Customer Reviews

Truman and Pendergast

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Robert H. Ferrell's "Truman and Pendergast" is a fine addition to the ever increasing pantheon of written history of our 33rd (32nd) president. Ferrell focuses on a period which, until now, has not been the main focus of any Truman biography. The author paints a vivid picture of the necessary evils one faces when choosing a life in public service while maintaining one's own countenance. Ferrell centralizes his work on several main points, beginning with the initial years of Truman's political career when it was necessary for the backing of Pendergast (especially in the political machine controlled era of the earlier part of the century) and culminating with Truman's Senate re-election campaign of 1940. These main points bookend a gradual separation of Truman and Pendergast, as Truman ascends in stature and Pendergast descends into a downward spiral culminating in his incarceration in a federal penitentiary. Throughout the course of the book Ferrell maintains an anecdotal style of storytelling, which allows the reader to gain deeper insight into a very different period of political history then we find in today's day and age. "Truman and Pendergast" is a must-have for any student of Truman, as well as an excellent addition to the history of politics of the early 1900s.

This is a good read for those interested in one of our Great Presidents. It also shows the machine politics which infected Missouri in the 1930-1940s. Tom Pendergast was the leader of the Kansas City, Missouri machine which put forward its candidates for local, state, and national politics. The real election was not in November, but during the primary when the Democrats made the choice of who their candidates would be. During the general election,the Pendergast machine rigged their wards well with only marginal votes for Republican candidates.

It was not true democracy. Pendergast was convicted of income tax evasion after he didn't declare bribes he "earned" in an insurance settlement scheme. The book details Truman's 1940 Senate election campaign as he attempted to revive his fortunes following the fall of his mentor Tom Pendergast. Truman did not forsake his mentor (neither did he mention him) but managed to defeat the seating governor and prosecutor for his Senate position.

This is a short book. The first chapter doesn't read correctly and the flow is not there. The detail and interest are, and the following chapters have more page turning drama in them. Truman won the campaign and must have impressed FDR since in 1944, Roosevelt gave him the Veep position. The book also details the duplicity of FDR in his dealings with other Democrats.

The title of Truman and Pendergast implys that there is some meaningful and new knowledge regarding the relationship between these two men. This is simply not the case. There is very little about that relationship but rather a rehash of frequently publish information in other bios. This book, while it may be well written, adds nothing to the pile of information already out there. Three-percent of this very short book explored the relationship and ninety-seven percent was about the difficulties experienced by Truman because of the stigma of the relationship. Nothing new. If you want to read some great bios on Truman read TRUMAN by McCullough or MAN OF THE PEOPLE by Hamby.