Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip [Hardcover]

Matthew Algeo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

On June 19, 1953, Harry Truman got up early, packed the trunk of his Chrysler New Yorker, and did something no other former president has done before or since: he hit the road. No Secret Service protection. No traveling press. Just Harry and his childhood sweetheart Bess, off to visit old friends, take in a Broadway play, celebrate their wedding anniversary in the Big Apple, and blow a bit of the money he’d just received to write his memoirs. Hopefully incognito.

 

In this lively history, author Matthew Algeo meticulously details how Truman’s plan to blend in went wonderfully awry. Fellow diners, bellhops, cabbies, squealing teenagers at a Future Homemakers of America convention, and one very by-the-book Pennsylvania state trooper--all unknowingly conspired to blow his cover. Algeo revisits the Trumans’ route, staying at the same hotels and eating at the same diners, and takes readers on brief detours into topics such as the postwar American auto industry, McCarthyism, the nation’s highway system, and the decline of Main Street America. By the end of the 2,500-mile journey, you will have a new and heartfelt appreciation for America’s last citizen-president.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Public radio reporter Algeo (Last Team Standing) brings the 1950s into focus with a fascinating reconstruction of Harry and Bess Truman's postpresidential 2,500-mile road trip. I like to take trips—any kind of trip, Truman wrote. They are about the only recreation I have besides reading. Between 2006 and 2008, Algeo retraced their journey with stopovers at some of the same diners and hotels the couple visited. When Truman left the White House in 1953, he returned to Independence, Mo., rejecting lucrative offers he felt would commercialize the presidency. His only income was a small army pension. Acquiring a 1953 Chrysler, the Trumans set out with no fanfare and a curious notion of traveling incognito. However, reporters and newsreel cameras soon turned their vehicular vacation into an ongoing media event. The book benefits from extensive research through oral history interviews and papers at the Harry S. Truman Library, and Algeo's own interviews with eyewitnesses. With deliberate detours, this book is a portal into the past with layers of details providing unusual authenticity and a portrait of the president as an ordinary man. 20 b&w photos, 1 map. (May)
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Review

"With deliberate detours, this book is a portal into the past with layers of details providing unusual authenticity and a portrait of the president as an ordinary man."  —Publishers Weekly

"Matthew Algeo recalls [my grandparents'] memorable trip beautifully and with the sense of humor it deserves."  —Clifton Truman Daniel, grandson of Harry S. Truman

"Enlivened by Algeo"s endeavors to see the places where Truman stopped, this is an engaging historical sidebar."  — Booklist Online

"An engaging account . . . Well-researched."  —Wall Street Journal

"Combines . . . history with the ever-popular road book, researching, duplicating, and reporting in detail on the last trip the Trumans took, driving their new Chrysler to Washington, and back to Independence."  —Max J. Skidmore, author, After the White House: Former Presidents as Private Citizens

"Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure resonates Aaron Copeland's 'Fanfare for the Common Man'—brassy, bright, energetic, brief and declaratively American."  —Washington Times

"Algeo has done a first-rate job of piecing together the trip . . . a fascinating reading experience." —Jackson Free Press

"Charming and engrossing."  —Riverfront Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press; 1st edition (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556527772
• ISBN-13: 978-1556527777
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( T ) > Truman, Harry

More About the Author

When he's not writing his own biography in the third person, Matthew Algeo writes about unusual and interesting events in American history.

His latest book is The President Is a Sick Man (Chicago Review Press, 2011).

His previous book, Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure, was named one of the best books of 2009 by the Washington Post. It is now available in paperback.

Algeo is also a journalist. He has reported from four continents, and his stories have appeared on some of the most popular public radio programs in the United States.

In addition to reporting and writing, Algeo has held jobs as a convenience store clerk, a gas station attendant, a Halloween costume salesman, and a proofreader. He also worked in a traveling circus (as a hot dog vendor; no acrobatics involved).

His wife, Allyson, works for the United States government as a Foreign Service officer. They currently reside in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "DAD... HARRY TRUMAN'S OUT IN FRONT. DO YOU WANT ME TO HAVE HIM MOVE HIS CAR?", June 16, 2009

By 

Rick Shaq Goldstein "*SHAQ*" (Danville, Ca, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip (Hardcover)

This book is so uniquely fascinating it is in a class by itself! It combines historical political content and world news... it includes world events that President Harry Truman effected in an expertly sequenced presentation... it gives an unabashed look at the way *WE-THE-PEOPLE-OF-THE-UNITED-STATES* really were in the 1950's which was probably the last decade of true innocence. It gives an intimate look at the private being of one of the twentieth century's most influential characters... and it is *ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS*... in a humor that doesn't really revolve around any jokes. The humor is actually the unadulterated absurdity of a trip that not only is completely impossible to happen today... but probably impossible to ever take place in the rest of recorded time.

