The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Transformed the World

This scooter works great!: For the first time, I understood President Truman's leadership and contributions to the end of WWII. A great, powerful book.

United States on Oct 01, 2023

max: The book arrived in great condition, which I appreciate as it will be a gift for someone. I've read "The Accidental President" before and thought it was interesting, informative, and well written. After reading it, my impression of Harry Truman was that he was an efficient and highly effective President. I recommend this book to anyone who loves history.

United States on Sep 30, 2023

Carolyn Greene: I was fortunate to attend the 45th anniversary of D Day. I met soldiers on both sides. I learned so much from them, & it has given me so so much respect for everyone who serves! It was like stepping back into history! Omg I am so grateful for that experience! TY

United States on Sep 25, 2023

Barbara J.: Writing is exceptional. I could hardly put it down. Felt I knew him and wish I could have met him. He faced such momentous challenges and met them all.

United States on Sep 25, 2023

Edimilson Mario: Alguns jornalistas descrevem o Truman como um líder genocida que usou a bomba atômica para subjulgar um país que já tinha se rendido. É recomendável que leiam este livro para saber mais a respeito deste período; terão a oportunidade de saber mais a respeito do Presidente Acidental.

Brazil on Nov 14, 2022

Bill Hughes: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog!” That was just one of Harry S. Truman’s more memorable lines. The man from Larmar, Missouri, a farmer’s son, had plenty more like that one. Truman, to put it in the popular lexicon, was a straight shooter from the old school. He knew how to cut to the chase and get things done.

During WWI, Truman, at age 33, served as an artillery officer for Battery D company He saw action during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. At war’s end, he was discharged with the rank of captain, much respected and admired by his troops, most of whom were “Irish and German Catholics.” One of them, “Eddie McKim, became one of Truman’s lifelong friends,” the author A. J. Baime writes.

Baime described Truman this way: “He was the prototypical ordinary man. He had no college degree and never had enough money to own his own home.” For a while he even lived in his mother-in-law’s home, who “never liked Harry very much.”

Baime’s book, published in 2017, is entitled: “The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World.” Those “four months” turned out to be truly...

United States on Aug 07, 2020

Johnoc: This isn't a biography from cradle to the grave, which,lets be honest -spend too many pages on tedious stuff, this mainly covers a few months when Truman went from not even a household name in his family to the most powerful man on the planet taking momentous decisions almost daily.

In his first four months of his presidency he had seen Germany defeated, spent days horse trading with Churchill and Stalin (one of them would have been too much for most politicians) on what Europe would look like post-war and give permission to drop two nuclear bombs that forced Japan to surrender. Throw in the first seeds about the state of Israel being created and Truman's decisions still have huge consequences today.

Throw in the fact he never wanted to be President and his wife hated the idea all the while he was in office nakes the title completely accurate of someone who was thrust into office and power and judging by this book did a pretty good job under circumstances probably no world leader had seen before or since.

United Kingdom on Apr 27, 2020

Marcos Luz: Interesting because I got this book to read out of the blue for pure curiosity around the motives to drop the atomic bombs over Japan. Maybe it would shed some light on this matter... For my great pleasure, the book has more than that. It covers the end of the FDR era and the beginning of a new one: Harry S Truman as the first President coming from the common people to rule the world and set eternal development for all humankind (UN, NATO). Glad to understand a little bit more about the ’40s political environment, specially USSR (Stalin) and Great Britain (W. Churchill the last official meet before his term was over). I am not American and probably because of that I never had heard the lend-lease doctrine (program), where the Americans taxpayers were called to support (finance) the battle against Hitler and the rebuild of a devastated Europe. Thanks For That. Excellent book, five stars for sure.

Brazil on Apr 11, 2020

TJB: I knew nothing of Truman before reading this, and Baime does a good job of painting a compelling portrait of the man, who he obviously admires and likes. It is difficult not to share that view after reading this book (which ends at America at the zenith of its power and Truman at the zenith of his popularity: no Korea or McCarthy here). There are some irritating factual errors - even I knew that Gromyko was not the Soviet Foreign Minister in 1945, nor was Anthony Eden yet Lord Avon - and it might have been interesting to explore how history has treated the decision to drop the bomb: Baime rather suggests that it was dropped largely because no one seemed to have much of an idea what else to do with it. Those niggles aside, a recommended read.

United Kingdom on Feb 25, 2018

Rule 62 Ken: Harry Truman's selection as Franklin Roosevelt's running mate in 1944 was a big surprise to everyone, including Truman himself. Roosevelt was in poor health and was not expected to live out his term and the nation was still fighting a two front war. Truman, a former haberdasher and failed businessman from Missouri, did not inspire confidence as a replacement for the iconic FDR at such a precarious time in history. When Roosevelt died in April of 1945, Truman told reporters that it "felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me."

Longtime Wall Street Journal contributor A. J. Baime tells the story of Harry Truman's remarkable transition from county politician to leader of the free world in The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months that Changed the World. This is a remarkably well-researched account of the beginning of the Truman Presidency and the end of the Second World War, a war that was ended by the most controversial wartime decision likely made by any president: the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan in August of 1945.

Baime begins with an accounting of the day that Vice-President Truman became President...

Canada on Jan 27, 2018