Truman Books

In Gaea Agonistes author Truman Brewster offers readers a fictional vision of an apocalyptic future and a harsh look at the brutal reality of modern-day society. In "Gaea Agonistes," a group of fictional characters are engaged, intelectually and emotionally, in an argument over the clash between a rousing love of life as opposed to a misanthropic, nihilistic vision. Emma, the central character, poses the question of whether she is or is not a witch. But, as she herself adds, "one man's witch is another man's resourceful helpmate ... and another man's saint." Emma's real yearning is intellectual, bordering on spiritual, taking her in search of purity. But Emma is also enamored of the male element, as exemplified here by Jack, her third ex-husband, who, with Emma's help, was able to scale the corporate heights.

"A Misanthrope's Epistle: Thoughts on a Democracy's Nihilism" takes a hard-hitting look at the capitalist West, as exemplified by the United States, and finds it wanting indeed. In his words, "Why exchange a tyranny of bureaucratic brutes [his eye here on the formenr USSR] for the tyranny of the Almighty Dollar?" It is a diatribe that proceeds to itemize the degredation into which this democracy has fallen.

But, whether clothing his message in comedic form, as in "Gaea Agonistes" or pulling out all the stops as in "A Misanthrope's Epistle," the author's message is plain and offers food for thought for those of his readers not yet totally abandoned to the ideals of capitalism.
--- from book's back cover

This is the best book ever written... well maybe not the best, but it's pretty dang good. If you are a fan of High School football, you'll like this book. If you aren't a football fan, you'll still like this book. Truman has crafted an incredible story of small town Oklahoma life full of rich characters and colorful scenery. Truman's wit and humor comes alive in the dialogue that almost makes you believe you are standing right there in Tsalagee Oklahoma listening in on all the conversations. In small-town Oklahoma, high school football is everything and Game tells the whole story, but this novel is not just about football. It's about finding oneself by by helping others find meaning in their own life. After finishing this debut novel by Phil Truman, I'm ready to read his next one. When can we expect to see it Truman?

Gods of the Word is a rare, beautiful and poetic work of revolutionary science. If Freud was the first to listen to his patients, Margaret Magnus is the first to listen to words and what they are saying to us. Anyone involved with language -- reading, speaking, listening, writing, understanding -- will never see their medium in quite the same way again, and will be richer for the experience of reading this book.

For they will have discovered the underlying phonosemantic structure of inherent meaning in the arbitrary connections between the signifiers and signifieds of their language.

In psychoanalysis and intellectual history, the selected fact is ignored until the anxiety it provokes can be tolerated, and insight (new paradigm) achieved. 2400 years ago, Socrates said in Cratylus that sounds and words are imitations of the essence of their referents. It seems no one got around to testing this theory until Margaret Magnus.

In this book you will learn that monomorphemic (single-syllable) words tend to reduce to a relatively small number of meaning groups (concepts), defined by their phonemes (sounds), and tend to cluster in related groups of meanings. Each phoneme has its own underlying related concepts (or pre-conceptions) which cluster and are different in meaning and direction from other phonemes. The inherent meanings of phonemes interact with the more arbitrary connections between words and what they mean (reference). Inherent phoneme meaning varies between languages but often points to the same underlying concepts.

These are the subterranean "Gods of the Word" that speak through us.

This book is both scientific and spiritual. It offers a testable hypothesis about material reality (provable at home in three hours or less) that calls into question basic assumptions about language, meaning and communication that have been scientific (academic) dogma since de Saussure and responsible for both the shaping and subject of much of twentieth century "discourse." It is spiritual because it points to a realm beyond the arbitrary connections of material reality, to an underlying world of inherent meaning, where sounds and letters and words have essential, formative and poetic capabilies.

The ultimate value of Gods of the Word lies in its capacity to link these two worlds and viewpoints by showing their intimate connections in language. It should open doors in a number of directions.

Wikipedia Description

"The Grass Harp is a 1951 novel by Truman Capote. The story focuses on an orphaned boy and two elderly ladies who observe life from a tree. They eventually leave their temporary retreat to make amends with each other and other members of society.

The story begins with Collin Fenwick losing his mother, and then his father, and moving into his aunts' (Dolly and Verena) house. Catherine, the servant, also lives in the house and gets along, for the most part, only with Dolly.

