The Quotable Truman - Hardcover

To many contemporaries, President Harry Truman was diminished by memories of his predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt. Ferrell's solid biography will likewise struggle in the wake of David McCullough's Truman (LJ 6/1/92), an outsized achievement rewarded with a Pulitzer Prize. Ferrell is a distinguished scholar and author of many books on Truman, including Choosing Truman: The Democratic Convention of 1944 (LJ 3/15/94). His present work offers more detail on a few episodes of Truman's life and presidency but lacks the overall richness and epic quality of McCullough's book. Libraries seeking a concise alternative to McCullough's thousand-page life will nevertheless be served well by Ferrell, whose scholarly credentials will be the main reason for larger public and academic libraries to buy his biography. If that decision is a hard one, the next is easy. A history of the presidency was an uncompleted retirement project of Truman. In compiling brief excerpts from this material on the presidency, Constitution, democracy, history, and other topics, Gallen (Malcolm X, LJ 4/1/92) has somehow managed to present a Truman who is boring and platitudinous. The very same material was edited more skillfully and presented more fully by Truman's daughter Margaret in Where the Buck Stops (Warner, 1989). Only libraries aiming for comprehensive Truman collections need think about this book.
Robert F. Nardini, North Chichester, N.H.
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