Former President Harry S. Truman... a mere few months after leaving office... decides to take a "road-trip" with his loving wife Bess in their new 1953 Chrysler New Yorker from Missouri to Washington D.C... to Philadelphia for his first post-Presidential speech... and then to New York for some sightseeing... and then back to Missouri. The reader will be made aware of some shocking doses of reality... which is what makes this so darn funny. At that point in time former Presidents were *NOT* provided with any secret service protection... and former Presidents got absolutely *NO* pensions. When Harry left the White House he had to get a loan in order to survive. "A chain of clothing stores offered him a job for a hundred thousand dollars a year as a "sales manager". The author chronicles the Truman's road trip in exquisite detail and you will chuckle out loud when the former Commander-In-Chief stops in small coffee shops and less than elegant hotels... and the response of everyday people... when after multiple double-takes... recognize the former President. Harry consistently shows why he was a President of the people. He shook hands with everyone... signed autographs... took his morning walks with reporters walking with him... and taxi drivers beeping at every corner yelling... "HI HARRY!" And of course Harry waved back. He would stop and pose for pictures with everyone once they were able to close their gaping mouths that had dropped open in shock. Here is a man walking down the street who had made the decision to drop "the bomb" during the war... desegregate the military... fire MacArthur... helped form the United Nations... and more... having a meal in a booth at the Princess Diner in Frostburg, Maryland. In addition... during the time encompassed by his trip... landmark news continues to occur that were ripple effects of his Presidency... such as the execution of convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Along with the folksy human side of Harry... the reader will be educated with Harry's true personal and political opinions regarding household names such as his feelings toward JFK then a young senator. "KENNEDY EMBODIED THE KIND OF ELITIST SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT THAT TRUMAN DESPISED. FURTHERMORE, TRUMAN NEVER CARED FOR KENNEDY'S FATHER, THE HAUGHTY AND OVERBEARING JOE KENNEDY, WHOM TRUMAN HAD ONCE THREATENED TO THROW OUT A HOTEL WINDOW FOR BELITTLING FDR." Harry also truly hated Richard Nixon.

The way Harry's former staff felt about him was eloquently displayed in a toast made in his honor by Dean Acheson who among other things said about his former boss: "AND WHAT WE ALL KNEW WAS THAT, HOWEVER HOT THE FIRE WAS IN FRONT, THERE WOULD NEVER BE A SHOT IN THE BACK. QUITE THE CONTRARY! HE STOOD BY US THROUGH THICK AND THIN, ALWAYS EAGER TO ATTRIBUTE SUCCESSES TO US AND ACCEPT FOR HIMSELF THE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR FAILURE..."

Truman's favorite author was Mark Twain and he "kept a framed copy of his favorite Twain quote on his desk in the oval office: "ALWAYS DO RIGHT! THIS WILL GRATIFY SOME PEOPLE AND ASTONISH THE REST."

You will definitely be astonished by this book!

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Most Excellent Read!, April 13, 2009

By 

P. W. Johnston (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip (Hardcover)

In the age of paparazzi and the 24-hour news cycle, the thought of a U.S. president traveling sans security and often going unrecognized is simply astonishing. Matthew Algeo's account of the Trumans' trip is astonishing in its own right.

Constantly entertaining, frequently laugh-out-loud funny, HARRY TRUMAN'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE is an extraordinary book. Equal parts history and travelogue, Algeo beautifully paints a picture not just of the famously in love Harry and Bess, but of a rapidly changing America in the mid-20th Century. And by recreating the Trumans' journey himself, Algeo shows us just how much things have changed in the last half-century.

For a fascinating, truly unique read, I highly recommend this book.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgia, September 19, 2009

By 

Stephen T. Hopkins (Oak Park, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip (Hardcover)

If you've ever doubted that a decent book can be written about anything at all, give a chance to Matthew Algeo's book, Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip. Algeo describes a 1953 road trip that Harry and Bess Truman took from Independence, Missouri to Washington, on to New York, and back to Independence after Eisenhower became president. Harry did all the driving in a vehicle that's almost a character in the book: a black 1953 Chrysler New Yorker. Algeo retraced the Truman's route, and added a quirky dimension to the book by inserting his own experiences at some of the stops along the way, and what happened to some places in the intervening decades. This book presents a great image of 1953, with a decent dose of nostalgia, and personalization by the insertion of Algeo's current experience of this route. The pictures helped, mostly because every time I saw a photo Harry Truman's wide smile, especially when behind the wheel of the New Yorker, I found myself leaning into a grin of my own.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)