Truman Books

This book is a good read on a chapter by chapter basis. Each chapter is devoted to a specific event, plane or pilot. Each chapter took me about an hour to read, so there are many hours of enjoyable reading to be had.

Aircraft information includes the basic size wieght speed engine and usually a 3-view of the airframe.

There are numerous listings of race results through the various years. If you like to go through the results and find out who flew what how fast, its probably here.

There are lots of photos and drawings to use as reference while reading.

If I had to say one negative thing about the book, it would be "It sometimes got bogged down in detail". But if detail is what you are looking for, this may be a book for you.

"Harry S. Truman: Missouri Farm Boy" is part of the Childhood of Famous Americans series, which provide juvenile biographies that focus on the early years of the people young students read about in their history books. Most of this book by Wilma J. Hudson focuses on Truman from his early childhood through high school, with the final two chapters taking the young farm boy through his time in the White House and his death. In other words, this book is pretty much the opposite of all the other Truman juvenile biographies that tell a lot more about the career of the man instead of the life of the boy. Hudson writes about Truman's childhood as if it were an adventure story rather than as a biography, and the point is clearly not just to tell what Truman did as a kid but to show how these established key elements of his character that would serve him during his time as president. Of course, the chief value of this book is in showing that the childhood of a future president of the United States is not that much different from the life being lived by the reader, especially if they also live on a farm. Even if they do not, young readers will still understand that Truman's greatest strengths were that he had common sense and that he never thought of himself as being anything other than a common man from Missouri.

Other volumes in this engaging little series look at the childhoods of not only future presidents like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy, but First Ladies like Abigail Adams and Eleanor Roosevelt, frontiersmen like Daniel Boone and Buffalo Bill, athletes like Jim Thorpe and Babe Ruth, inventors like Thomas A. Edison and Henry Ford, and assorted famous names from Crispus Attucks and Harry Houdini to Sacagawea and the Wright brothers. Whether young readers start with these biographies or turn to more traditional juvenile biographies to introduce them to the life of these famous Americans, finding out how much they have in common with these people when they were kids will certainly be of value.

Of course my first thought when I saw the cover of this juvenile biography of Harry S. Truman for the Profiles of the Presidents series was that there should not be a period after the S, because it does not stand for anything and is therefore not an abbreviation. But Deborah Cannarella tells her readers that actually that S stood for two names, namely those of his grandfathers, Shippe and Solomon. However, it is not until the end of the book that Cannarella points out that when Truman left the White House most Americans did not think he had been a successful president, but as time passed his reputation grew and today many people rank Truman as one of our greatest presidents. Instead, she sets up Truman as a common, everyday man who became president and relied on his own common sense rather than experience to be the leader of the most powerful country in the world.

My assumption has always been that it never dawned on Franklin D. Roosevelt that he would not live to see the end of World War II let alone not complete his fourth term in the White House. This is based mainly on the lack of any evidence to suggest that FDR picked Truman to be his successor; while Roosevelt did have to persuade Truman to take the post, the argument had to do with Democratic Party unity and not carrying out FDR's programs. Of course, today it would be hard to imagine the nation being better served by an accidental president than what happened with Truman, but it would be interesting to know who FDR would have picked for vice president if he had a clearer idea of his own mortality. But keep in mind that in 1860 the nation elected the only man in the nation who would see that the Union was preserved, so there might be something to this manifest destiny idea after all.

Cannarella covers the biographical details of Truman's life, cataloguing his various political offices and underscoring the integrity that was the defining element of his character. Young readers will also learn more about what Truman did as president than you will usually find in these volumes. The book is illustrated with period photographs of Truman's personal life and public career, including a pair of portraits of Harry and future wife Bess Wallace when they were childhood friends. The back of the book includes a glossary, fast facts about the president, a parallel timeline of world and presidential events, and lists of various resources to help young readers understand the life and times of Truman better.

"Harry Truman: The Man From Independence" devotes as much time to character of Truman as the loyal, honest, fiercely determined man from Independence, Missouri as it does to his time in the White House. Karin C. Farley begins with Truman's early life as a high-spirited farm boy with poor eye sight growing up in the Depression and traces his career from farmer and soldier to haberdasher and Senator. Clearly Farley is trying to help young readers understand some of the controversial decisions Truman made as president, such as ordering to drop the atomic bomb on Japan and the firing of General Douglas MacArthur, in terms of both Truman's personal experience and the climate of world opinion. The result is that Farley underscores the idea that Truman was a man who always kept in touch with his Midwestern roots which gave him a common-sense approach to life, whether he was commanding Battery D during World War I or meeting with Stalin at Potsdam.
The volume is illustrated with black & white photographs from Truman's personal and political lives, including one of the President inspecting the controversial Truman balcony he had build on the White House during the complete renovation during his second term. In the back of the book you will find a chronology of important dates in Truman's life and sources young students can find for additional information. All of the juvenile biographies touch on the idea that Truman remained faithful to the simple man of common sense he had always been even when he became the most powerful person in the world as president, but this is very much the focal point of Farley's volume. Farley also ends the book with Truman's own thoughts on the politics and the "art of government" that are a nice little philosophical statement for young students to read.

