truman was a complex figure who fought long and hard to triumph over his own weaknesses.
In Man of the People, Hamby offers a gripping account of this distinctively American life, tracing Truman's remarkable rise from marginal farmer in rural Missouri to shaper of the postwar world. Truman comes alive in these pages as he has nowhere else, making his way from the farmhouse, to the front lines in France during World War I, to the difficult small-business world of Kansas City--all the time struggling with his deep feelings of inadequacy and immense ambition. Hamby provides an honest, incisive look at the rising politician's relationship with Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast, who sponsored his career from the county court to the U.S. Senate. We see how Truman, a ferocious and skilled fighter in factional party battles, tried to balance his sense of honor with his political loyalties. Free of corruption himself, he nevertheless refused to repudiate Pendergast even when the boss was sinking under the weight of his ties to organized crime. Hamby also offers the best account yet of Truman's critical years in the Senate, covering not only his World War II probe of the defense program but also his neglected and revealing populist investigations of the railroads during the 1930s. He demonstrates that Truman was one of the most popular and respected members of the upper house.
Hamby is particularly acute in his portrait of Truman's volatile presidency. He criticizes some aspects of the decision to drop the atomic bombs against Japan but concludes that, considered in context, the act was understandable and justified. Providing new insight into the Cold War, he identifies the Turkish and Iranian crisis of 1946 as crucial turning points in Truman's attitudes toward the Soviet Union. Thoroughly covering Truman's struggle for "liberalism in a conservative age," Hamby also sheds great light on the president's Fair Deal domestic program.
Harry Truman, Hamby writes, was a flawed man--insecure, often petty and vindictive--yet one of the great presidents of the twentieth century. But Americans cherish him less for what he did than for who he was: an ordinary person who worked his way up the political ladder to the summit of power. In Man of the People, Alonzo L. Hamby provides a richly perceptive biography, giving us the best look yet at who Truman was, how he changed, and why he triumphed.

About this title

About the Author:

Alonzo L. Hamby is Professor of History at Ohio University. His books include Liberalism and its Challengers, The Imperial Years, and Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism.

Review:

"A cool, highly nuanced examination of Truman's cultural and political milieus....Includes excellent analyses of Truman's difficulties in keeping together the loose New Deal coalition and his vacillation before recognizing Israel."--Kirkus Reviews

"One of the most eminent Truman scholars in the historical profession, at the capstone of his career, has brought us a deeply researched, often surprising scholarly life of the thirty-third President, raising questions that will absorb the general reader and animate historians for years to
come."--Michael R. Beschloss, author of The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-1963

"This rich and illuminating book is by far the most persuasive of the many Truman biographies. Unlike previous writers, Hamby neither demonizes nor idealizes his subject, but instead presents him as a complex, fallible human being whose strengths are in many ways the reciprocals of his
weaknesses."--Fred I. Greenstein, Princeton University, author of The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader

"Alonzo Hamby has brought his considerable experience as a Truman scholar to this major study. His rich and insightful account of a man who has become mythical not for what he did but for 'who America believed him to be' should do much to dispel mysteries about the man and his time. This
biography is thorough, both for Truman's public as well as his private life. Hamby does not hesitate to offer some tough analyses, from the Truman role in ending World War II and the bombing of Hiroshima to Korea and General MacArthur."--Herbert S. Parmet, Professor Emeritus, The City University of
New York, author of J.F.K.: The Presidency of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon and His America

"In his preface Alonzo Hamby, the leading Truman scholar, hopes readers will find this book a 'crackling good story.' Few books on the presidency crackle half as much. None other so profoundly deepens our understanding of Harry Truman and his times. Hamby's probing not only explains Truman
with a new clarity but shows why Truman, discredited when he left office, is today regarded as one of our great presidents. This book will be read for a long time."--Robert J. Donovan, noted Washington journalist, author of Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948 and
Tumultuous Years: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1949-1953

"Hamby's rich portrait reveals a man devoted to honesty and efficiency in public service, who excelled at building bipartisan coalitions, displayed an ability to make hard decisions, and was 'magnificently right' in his contributions to the early civil rights movement and to the mobilization
of the West against the Soviet challenge....[Hamby's] biography vividly defines the man, both public and private."--Publishers Weekly

"Is there need for another comprehensive Truman biography? Yes, and noted Truman historian Hamby provides it."--Library Journal

"Man of the People reveals the mastery of factual detail and contemporary scholarship we have come to expect from Alonzo Hamby. What is an additional bonus is the fascinating and thoroughly convincing portrait of Truman the man contained in these pages. This is the definitive biography of one
of the great presidents of the 20th century."--John A. Garraty, Governor Morris Professor, Columbia University

"Man of the People is an altogether splendid biography. It combines well-paced narrative and sensitive portraiture with incisive analysis in setting Harry Truman against the troubles and triumphs of a turbulent time."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

"A superb new biography.... The Truman we meet in these pages is more troubled, complicated, and genuine than the man we have read about before. While Mr. Hamby's account lacks the narrative drive of David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning Truman...it is superior...in providing a clear
interpretative framework for understanding the relationship between Truman's personal traits and his momentous Presidential decisions.... What Mr. Hamby has done, with great skill, is to remind us of the real Harry Truman, to demythologize him without slighting his accomplishments or his rough road
to success."--The New York Times Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0195045467
• ISBN 13: 9780195045468
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 800