David McCullough's Truman
One of the things that's been incredibly irritating because of the coronavirus and the "stay-at-home" restrictions is it's severely cut into my usual audiobook listening time.
You see, before the quarantining hammer dropped, I used to walk and take public transport nearly everywhere, especially to work. All that extra commute time gave me ample opportunity to listen to audiobooks. With the restrictions in place though, all that's gone out the window. It's not nearly as much fun walking places when you have to wear a face mask everywhere that makes you smell your own breath so much.
That said, I've adjusted and squeezed in time here and there, and I managed enough to finally finish a book I actually started listening to last year. That book was David McCullough's 1992, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Harry S. Truman, simply titled Truman.
David McCullough has got to be one of my favorite non-fiction writers, simply because his books actually make history--a subject I had no fondness for in school--interesting. Rather than presenting it as a list of names, dates, events, and accomplishments, which is how we teach most history in school, he presents it as a story. The story he tells of Harry Truman is no exception.
I got interested in Truman partly out of a form of local patriotism. He, like me, was from Missouri (granted, he was natural born, and I'm a successful transplant), and to this day, he's the only president ever to have been from the state of Missouri. What fascinated me though was how exactly this man rose to that highest office in the land. Every step of that journey, McCullough accounts for in his book.
Unlike a lot of presidents, Truman didn't actually want the job. In fact, for most of his life, the only reason he went into politics was to support the two great loves in his life: his wife Bess, and his daughter, Margaret. That's right. He became a politician to support his family (what a novel idea).
He jumped from County Judge (a local commissioner position), to State Senator of Missouri, and then to Vice President. Time after time, somehow, despite the enormous lack of support he frequently had to cope with, he almost always managed to get elected from one position to another.
The strange machinations and negotiations that went on behind the scenes, details that McCullough spends many pages fleshing out and explaining, to get Truman to run and get him elected are excellent and intriguing. They give you an insight to just how odd the world of early 20th Century politics was compared to what we have today. For example, did you know that neither political party of the time--the Democrats and Republicans--were fully associated with either liberalism or conservativism as they are today? We're slowly seeing that reemerge today, but back then it was the norm.
Probably, the most fascinating insight into Truman's political career is how and why exactly he became President.
As most people know, Truman in fact became president, initially, because Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in office, shortly after being elected for a fourth term. The fact is, months before that, the leaders of the Democratic Party knew well that FDR was likely going to die, as his health had been rapidly declining in the months before the reelection campaign began.
Thus, they needed to find someone to fill the role of Vice President who had two qualities first who was healthy and vital so as to handle the stress of the job of president if and when Roosevelt died and who was politically moderate enough so as not to alienate either end of the political spectrum. Truman fit that description. When that fateful day came in April, Truman was in position to take over from Roosevelt.
The picture that McCullough paints with his word of the man Harry Truman is also fascinating.
Truman lacked the aristocratic airs and sophistication of his contemporaries, having come from a Midwest farming background. He also lacked the level of education of many of his fellow politicians of the time, having never attended college. He also had "habits of the mouth," as McCullough at one point says, that our 21st Century sensibilities would find reprehensible, which came out in frightful bursts of bad temper from time to time.
Despite those though, he had a great appreciation of art, a deep interest in classical music (he was a decent pianist), and read copiously. Contrary to his popular image of "Give 'Em Hell Harry," he did his best to be courtesy to everyone. "He never gave anybody hell," as McCullough writes, but he always did his best to communicate clearly and directly, especially to the people of this country. He also had though a deep understanding of the hardships of the average America, who didn't come from money, having known failure himself in his life.
That down-to-earth direct "it is what it is" manner, and loyalty to the needs of the ordinary people is what enabled him to be an effective politician at his best.
McCullough's book earns its length because of the depth into which it explores its subject. The image I came away with of Harry S. Truman was one of a complicated man, as all people truly are. He was a loving husband and doting father, and he was shrewd politician, who despite not wanting the job, saw it as his duty to do whatever task he had at hand to the best of his ability in his own way. He wasn't perfect, but all in all, he was certainly better than most.
