Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence

"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.