The Accidental President
Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · October 2, 2018
A hypnotically fast-paced, masterful reporting of Harry Truman’s first 120 days as president, when he took on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and a secret weapon of unimaginable power—marking the most dramatic rise to greatness in American history.
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- Who it’s for
- A compact history of authority, crisis, and the uneasy weight of decisions made fast.
- Themes
- leadership, war, history
- Pacing
- Fast
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For younger readers: What Was the Bombing of Hiroshima?, Ronald Reagan Our 40th President, Unpresidented
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A hypnotically fast-paced, masterful reporting of Harry Truman’s first 120 days as president, when he took on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and a secret weapon of unimaginable power—marking the most dramatic rise to greatness in American history. Chosen as FDR’s fourth-term vice president for his well-praised work ethic, good judgment, and lack of enemies, Harry S. Truman was the prototypical ordinary man.
Continue reading
That is, until he was shockingly thrust in over his head after FDR’s sudden death. The first four months of Truman’s administration saw the founding of the United Nations, the fall of Berlin, victory at Okinawa, firebombings in Tokyo, the first atomic explosion, the Nazi surrender, the liberation of concentration camps, the mass starvation in Europe, the Potsdam Conference, the controversial decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the surrender of imperial Japan, and finally, the end of World War II and the rise of the Cold War. No other president had ever faced so much in such a short period of time. The Accidental President escorts readers into the situation room with Truman during a tumultuous, history-making 120 days, when the stakes were high and the challenges even higher. “[A] well-judged and hugely readable book . . . few are as entertaining.” —Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times
Pressure Point
A compact history of authority, crisis, and the uneasy weight of decisions made fast.
Come here for
- Truman under pressure
- presidential power, nuclear stakes
Expect
- classroom-ready context
- clear, serious pacing
Where it sits
| Presidents & World Leaders | 85% |
|---|---|
| World War II History | 68% |
| Political Lives | 37% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Political Lives
- Presidents & World Leaders
- European History
- Japanese History
Show all 8 publisher categories
- World War II History
- U.S. Military History
- 20th-Century America
- The Americas History
- Authors
- A. J. Baime
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- October 2, 2018
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- leadership · war · history
- Reading lane
- Political Lives