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Title: Harry S. Truman, President by Thomas Fleming, Tom Fleming ISBN: 0-8027-8267-1 Publisher: Walker & Co Pub. Date: November, 1993 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: A detailed look at the Truman presidency for younger readers
Comment: Thomas Fleming was chosen by Harry Truman to collaborate with Margaret Truman on her biography of her father and to help Margaret with her biography of her mother, Bess Truman, so his credentials to write a juvenile biography of "Harry S Truman, President" are certainly impeccable. Note, for instance, that this is one of the few biographies of Truman that correct omits the period after the S; it was not that the S did not stand for anything, but rather that it stood for the names of both of his grandfathers, Solomon Young and Shippe Truman (although Shippe was grandfather Truman's middle name). However, details do tend to be important in a biography.

Another way in which this volume is different from most juvenile biographies of Truman is that it focuses on Truman's time as President. After the first chapter recalls what happened when Truman was summoned to the White House to be told by Eleanor Roosevelt that the President was dead, Fleming devotes only three chapters to the years leading up to that point. Captain Harry Goes to Washington follows Truman from birth to being elected to the Senate, From Outsider to Insider tells how he won the acceptance of his political colleagues, and From Investigator to President actually makes the argument that Truman was picked by the Democratic leadership as FDR's running mate, fully aware they were not just nominating a vice president but choosing the next president.

Clearly this is the volume students would want to turn to for detailed information about the Truman presidency. Fleming knows the big picture and is constantly putting the pieces together for his readers: when FDR asked Truman to help push Henry Wallace's nomination for secretary of commerce through the Senate, Fleming points out that this would be one of his biggest headaches as president. Truman became president of the most powerful nation in the world at the end of a global war, which meant he was immediately faced with major problems and important decisions, such as using the atomic bomb and what to do about the Soviet Union. After the war the Cold War, the Korean War, and various domestic issues became equally important.

At the end of the book Fleming makes it clear that while Truman was not really appreciated until after his death, when historians finally realized the tremendous accomplishments of his presidency and that Truman deserves credit as the architect of the Truman Doctrine that eventually led to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and Russia, and its steady decline in Asia. Truman used the power of the United States to enlarge the freedom of millions around the world. Part of the charm, as one historian put it, was the Truman was "an uncommon man whose blessing was that he considered himself a common man."

Young readers will certainly have a much better understanding of both Truman's accomplishments in office and the characteristics of courage and integrity that have made him one of the rare Presidents to be considered a hero. The Notes on Further Reading that Fleming provides has the advantage of his comments on the various books, as opposed to simply listing them, just a final indication of how well he knows his material. This book is sparsely illustrated with historic black & white photographs, because the emphasis is on providing a detailed look at the Truman presidency, which is exactly what young readers will find here.