One day, after an argument, Dolly, Collin, and Catherine leave their home and start walking. Along the way, they find the treehouse in the China tree, and decide to camp out there. Verena, meanwhile, informs the sheriff of her sister's disappearance; the Sheriff organizes a search party, and eventually arrests Catherine.

During the course of the novel, others come to live in the treehouse, such as Judge Cool and Riley Henderson. In a climactic event, a confrontation among the search party and the residents of the tree house leads to Riley getting shot in the shoulder.

After Judge Cool discusses the situation, everyone agrees that it was a pointless struggle, and old relationships are invigorated once again. Many people leave as friends. The story ends with how a "grass harp, gathering, telling, a harp of voices remembering a story."

Truckin,mexicali blues and st.stephen are wonedrfully illustrated,i get a different image when i listen to them but ,the images they have drawn ther are realy fantastic also so thanks alot to all the great artists that contribute with this fantasy,keep up the great art.

This issue was as fantastic as all the others i think but specialy Scarlet Begonias was great,thanks to Tery Laban for the great work,it was great with the sense of humour there and the great illustrations.Also Alligator was very neat to listen and read,i singed and read it for hours,also it was good to think about the good old "pig pen".To make the story short,This is a damn great magasine,makes me wanna cry each time i read for those times of dead i have missed...

David Caute wrote an in depth and very detailed analysis of the anti-red hysteria in the US under the Truman and Eisenhower administration. Some aspects of this hysteria are unfortunately still very actual.
The fear instilled in the masses through `spectacular' condemnations (the Rosenbergs, Hiss, Oppenheimer) lavishly shown in the media reflects perfectly the fear of the powerful for contagion of the same masses by liberal ideas, by the `pestilence of the mind': `A communist starts as a liberal'.
The cabal veiled major political and social issues: silencing the critics of the governmental administrations, overturn New Deal policies and limit civil liberties, like freedom of speech, the right to work and even the right to eat (`Should reds be allowed to eat? No, in some States.).
The First Amendment, Freedom of speech, was heavily attacked through censure (books banned, post controlled, people were asked which newspapers and which books they read). Some liberals were even prosecuted for mere words, and even thoughts.
Professionally, the `progressives' were discriminated fiscally or for obtaining visas (L. Pauling) or even purely dismissed. An `iron curtain' was installed for US visitors.

The budgets and the powers of the security services exploded. 37 Million Workers were fingerprinted. The whole population was asked to spy and to inform on everyone. Some appealed to the darker side of humanity (xenophobia and superpatriotism).
Lives were destroyed by rigged juries, biased judges and bogus (but well paid) accusations. Like the witches in the Middle Ages, the victims served as an example for would-be critics.
The powerful disposed of two Fifth Columns: the Churches and the media (`The US intelligentsia largely abandoned their critical function'.)
Another constant was the hopelessly sectarian Left: `Trotzkyists deserve no more liberties than fascists' (Paul Robeson).

David Caute's dark pages are a must read for all those interested in US history.

For an evaluation of the impact of McCarthyism on the US population, see H.H. Hyman, `England and America', in Daniel Bell`s `The Radical Right'.

The character of John Gaunt (a.k.a. Grimjack) is a complex one. He is one part film noir detective, one part Venetian bravo, one part western gunfighter- and all with an otherworldly edge. Yet I think the entire character can be summed up by the fact that he voluntarily walked out of the afterlife (or "heaven") to return to earth to help his friends. He did this even though he was warned that he could never return and that he would be doomed to wander the earth in reincarnation after reincarnation until the end of time....

"She was wrong, of course. I use half-truths and lies as much as anyone. But give me a glimpse of the truth, any shade of it at all, and I have to have it.

The truth kills only what's rotten. Lies fester and rot the soul and destroy what little hope we have for the future.

You can ignore the truth if you want. But first you have to know it.

I know no other way that's worth living."

This is the entire glorious 81 issue comic book series from 1984 to 1991.

