Book Review: Truman | David McCullough

After ten years of work, in 1992 David McCullough finished writing - and Simon & Schuster published - this 1117-page long biography of former President Harry S. Truman, FDR's successor, who went on to be elected in his own right in the most stunning upset of American political history until 2016.

1117 pages a tiny spot of click-baitery, I'm afraid. In fact only 992 pages are biography - the rest are Acknowledgements, Source Notes, Index, and Photograph Credits. My copy is a hardcover missing dust jacket I picked up from a Goodwill some months ago and only just now have read in full. I began reading it in early July and only finished it very late in August after two weeks inwhich it was my sole read.

If you look for lists of best biographies, you'll find McCullough's other major biography, John Adams, on those lists. Relevant Magazine says it's "...one of the few biographies on anyone to cross into the realm of beautiful writing and nearly perfect prose. It is not only a well-researched, well-paced biography, it is fine literature and can be as compelling and moving as any fiction.

I haven't yet read John Adams, but recommendations for Truman, on the other hand, on these lists, appear to be far sparser.

Let this be the recommendation, then.

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It is this biography that has played such a part in the reevaluation of Harry Truman as someone far more than a simple inferior riding upon the coattails of those better than him and relying upon the goodwill of political bosses. In fact, he was man of greater culture, talent, and decency than he ever let on - one of a few character flaws.

I'll add my voice to those praising David McCullough's prose, because it is fantastic, as pacy and carrying as the best prosewriters of fiction. 992 pages, spread across two months, most of it in two weeks - and it didn't feel like that long of a book, even though it surely is.

It is utterly compelling reading. Even when I wanted to put it down, I found that I could not without effort. Even as I set my bookmark within it I already was reading the next page. I look forward to reading John Adams.

It begins with some eighty-ish pages not on Truman himself but on his background, of his family, the Youngs and Trumans to come before him. Though this is important place-setting, some readers may find themselves bored by it.

After reading this book, my respect for Harry Truman rose greatly. The decisions of his successors were not at all the obvious, logical conclusions from the decisions he took, and it is a folly to ascribe their decisions backwards to his decisions.

His character, its merits and flaws, become clear, especially in those merits which became flaws - his loyalty to his friends, his "longhand spasms." But so does emerge his relentless optimism, his intelligence and culture - both of which may be surprising to those who simply thought of him as no more than "a common man from Missouri."

There are numerous moments that stand out, even in a life as interesting as Harry Truman's: his romance with Bess, his service in World War I, the Truman Committee, the political maneuvering that surrounded the '44 VP pick, and the whistlestop campaign of '48.

As biographies go, it's almost perfect. What few flaws can I name? Truman himself fades into the background a little bit when the Truman Committee comes in. The post-presidency seems slightly abbreviated. Though balanced, one does get the sense that it is slanted in Truman's direction. But these are minor, petty nitpicks against the backdrop of Truman's long life and political career.

Both Truman and his times are brought to life in beautiful detail. There are points where I could almost hear McCullough's warm tones, pulled straight out of the American Experience, narrating to me. It is detailed (it has to be, with its length of time spent on it) but never does it feel excessive or overly-long.

It's no wonder Truman became the subject of a full biography. You could've ripped him straight out of a classical epic: a nobody from the plains, growing up on a farm, a book-ish child bearing glasses, with no great educational or financial advantages to his name, who managed - by dint of luck, by his own diligence, by relentless optimism, by an ability to self-teach rooted in a curiosity in the people who shaped history - to rise from origins almost as humble as Lincoln's to become President of the United States and a man who has perhaps done more than anyone else besides FDR and Woodrow Wilson to shape not merely the U.S. but the entire world throughout the 20th century.

Compulsively readable, endlessly fascinating, lead by McCullough's astonishing gift for prose and for carrying story and his respect for his subject, Truman is one of the best books I've read all year and it surely deserves a place as one of the best biographies ever written.