Customer Reviews

Harry S. Truman (Encyclopedia of Presidents)

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The volumes in the Encyclopedia of President series all begin in media res, with a defining moment in the life of that particular president. I anticipated that Jim Hargrove would begin his look at Harry Truman as many juvenile biographies of the 33rd president do with the moment when the then vice president being told that Franklin Roosevelt had died. While Hargrove begins with that, the defining moment of the first chapter is Truman finding out about the Manhattan Project and his decision to order a pair of atomic bombs to be dropped on Japan. Of course, Hargrove's point is that the advent of the nuclear age and the decision to use the bomb is a large part of Truman's legacy as president.

The rest of this juvenile biography tells how "Little Four-Eyes" ended up on "The Fast Road to the White House." The chief thing young readers will get out of reading this volume is that Truman was never seduced by the powers of his office. The story is of an ordinary man, one of the common folk as some would say, whom circumstances put in the White House. The lesson is that sometimes this nation is very lucky and has the right person in the White House at the right time. Hargrove does get into the how Truman ended up being FDR's running mate in 1944, which seems to be based more on how Truman compared favorably to the controversial Henry Wallace, the current vice president, than on Truman's qualifications to become President. Hargrove ends with Truman hearing a childhood friend says that Truman would "rather be right than be President" and responding, "I'd rather be anything than be President."

The book is illustrated with black & white photographs from Truman's personal and public life that reveal something interesting: notice the difference in the smile Truman has in photographs with his family versus those taken in public. In terms of juvenile biographies of Truman this is the most detailed, which is standard for the Encyclopedia of Presidents series. This would never be the first book young readers should turn to in order to find out about the life of Truman, one of the most admired presidents of the 20th century (or would that be one of the few?), but after availing themselves of one of the decent introductory juvenile biographies this is the one that they should turn to for the details.