This 49 page booklet was copyrighted in 1985. It provides several photos of the Trumans and interior shots of their home in Independence. Also provided is a brief history of the Truman home. Truman's love of the piano and Classical music is demonstrated here. There are numerous quotes from President Truman and his daughter Margaret. Truman also describes his love of history and books. Truman's courtship of Bess is recorded here. Margaret describes her mother's great athletic abilities. President Truman's great love and concern for his daughter are demonstrated in excerpts from letters he wrote to her in the 1940's. This booklet provides a worthwhile glimpse of the personal lives of the Truman family.

This book reproduces many of the significant letters between Presidents Hoover and Truman. Their contact started in 1945 when Truman became President and continued with varying frequency until Hoover's death in 1964.

The prelude to the initial meeting between the two men is recorded here. Truman himself recounted years later his invitation to Hoover to meet together in the White House in 1945.

The two men definitely had conflicting opinions of each other. Hoover initially saw Truman as mediocre and unable to comprehend the issues. In 1947, Hoover would not stay at Blair House for fear it was wired. Years later, Hoover expressed much gratitude to Truman for treating him better than Truman's immediate predecessor had. Hoover viewed Truman as unpredictable. While Truman was cordial and kind in letters and in person to Hoover, Truman nonetheless referred negatively to Hoover in campaign speeches in 1948 and 1952. Hoover viewed these as personal attacks. Truman's claim in 1965 that he never held Hoover accountable for the Great Depression is indeed doubtful.

Hoover's important work to fight human starvation in Europe after WW II is recorded here. Hoover and Truman worked together to combat this tragedy. The work of the Hoover Commission to reorganize the executive branch of the federal government is also recorded.

Bess Truman's letter to Hoover in 1949 is shown here. She requested Hoover to donate a portrait of Mrs. Hoover to the White House for public display.

Hoover's letter of 1950 showing thankfulness for Truman's survival of an assassination attempt is reproduced.

The speeches each man gave at the opening of the others Presidential Library are recorded.

I found one comment of the editors to be doubtful. They claim the Hoover/Truman friendship is unprecedented in the history of the Presidency. In April, 2000, Jimmy Carter stated that he and Gerald Ford were "the closest personal friends" of any former Presidents "in the last 200 years".

I wished the book had some definitions. The book has some practice questions/problems, but it does not include the ANSWERS! This book requires the NEC book itself, to be useful. It makes references to the tables and code in the NEC book. Otherwise it would have been a great book

This is a series of lectures Truman Madsen gives to a group of students in the Holy Land as part of the BYU-Jerusalem study abroad program. The lectures are given live, on location. As a result, the sound quality is not perfect, but acceptable. The beauty of this format is that we get to hear his emotion and his testimony of Christ.

He covers several key aspects of the life and Jesus, but focuses most of his time on the last week. He does a good job describing the locations and it did almost make me feel like I was in Jerusalem.

Most of the material he covered I had read before, but his presentation was very good and I felt like my time was well spent in listening to his lectures.

The fifth volume of this Grimjack reprint series is probably a touch lighter in tone, perhaps a factor of the changing artwork, as most of this is not done by Truman, but by Tom Sutton.

Grimjack has to deal with a demon, a very nasty robot, and a trans dimensional Japanese style giant robot, while adjusting to various artificial hands.

Throw in a couple of Judge Dredd jokes, as well.

As the leading civilian authority on the Secret Service, I recommend this somewhat dry and non-indexed book for the many gems as written y former Secret Service agent---and Chief of White House Signal Corps---Coonel George J. McNally. Of particular note: Puerto Rican sniper threat to JFK in Chicago and the use of helicopters on route, as well as the October 1963 sudden death of Secret Service agent Thomas B. Shipman.
Vince Palamara-JFK/ Secret Service expert (History Channel, author of two books, in over 30 other author's books, etc.)
Pittsburgh, PA