As much as I enjoy David McCullough's more well-known biography of Truman (and it was my first biography of him), Hamby's Man of the People is generally considered to be the more academic/historian's biography of Truman and, reading it, I can see why. While it is certainly a good book, it's a lot denser and gets into a lot more of the nitty-gritty of his policies with less of a focus on his personal life to lighten up these aspects, like many of the more pop culture books I read.
So, while it certainly is worth reading, I have to say I'm glad it wasn't my first biography on Truman. Having some familiarity with him made it possible to tackle the book without becoming overly bogged down digging through a Wikipedia rabbit hole trying to put faces and titles to names. As a result of this, a full 5/5 has to be diminished slightly to a 4/5.
When Hamby does look at Truman's more personal side, he provides interesting insight. Of particular note, I found the distinction noted between the paragon of a male figure Truman grew up idealizing (rough, tough, and gruff—the cowboy type we'd recognize today as an embodiment of a lot of toxic masculine traits) in contrast to his own more compromise approach and view of himself as a "sissy." The kind of internal tension this might reveal about Truman is interesting to consider and, since Freudian approaches are a bit out of vogue, not particularly common in more modern biographies (it's better used for literature than biography, imo, though it can be a fun creative exercise, and yes, I may be biased).
The nuanced side of Truman presented here, such as his personal vendettas (see: Missouri governor Stark, UMW leader John L. Lewis, even the cameos by one Clare Boothe Luce), also provide a thornier, wartier view of the man and having this more critical view of him gives me more respect for him. We see Truman as he was: not a great man forging history like Hephaestus at the forge, not the epitome of the common man, just an average, ordinary man trying to handle life one struggle at the time and keep the peace to the best of his ability while wrestling with a temper that got him into trouble at awful times.
One fun anecdote in particular stands out from the 1948 campaign, when Truman is given a basket of fresh eggs and, at the suggestion he throw them at Republican Senator Taft, a legislative opponent, replies that he wouldn't waste fresh eggs on him. As with any biography, the (limited) choice of anecdotes is up to the author and which character traits the author chooses to use to illustrate the portrait they're painting. Hamby's Truman is more true-to-life, albeit less avuncular and genial at times, than McCullough's or Robbin's Truman.
Another fun aspect of reading biographies out of the order they were released is reading a book like Hamby's, released in the mid-nineties, that clearly was prior to the declassification of certain documents that have shed further light on the events of the era. Until Hamby referenced McCullough by name, I thought McCullough's book was released second, not first, on the flip side. A few other examples of this include Iran/Mosaddegh and MacArthur—I would recommend Kinzer's All the Shah's Men, Brands' The General Vs. the President, and Neal's Harry & Ike—but it's also unfair to judge a book based on information likely unavailable to Hamby at the time of writing.
On the note of changing perceptions: while Truman left office a pariah and spent most of the remainder of his life in the political wilderness, he is now considered to be one of the top ten presidents in our nation's history.
Ulysses S. Grant is an interesting comparison here: the general who led us through the Civil War once had the most visited memorial in Washington DC and was incredibly popular; during the twentieth century, especially with the rise of the Lost Cause myth about the Confederacy (championed in books like Gone With the Wind) Grant's reputation took a hit. Thanks to historians taking a new look at him—Chernow and Brands come to mind—Grant is once more beginning to see a historical reevaluation and we may see his ranking change again as perception shifts back to him being a good man whose shortcomings and corrupt administration had more to do with him placing too much trust in men who abused it than in him being a bad man himself (plus he has that cool Mark Twain connection and his memoirs are still quite highly regarded in military circles to my knowledge).
Hamby even makes a strikingly similar argument about the corruption in Truman's administration.
All in all, a very informative, if dense biography. If you're still only going to read one, I'm inclined for the average person to suggest McCullough's, which is as popular as it is for a reason, but Hamby's is no doubt worth a read, especially if you're a Truman fan like myself.
Odd Note:
While a captain during WWI, Truman commanded Battery D and had some conflict with his commanding officer, one Colonel Karl Klemm. After Col. Klemm passed away, a marksmanship award was set up in his honor "by his comrades" (presumably fellow officers closer to his own rank and not Battery D?)—poor choice, considering that Klemm had died by suicide with his service gun. Oops, talk about an unintentionally tone deaf in memoriam.
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