Three years after the book came out, and two after it won the Pulitzer, HBO also did it the honor of adapting it into a film. If you're interesting in getting the essence of the book, consider giving it a watch:
You see, before the quarantining hammer dropped, I used to walk and take public transport nearly everywhere, especially to work. All that extra commute time gave me ample opportunity to listen to audiobooks. With the restrictions in place though, all that's gone out the window. It's not nearly as much fun walking places when you have to wear a face mask everywhere that makes you smell your own breath so much.That said, I've adjusted and squeezed in time here and there, and I managed enough to finally finish a book I actually started listening to last year. That book was David McCullough's 1992, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Harry S. Truman, simply titled Truman.
David McCullough has got to be one of my favorite non-fiction writers, simply because his books actually make history--a subject I had no fondness for in school--interesting. Rather than presenting it as a list of names, dates, events, and accomplishments, which is how we teach most history in school, he presents it as a story. The story he tells of Harry Truman is no exception.
I got interested in Truman partly out of a form of local patriotism. He, like me, was from Missouri (granted, he was natural born, and I'm a successful transplant), and to this day, he's the only president ever to have been from the state of Missouri. What fascinated me though was how exactly this man rose to that highest office in the land. Every step of that journey, McCullough accounts for in his book.
Unlike a lot of presidents, Truman didn't actually want the job. In fact, for most of his life, the only reason he went into politics was to support the two great loves in his life: his wife Bess, and his daughter, Margaret. That's right. He became a politician to support his family (what a novel idea).
He jumped from County Judge (a local commissioner position), to State Senator of Missouri, and then to Vice President. Time after time, somehow, despite the enormous lack of support he frequently had to cope with, he almost always managed to get elected from one position to another.
The strange machinations and negotiations that went on behind the scenes, details that McCullough spends many pages fleshing out and explaining, to get Truman to run and get him elected are excellent and intriguing. They give you an insight to just how odd the world of early 20th Century politics was compared to what we have today. For example, did you know that neither political party of the time--the Democrats and Republicans--were fully associated with either liberalism or conservativism as they are today? We're slowly seeing that reemerge today, but back then it was the norm.
Probably, the most fascinating insight into Truman's political career is how and why exactly he became President.
As most people know, Truman in fact became president, initially, because Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in office, shortly after being elected for a fourth term. The fact is, months before that, the leaders of the Democratic Party knew well that FDR was likely going to die, as his health had been rapidly declining in the months before the reelection campaign began.
Thus, they needed to find someone to fill the role of Vice President who had two qualities first who was healthy and vital so as to handle the stress of the job of president if and when Roosevelt died and who was politically moderate enough so as not to alienate either end of the political spectrum. Truman fit that description. When that fateful day came in April, Truman was in position to take over from Roosevelt.
The picture that McCullough paints with his word of the man Harry Truman is also fascinating.
Truman lacked the aristocratic airs and sophistication of his contemporaries, having come from a Midwest farming background. He also lacked the level of education of many of his fellow politicians of the time, having never attended college. He also had "habits of the mouth," as McCullough at one point says, that our 21st Century sensibilities would find reprehensible, which came out in frightful bursts of bad temper from time to time.
Despite those though, he had a great appreciation of art, a deep interest in classical music (he was a decent pianist), and read copiously. Contrary to his popular image of "Give 'Em Hell Harry," he did his best to be courtesy to everyone. "He never gave anybody hell," as McCullough writes, but he always did his best to communicate clearly and directly, especially to the people of this country. He also had though a deep understanding of the hardships of the average America, who didn't come from money, having known failure himself in his life.
That down-to-earth direct "it is what it is" manner, and loyalty to the needs of the ordinary people is what enabled him to be an effective politician at his best.
McCullough's book earns its length because of the depth into which it explores its subject. The image I came away with of Harry S. Truman was one of a complicated man, as all people truly are. He was a loving husband and doting father, and he was shrewd politician, who despite not wanting the job, saw it as his duty to do whatever task he had at hand to the best of his ability in his own way. He wasn't perfect, but all in all, he was certainly better than most.
Three years after the book came out, and two after it won the Pulitzer, HBO also did it the honor of adapting it into a film. If you're interesting in getting the essence of the book, consider giving it a watch:
Comments