Harry S. Truman (1884–1972)

As with the first volume of the memoirs, some of what's interesting is what's left out of the book. There's practically no introspection regarding the assorted scandals that plagued Truman's 1949-1953 term, and which were a major factor in the decline of his popularity. The memoirs in this volume tend to focus on Korea and the 1948 election, not surprisingly. Truman is particularly blistering regarding the 80th Congress, the brief (1947-1949) interval in which the GOP controlled Congress. It show more does give you a flavour of the hard-ball machine pol that Truman really was, at heart. show less

First volume of Truman's memoirs, which is rather uneven. The first segment covers his first days in office in great detail, and is one of the best records of that period available. The book then segues to auto-biography, which, while quite interesting, greatly interrupts the flow of the narrative and doesn't add all that much to what follows. When we pick up the thread of the rest of the book, which pretty much covers the May, 1945 - December, 1946 period, a lot of it is an overly detailed show more slog. In some cases, Truman quotes from documents in haec verba, including one long conversation with Churchill. Not an ideal thing for memoirs. It might have been better had Truman written a book specifically on the Potsdam Conference, which takes up a fair slice of the second half of the book, and in some cases, reads like minutes of the meeting. Flashes of the Truman wit and hard-headedness can be seen in the book, but for the most part, they seem to have been edited out. Slightly disappointing. show less

A very detailed account of one year as the US president, perhaps one of the years when most happened if not the most important year. Ending the war in Europe, wrestling with the Soviets, ending the war in Japan, and more wrestling with the Soviets. Overly detailed in places, yet giving me the impression that Truman was a wise and patient man.

Rather unsatisfying book that functions, more or less, as propaganda for Harry Truman, produced while he was still president. The book is composed of a mish-mosh of unedited notes and jottings by President Truman (some of which pre-date the stories he told in his later memoirs), interspersed with some historical photos and photo ops with the likes of his cabinet, and for some reason, vast numbers of photos of cousins, nieces, nephews, &c. Give it a miss.