-Twenty reviews are not enough for this book! HST deserves more and better!
HST was fortunate in that history offered him many opportunities to prove his skills and his greatness. (Most historians now rank him among the top five). For example, not every president gets to be a 2-time wartime president, or to replace an FDR (the nation's only 3-time and 4-time president that most Americans truly loved (regardless of how the Neocons now portray him), or to make the many critical decisions that HST was compelled to make.
The book's table of contents pretty much summarizes the major problems that HST had to deal with during his long political career and his 2 terms (minus 3 months) as president: two times he had to fight hard as the underdog for his seat in the Senate and once, in 1948 - likewise, as the underdog against Dewey, he had to overcome great odds to win his presidential re-election fight. Many times he had to render major, often unpopular, decisions: for example, he endorsed the establishment of the new state of Israel; he ordered the dropping of A-bombs on Japan; he ordered the integration of the armed forces; he halted a steel strike that threatened the unbroken supply of war materials; he ordered the implementation of the post-war, multi-billion dollar economic recovery plan for Europe (called the Marshall Plan - but actually Truman's plan); he endorsed the creation of the U.N.; he endorsed the creation of NATO with U.S. participation; he ordered U.S. troops into Korea in 1950 to halt communist aggression; he `fired' the highly popular 5-star General MacArthur when the latter challenged the authority of the president; etc., etc.. HST said that hard decisions were easy for him; he simply did what he thought was right!
Many reviewers confess that prior to reading this book they had no sense of HST's presidency, or that he was significant or even great. After reading this book, however, many of them now feel that HST was both a great man and a great president. Is there any better example of what a little reading can do for a person's judgment - or, expressed another way, is there any better example of how 'ignorance can breed contempt' - or indifference?
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Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2006
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Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
Bargain, paid very little for it
Reviewed in Canada on December 31, 2016
Amazon Customer
I did not enjoy the style of the book
Reviewed in Canada on May 19, 2016