Tag Archives: harry s truman

Paul Walter

Book review: The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman, the bomb and the four months that changed the world

By Paul Walter | Mon 18th February 2019 - 3:27 pm


While in Washington DC, I made a pilgrimage to the large “Prose and Politics” bookstore in Connecticut Avenue NW. As one would expect, it was bursting with political books. I would have quite happily walked away with an entire wheelbarrow load of books, if my airline baggage weight limit had allowed it. In the end, I bought one paperback, which was “The Accidental President” by A.J.Baime about Harry S. Truman’s first four months as President in 1945. I was not disappointed. It is a brilliant book – a real page turner. By coincidence, Harry Truman lived with his family from 1941 until 1945 (including for the first few days of his Presidency) at 4701 Connecticut Avenue, which I passed on my way to the bookshop.

Harry Truman took over as US President in the most extraordinary circumstances. A.J.Baime quotes a Boston Globe reporter who wrote that Truman’s elevation to Vice Presidential candidate in 1944 was “one of the most amazing stories in American democracy”, adding:

It is the story of an average man, swept to dizzy heights against his will, a little bewildered by it all and doubting whether it is really true.

Continue reading »
Posted in Books | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • David Raw
    @ Gwyn Williams, Gwyn, you write, "The urgent issues of change in Westminster such as PR"............. Sorry, Gwyn, but I would have thought that a 26.4% inc...
  • Richard Cripps
    Having been "attacked" on social media for my political and social views (I am normally a LD voter) from time to time - with the attacks being personal rather t...
  • Jana
    @Tim Roger’s “ Jana. Please do not assume that everybody in the party is pro trans. Just oppose violence towards them.” I know you are correct on this...
  • paul barker
    Reform continue their slow decline in the Polls, where they stand a second time their Vote share mostly falls, they are losing Councillors steadily. Even the mo...
  • GWYN WILLIAMS
    Burnham's gradualist approach is similar to past Labour Governments. In 1964 Jim Griffiths was the first Secretary of State for Wales. In the 1970s the Royal Mi...