''Truman'' is a 1992 biography of the
33rd President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...
written by popular historian
David McCullough
David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United S ...
. The book won the 1993
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award honors "a distinguished and appropriately documented biography by an American author." Award winners receive ...
. The book was later made into a
movie with the same name by
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
.
Plot summary
The book provides a biography of Harry Truman in chronological fashion from his birth to his rise to
U.S. Senator,
Vice President
A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
, and
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
. It follows his activities until death, exploring many of the major decisions he made as president, including his decision to drop the
atom bomb on
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...
and
Nagasaki
, officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...
, his meetings and confrontation with
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
during the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, his decision to create the
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...
, his decision to send troops to the
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
, his decision to recognize the
State of Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
, and his decision to
desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces.
Production
After writing ''
Mornings on Horseback'', which was McCullough's first biography and consisted of an in-depth look at a small period in the life of former United States President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
, McCullough wanted to do a more full biography, "a mural instead of a
Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer ( , ; see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch ...
."
At first, McCullough attempted to write a biography about
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
, but abandoned the project in favor of doing a book on Truman.
McCullough decided that he would structure the story of Truman's biography in chronological fashion. McCullough explained his reasoning for this decision by stating: "It's been very fashionable lately to begin biographies anywhere but at the beginning, heaven forbid. But I didn't want to do anything tricky or fashionable because
rumanwas neither of those things. Harry Truman was a 19th-century man and I decided I would proceed as a great 19th-century biographer would, or as
Dickens would."
In effort to better understand his subject, McCullough took several actions to emulate the life and activities of Truman.
For instance, he would begin each day with a brisk early-morning walk, just as Harry S. Truman did.
He also lived in Truman's hometown
Independence, Missouri
Independence is a city in and one of two county seats of Jackson County, Missouri, United States. It is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2020 Unite ...
for a little while.
He also raced through the
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the United States Congress, the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, federal g ...
retracing the path Truman ran when he was summoned to the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
after the death of
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
.
To help research the book, McCullough interviewed hundreds of people who knew Truman, including relatives and
Secret Service agents, read numerous letters and documents, and read almost all the books written about Truman.
While working on the book McCullough would read every draft page aloud to his wife and have her read the pages back to him.
McCullough explained this practice by stating: "You can hear things that you cannot see. Redundancies, awkward expressions. Painters often look at their work in the mirror because you can see flaws that you don't see looking straight at a canvas."
McCullough wrote the book ''Truman'' over a period of 10 years. McCullough stated that during that 10 years many things changed in his life, "In those 10 years, my youngest daughter changed from a girl into a woman, both my parents died, grandchildren were born, we moved our residence twice, we put a child through college and law school, and paid off a mortgage."
McCullough felt a compulsion to get the book finished before the
1992 presidential campaign in response to the shallow political debates that were occurring in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
McCullough said, "I felt that something needed to be said before people made a choice. This book is about the country, not just about Harry Truman. It's about who we are and what we can be."
While McCullough was able to gain insights into Truman based on his research, there were questions that remained unanswered to McCullough such as why Truman's wife left him alone in Washington so often.
The usual explanation among historians was that Bess hated the heat and her mother was ill, but McCullough has expressed doubts about this explanation stating that "
esswas away so often and
ruman'sletters to her were so plaintive, his need for her to be there so real. I don't know."
McCullough has stated that he intended ''Truman'' to be not only for "the
Arthur Schlesingers and the academics" but instead intended the book for "your grandmother," and other common folk including present and future politicians so "they may see, even when flawed, how great a man in
he office of the Presidentcan be."
Reception
After the book was published, McCullough went on a book-tour.
One of the largest crowds he encountered was when he went to the
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in
Independence, Missouri
Independence is a city in and one of two county seats of Jackson County, Missouri, United States. It is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2020 Unite ...
.
Most reviewers praised the book when it came out. One notable dissent was an article in ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...
'' titled "Harry of Sunnybrook Farm" by Ronald Steel where he called the book a "1000 page valentine."
Gene Lyons at ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' gave the book an A, stating that "No brief review can begin to do justice either to Truman or to the monumentally persuasive job McCullough has done re-creating his life and times.... Immeasurably aided by Truman's vividly written diaries and letters to his beloved wife, Bess, McCullough brings the man and his times to life with painstaking clarity."
The book won McCullough his first
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
, in the category of "
Best Biography or Autobiography".
Adaptation
In 1995, the book was adapted into ''
Truman'', a
television movie
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...
by
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
, starring
Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise (; born March 17, 1955) is an American actor, director, producer, musician and humanitarian. Among other awards, he has won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has ...
as Truman.
References
External links
''Truman'' on GoogleBooks''Eugene Register'' article on ''Truman''Associated Press article on ''Truman''''Reading Eagle'' article on ''Truman''''Booknotes'' interview with McCullough on ''Truman'', July 19, 1992 C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...
Presentation by McCullough on ''Truman'' at the National Press Club, July 7, 1992 C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...
{{David McCullough, state=expanded
Books about Harry S. Truman
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography–winning works
1992 non-fiction books
Biographies adapted into films
Books by David McCullough