Man of the people : a life of Harry S. Truman /

Hamby (Ohio Univ.), leading scholar of the Truman presidency, has written a biography of the 33rd president that covers much new ground. Although based on years of archival research, Hamby's general conclusions are not new. Truman is portrayed as a staunch New Deal liberal who moved into "Fair Deal-liberalism." The author also agrees with the Cold War strategy followed by the administration and defends the use of the atomic bomb to end WW II. This study, however, transcends all others when it explores Truman the man. Hamby paints a picture of a human being possessed by traits such as insecurity, pettiness, and vindictiveness. While these were not fatal flaws and Truman was not a nasty or negative man, Hamby has shown there was more to him than was realized. No other author has so successfully surveyed this dimension. One may challenge Hamby's assertions concerning domestic and foreign policy, but he has made a major contribution in explaining the way in which Truman thought and acted. Should be read in conjunction with David McCullough's Truman (1992) and Robert H. Ferrell's Harry S. Truman: A Life (CH, Apr'95). All levels. A. Yarnell; Montana State University

Harry Truman became an American icon after his death in 1972, but as Hamby (Beyond the New Deal) reminds us, he was widely discredited by the end of his second term in the White House: ``During the later years of his presidency, the public would increasingly see not his fundamental generosity or his great decisions, but his gaffes, pettiness, and unpredictability.'' Hamby's rich portrait reveals a man devoted to honesty and efficiency in public service, who excelled at building bipartisan coalitions, displayed an ability to make hard decisions and was ``magnificently right'' in his contributions to the early civil rights movement and to the mobilization of the West against the Soviet challenge. In Hamby's view, Truman personified the evolution of American social and political democracy in the first half of the 20th century. His biography vividly defines the man, both public and private. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Following David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning narrative Truman (LJ 6/1/92) and Robert Ferrell's scholarly Harry S Truman: A Life (LJ 12/94), is there need for another comprehensive Truman biography? Yes, and noted Truman historian Hamby provides it. Unlike McCullough, Hamby offers an analytical model for viewing Truman, a liberal president serving in increasingly conservative times. Current fascination with Truman, Hamby notes, has more to do with his typically middle-class struggle to achieve success than with what he actually accomplished as president. Truman, an honest politician operating in a corrupt political environment, was overly defensive about his family and his association with the Pendergast political syndicate of Missouri. Yet with the unraveling of the New Deal and World War II consensus, he was successful in mustering bipartisan support for his great foreign policy successes‘the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine and, to a lesser extent, his progressive civil rights plank. This balanced assessment, although well written, lacks McCullough's narrative grace. Yet it presents a more dispassionate interpretation that will be welcomed by students of the presidency and public administration. Strongly recommended for large presidential studies and Truman collections.‘Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, Pa. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A game attempt by historian Hamby (Ohio Univ.) to replace the Oval Office bantamweight of political iconography with a more ambitious and self-doubting but able steward of the presidency. A self-described sissy who ran away from boyhood fights, Truman only managed to carve out an independent identity after the death of his demanding father by braving enemy fire as a WW I captain, winning longtime love Bess Wallace, and latching onto the Pendergast political machine in Kansas City. So wounded was he by this struggle to achieve respect and to remain personally honest in his compromised political environment that he would frequently suffer from exhaustion, unleash his fury in memos never sent to the offending parties, and diminish his presidential stature with erratic outbursts. In old age, Truman would gild events with nostalgic embellishments, such as an account of a 1920s Missouri campaign in which he faced down a Ku Klux Klan attempt at armed intimidation. Yet Hamby also celebrates Truman's presidency for the accomplishments usually hailed by historians, notably civil rights (in which Truman's better instincts about equality before the law won out over southern prejudice) and his defense of Western Europe as the Iron Curtain descended. Perhaps in reaction to David McCullough's Truman (1992), which he criticizes for failing to provide historical perspective, Hamby includes excellent analyses of Truman's difficulties in keeping together the loose New Deal coalition and his vacillation before recognizing Israel. Yet the author sometimes misplaces emphasis (e.g., he gives as much space to Truman's early venture capital fiascoes as to his 1948 ""whistle-stop campaign""), he provides no background on the key decision to desegregate the armed forces, and occasionally jumps to conclusions. A cool, highly nuanced examination of Truman's cultural and political milieus, but sadly lacking in the pace and narrative shape of McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.