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Excellent read for lining up all the threads of a great leader's life in a narrative that flows like the story from a novel. Even at 1,000 pages, so much history passed through Truman's hands that major events such as the decision to bomb Hiroshima and the Korean War have to slip by with only a few pages. What comes through as a thread in the whole tapestry is the fundamental decency of the man, a pragmatism typical of farmers who face diverse challenges day by day, and a core belief in fairness for all and a distaste for wealthy privilege. His empathy for the poor was based on his own experience of the farming life and early business failures. His racist language is downplayed in relation to his efforts as president to support a Jewish State and steps toward civil rights. His political origins through the Pendergast machine in Kansas City taught him how to use and live with a patronage system, but it also seems to have given him enough knowledge of corruption and monied power to make his name exposing corruption as a senator and to be vigilant about influence buying while a president. Got to appreciate a fellow who hated Hoover and McCarthy from the get go. He saw enough war as an artillery captain in World War 1 to hate war, but was effective enough at it to inform his role as Commander in Chief during both the end of World War 2 and the Korean War. Despite a conception of Truman as hot tempered, his restraint was often remarkable. For example, the impulse to fire McArthur immediately for pushing in the media for a war with China was tempered by waiting for assessment of his value from a military perspective by the Joint Chiefs.