This was required reading for a graduate course in American history. In this engaging biography, Robert H. Ferrell, who has authored and edited eight previous books on Truman, does an admirable job of presenting the life and presidency of Harry S. Truman. Although one can detect Ferrell's admiration for Truman, one senses from the extensive notes, bibliography, and research conducted at the Truman Library as well as his willingness to criticize Truman for his mistakes, that Ferrell has written a very balanced biography of Truman. Ferrell's book is a good introductory biography of Truman's whole life; the first eight chapters are devoted to his life prior to his ascendancy to the presidency in 1945 after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. One gets the sense that Truman was the last president of an earlier and simpler time in America. He was the last president who was not a college graduate nor was he well--off financially. Ferrell's biography captures the essence of what type of a man Truman was and what history and his fellow citizens perceived him as.
"A plain-speaking, straight-talking, ordinary fellow (people thought) who did what he saw as his duty without turning his obligation into opportunity for personal gain" (179). Ferrell also exposed Truman's flaws such as being overprotective and too loyal to friends that had done wrong. Often he took it as a personal affront when anyone differed with him.
Ferrell presents a few experiences from Truman's early years that formed his character. From farming, Truman gained a work ethic that served him well throughout his life. His experience as an artillery captain and battery commander during WWI was instrumental in proving to himself and others that he was a very capable and caring leader of men. This experience was instrumental in putting him on the path of a political life. His experience as a failed haberdasher and bank speculator in the 1920's caused Truman to be a fiscal conservative the rest of his life and a good steward of the government's money. In addition, he learned about and came to understand and respect ethnic minorities, such as Catholics and Jews, from his Army and haberdashery experiences. Thus, Ferrell astutely proved that understanding Truman's early life experiences are instrumental if one wants to properly analyze Truman's decision-making process in the domestic and foreign policy arena.
"The Buck Stops Here" placard on Truman's desk has become legendary in presidential history. One of his secretaries of state, Dean Acheson, admired Truman for capably understanding the complexities of a situation and his willingness to make a hard decision without vacillating. Truman was adept at gathering all of the facts in a timely manner, listening to people's opinions and turning the options over in his mind, and then when he arrived at what he thought was the correct decision, he made it and stuck to his guns. Truman wound up making many important decisions that have affected America to this day such as, using nuclear weapons against Japan to end WWII, integrating the military in 1948, recognizing the state of Israel, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and involving American military forces in the Korean war.
One of the first, most momentous, and most often debated decisions that Truman had to make as President was whether to use two atomic bombs against Japan to hasten the end of WWII. Ferrell and other historians have made a very convincing argument to support Truman's decision-making process to use nuclear weapons to end the war. The Japanese military, who effectively controlled their government, were fanatics in their prosecution of the war. The Japanese people had suffered through numerous fire bombings of their cities in the months leading up to the end of the war, in which hundreds of thousands of their citizens were killed. In addition, the military had lost many battles and virtually all of its island holdings in the Pacific, and yet the government was strengthening its homeland forces and preparing for invasion instead of seriously considering surrender. Ferrell, relying on information gathered by Edward J. Drea, who wrote about the American military intelligence estimate gathered in July of 1945 mainly through the deciphering of Japanese radio traffic, showed that up to 600,000 Japanese were being prepared to fight in the event of an American invasion. Even this estimate turned out to be too low, since after the war American intelligence learned that the Japanese actually had some 900,000 prepared to fight against the invasion. American military estimates of the cost of life in the event of an invasion of the Japanese home islands were at best sketchy, and many historians who have written against the use of atomic weapons have used the unreliability of the estimates as one of their examples why Truman was wrong to use the nuclear option. However, Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar in their book, Codename Downfall, which detailed the plan to invade Japan, wrote that Truman was presented with an estimate that showed that there could be 238,000 American casualties and possibly the same number of Japanese casualties. This information coupled with the very real evidence of how tenaciously the Japanese people had fought was no myth, and convinced Truman that dropping the bombs on Japan to end the war was the right decision. One only had to look at the horrific casualty figures for American battles on Iwo Jima and Okinawa to name a few in order to understand just how fiercely the Japanese were capable of fighting. Ferrell aptly showed that Truman's decision has come under criticism throughout the years partly because of how he had stridently defended it and was so dismissive of the critics of his decision. "The president's critics, one suspects, were ready to accuse him because they did not admire other things he did or approved. They were critical because of his well-known decisiveness, which sometimes seemed offhanded" (214).

Thus, Ferrell does a very convincing job of making one believe just how important and interesting it is to study Truman, especially since he was so very different from the presidents who had come before and after him.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history, foreign policy, Cold War history.

I ordered this book for my husband. It isn't my type of reading, but he gave it a 5-star rating and loved it.