THE TRIALS OF HARRY S. TRUMAN

An absorbing reexamination of Harry Truman’s two-term presidency and the critical years during which he held office.

Much has been written about the 33rd president, whose esteem has increased over the several decades since he left office. His colorful story has become somewhat legendary: the self-educated man from rural Missouri who was thrust into a demanding leadership role following Franklin Roosevelt’s untimely death. Though largely unprepared, Truman rose to the many challenges that confronted him. Among dozens of others, these included the decision to drop the first atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II, the founding of the U.N. and creation of the NATO alliance, and the fateful decision to intervene in the conflict in Korea. Frank, a former senior editor at the New Yorker and author of Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage, is also an acclaimed novelist, and his storytelling skills add significantly to this well-documented account. While not quite a revisionist history—the author’s assessment remains mostly consistent with prior biographies, most notably David McCullough’s 1992 Pulitzer-winning Truman—the book provides further depth and nuance to the character dynamics of Truman and his administration, including sharp portraits of James F. Byrnes, George C. Marshall, Dean Acheson, and James Vincent Forrestal, “who was destined to become one of Truman’s unhappiest appointments.” Ultimately, Frank delivers a balanced yet appreciative portrait of a president who, despite his limitations and flaws, proved largely capable of meeting the extraordinary demands of his time. “If he could never replace the masterful Franklin Roosevelt,” writes the author, “he became someone, or something, else: a man, burdened by a persistent absence of foresight, whose policies nonetheless brought stability to an unsteady world….He understood, and cherished, the task he’d been handed, and if he did not always seem big enough for the job, no one could question the size of the decisions he made while he held it.”

A well-researched, engagingly human portrait of this complex mid-20th-century political leader.