Reviews
"Man of the People offers an appreciative but clear-eyed and unsentimental view of Harry Truman. Readers interested in what give-em-hell-Harry was really like won't want to miss it."--William E. Leuchtenburg, William Rand Kenan Professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, "Man of the People offers an appreciative but clear-eyed and unsentimentalview of Harry Truman. Readers interested in what give-em-hell-Harry was reallylike won't want to miss it."--William E. Leuchtenburg, William Rand KenanProfessor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, "A book that should be read by everyone who prefers history to myth-making."--David Frum, The Weekly Standard, "A massive, engaging, and revealing political and personal study.... Hamby has taken us a step beyond mythology."--Chicago Tribune"Hamby presents a beautifully constructed and scrupulously researched portrait of Truman that strips away the mythologizer's varnish to give us the authentic, gutsy politician whose life was a potent testimony to burning ambition, good judgment, and blind luck. "--The Washington Post Book World"What Mr. Hamby has done, with great skill, is to remind us of the real Harry Truman, to demythologize him without slighting his accomplishments or his rough road to success."--The New York Times Book Review"An altogether splendid biography."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "Hamby presents a beautifully constructed and scrupulously researchedportrait of Truman that strips away the mythologizer's varnish to give us theauthentic, gutsy politician whose life was a potent testimony to burningambition, good judgment, and blind luck.... It's all here: the Truman Doctrine,the Taft-Hartley Act, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, the NationalSecurity Act, the 1948 upset victory, the creation of NATO, the ChineseRevolution, McCarthy, NSC-68, the Korean War, Douglas MacArthur's dismissal....At the helm of these events is Truman, making tough decisions more carefully inMan of the People than in other biographies, an ordinary fellow lessself-assured than we have been led to believe by 'The Buck Stops Here'promoters."--Douglas Brinkley, The Washington Post Book World, "A massive, engaging, and revealing political and personal study.... Hamby has taken us a step beyond mythology."--Chicago Tribune "Hamby presents a beautifully constructed and scrupulously researched portrait of Truman that strips away the mythologizer's varnish to give us the authentic, gutsy politician whose life was a potent testimony to burning ambition, good judgment, and blind luck. "--The Washington Post Book World "What Mr. Hamby has done, with great skill, is to remind us of the real Harry Truman, to demythologize him without slighting his accomplishments or his rough road to success."--The New York Times Book Review "An altogether splendid biography."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "Man of the People reveals the mastery of factual detail and contemporary scholarship we have come to expect from Alonzo Hamby. What is an additional bonus is the fascinating and thoroughly convincing portrait of Truman the man contained in these pages. This is the definitive biography of oneof the great presidents of the 20th century."--John A. Garraty, Governor Morris Professor, Columbia University, "Is there need for another comprehensive Truman biography? Yes, and noted Truman historian Hamby provides it."--Library Journal, "Man of the People reveals the mastery of factual detail and contemporaryscholarship we have come to expect from Alonzo Hamby. What is an additionalbonus is the fascinating and thoroughly convincing portrait of Truman the mancontained in these pages. This is the definitive biography of one of the greatpresidents of the 20th century."--John A. Garraty, Governor Morris Professor,Columbia University, "Hamby presents a beautifully constructed and scrupulously researched portrait of Truman that strips away the mythologizer's varnish to give us the authentic, gutsy politician whose life was a potent testimony to burning ambition, good judgment, and blind luck.... It's all here: the TrumanDoctrine, the Taft-Hartley Act, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, the National Security Act, the 1948 upset victory, the creation of NATO, the Chinese Revolution, McCarthy, NSC-68, the Korean War, Douglas MacArthur's dismissal.... At the helm of these events is Truman, making tough decisionsmore carefully in Man of the People than in other biographies, an ordinary fellow less self-assured than we have been led to believe by 'The Buck Stops Here' promoters."--Douglas Brinkley, The Washington Post Book World, "Hamby has produced a massive, engaging, and revealing political and personal study.... He renders a Truman who is more complex and, perhaps, more real--a man flawed and ordinary in many ways, yet ultimately admirable and often consistent with the mythology that casts him as an ordinary mancalled upon to play an extraordinary role in world history.... This is an admirably thoughtful and penetrating study. Hamby has taken us a step beyond mythology."--Chicago Tribune, "More closely than other historians, Mr. Hamby pursues the emotional andintellectual life of this provincial, accidental President who was much loathedin office but died an American hero."--The New York Times Book Review (And Bearin Mind), "More closely than other historians, Mr. Hamby pursues the emotional and intellectual life of this provincial, accidental President who was much loathed in office but died an American hero."--The New York Times Book Review (And Bear in Mind), "Hamby's rich portrait reveals a man devoted to honesty and efficiency in public service, who excelled at building bipartisan coalitions, displayed an ability to make hard decisions, and was 'magnificently right' in his contributions to the early civil rights movement and to the mobilizationof the West against the Soviet challenge....[Hamby's] biography vividly defines the man, both public and private."--Publishers Weekly, "A superb new biography.... The Truman we meet in these pages is more troubled, complicated, and genuine than the man we have read about before. While Mr. Hamby's account lacks the narrative drive of David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning Truman...it is superior...in providing a clearinterpretative framework for understanding the relationship between Truman's personal traits and his momentous Presidential decisions.... What Mr. Hamby has done, with great skill, is to remind us of the real Harry Truman, to demythologize him without slighting his accomplishments or his rough roadto success."--The New York Times Book Review, "Man of the People is the best of the Truman biographies, beating by a short head David McCullough's highly readable Truman, published four years ago."--The Sunday Telegraph
