Rating: 
Summary: The Biography of Biographies
Review: See all those "Five Star" ratings? There's a reason for it. This is THE biography of biographies. The book is huge and appears to be a daunting task, but McCullough makes reading this book so enjoyable, I finished it in the time it would usually take me to read a book half its length. One great thing about this book is that McCullough does not give anecdotes for the sake of giving anecdotes, he has a definate purpose behind giving each one. It helps the reader to understand Harry Truman the person, what he thought, how he acted. We see Truman's hopes hopes as well as his fears, his strengths as well as his weaknesses. If you're going to read one biography in your life, make it this one. You won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Accurate and Insightful
Review: David MC is a brilliant historian. His work is always thorough and insightful. Unfortunately,the result is a number of very thick historical works. They are all well written (path between the seas, brooklyn bridge) and McCullough is one of the few historical writers who could pull off the task of keeping the casual reader entertained for 1100 pages. Truman is an excellent work, but necessarily long and comprehensive. Only Porter Bibb surpasses McCullough in historical writing. McCullough is superior to Bibb as a general historian, but Bibb's highly acclaimed biography of Ted Turner is the best non-fiction book I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Few Biographies Compare
Review: David McCullough has written one of the most remarkable books I've had the pleasure to read (and re-read). It is hard for me to imagine that people feel McCullough is worshipping Truman? I learned as much about his critics (and there were many) as the people that praised him. To suggest that Truman was not a great President and somehow does not rate this kind of attention misses the mark in my opinion. One only has to read how the people that worked for Truman feel about him (Acheson, Marshall, etc.). A great President, maybe not. A great man, absolutely. This book does an excellent job of explaining why Truman was so highly regarded by the people closest to him.
Rating:
Summary: Stranger than Fiction
Review: The amazing thing about this book is that if it weren't a biography, I'd have dismissed it as too unbelievable and clicheed. Then again, maybe that's just a sympton of the times, where being a character seems to resonate more than having character. While I would agree that more could have been made of the dichotomy between his own personal integrity versus the corruption of many of those who backed him, I heartily disagree with those who would dismiss this as mere propaganda or sentimentality. All of Truman's many flaws are readily on display; McCullough does not gloss them over, but instead uses them as foils to the positive traits, and asks us to understand them together in our judgement of the man. The problem of balance comes about from the fact that, because so much of the material is based on Truman's own writings, his view of people (I nearly said characters) tend to be portrayed as fact, when I suspect the truth of it was far more complex. That he was right about Marshall and McCarthy is beyond doubt; Eisenhower, Wallace, Stevenson, and the rest, however, seem to have been shortchanged. While it is my personal belief that history has validated much of Truman's policy decisions, and this book often says as much, it would be a mistake for anyone to view this as a stand-alone work. While it is comprehensive as a biography, it is not so as a history or analysis of policy. The decisions he made - and the consequences thereof - are presented as how they reflect Truman's character and personality, and not the reverse. While this book is essential in understanding the developments of the Marshall Plan, Korean War, etc., it is by no means ABOUT these topics, and it would be a mistake to evaluate history on the basis of this book alone.
Rating: 
Summary: way too long, too meticulous, too detailed
Review: i am required to read this book for my high school american history course. i must say that i am terrified of this book, and i simply cannot bring myself to read it pleasurably. i put off reading it as long as possible; it is so boring, and i absolutely cannot remember all those details. i do believe that the possiblilty of my enjoying this book exists, with the sole exception being only if it were much shorter. but perhaps i am a bit too young to be able to fully appreciate President Truman and his life; whatever the case, i severly wish there were cliff notes to this book. i would not recommend reading this book unless you have absolutely nothing left to do with your time, or you just like to torture yourself. and to teachers out there: please, for the mental sanity and good health of your students, please do not require them to read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Truman Worship? A bit too long?
Review: I read most of the negative reviews in these pages and I noticed a common theme. Most of these reviewers are accusing McCullough of Truman Worshipping. I frankly question weather some of these reviewers have even read the book, as general as their criticism seems too be. I guess I can't blame them, because this incredibly detailed book of 1,000 pages could be criticized for being overly long. What is unquestionable is that McCullough likes Truman. I heard him say that in his 10 years of research on this book. He never talked too anyone, who knew Truman personally, that had a bad thing to say about him. Reading the book I find numerous times where Truman's questionable actions are documented. The personal failures of his youth and early political career are well covered in the book and yet what is astonishing is that this guy becomes president of the USA. I have come away from reading this book, not worshipping Truman, but better understanding what a complex character he was. Harry really was an unlikely Hero. After reading his book, like McCullough, I couldn't help liking Truman for who he was. I feel I came to that conclusion knowing just about everything there was too know about Harry Truman. Thanks to David Mccullough's hard work!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent Biography
Review: McCullough really brings to life the "common man" who becam the highest ranking official in the country. This is by far one of the best biographies I have ever read. It is informative as well as entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: A superb biography of a great President!
Review: David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize winning biography "Truman" is undoubtedly the best Presidential biography I've read in recent years. Written in a graceful and powerfully eloquent style, it is meticulously researched, and accurately captures the essence of the man who was the 33rd President of the United States. McCullough challenges a commonly held view of history that Harry S Truman was nothing more than a common man of mediocre abilities who became President almost by accident, and owed his political success to his loyalty to the Democratic party and the Kansas City political bosses. By tracing the life of this self-made man - a farmer, artillery captain during World War I, haberdasher, local politician, U.S. Senator, Vice President, and ultimately President of the United States - the author acquaints the reader with a highly intelligent, competent and complex man. Here is seen the highly principled politician whose ability to judge the character of others enabled him to select outstanding men like Dean Acheson and George Marshall to serve in his administration; a Chief Executive capable of making some of the most momentous decisions of the twentieth century, such as ordering the use of the atomic bomb against Japan in 1945, integrating the Armed Forces in 1948, and firing General Douglas MacArthur in 1951. But, here also is seen a man who remained loyal to personal friends and Democratic party bosses and tolerant of their often disreputable activities; and who, in a fit of petty anger, authored a threatening letter to a music critic who wrote unfavorably about his daughter. "Truman" is above all a fair and balanced portrait of one of the most unique and greatest of American Presidents. In my view, this extraordinarily well written book is destined to be the biography of Harry S Truman against which all others will be measured. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: "To err is Truman...."
Review: As one who grew up through Truman's Presidency (I was 7 when he succeeded FDR), I am fascinated by the adulation heaped on him today - which Professor McCullough contributes to through this well-written glorification. I'm a self-professed liberal, and I've never voted for a Republican for President, yet I've never agreed with the adulation heaped on Truman. He was decisive? So what. The unfortunate old man who lived in the shadow of Mount St. Helens and refused to move when the mountain rumbled was also decisive. And he turned out to be wrong, dead wrong. And he was also named Harry Truman. So, don't praise decisiveness; evaluate the consequences of the decisions. As for Truman's handling of the Cold War, I'm one who shares the revisionists' view that Truman made a dangerous situation worse. We threw our weight around all over the world, propping up dictators here, there, and everywhere, yet Truman was irate when Stalin insisted on having a friendly-to-Russia government in Poland. The Russians had lost somewhere around 20 million people in the war - the equivalent of two Vietnam Wars (U.S. casualties) every week for four years. It was inevitable that any responsible Russian government would demand a buffer zone to protect itself from such devastation. (They had suffered similar slaughter in WW I as well.) Then there is Vietnam and the rest of the colonial world seeking independence. Yet Truman sided with the colonizers - France in the case of Vietnam - and we paid the price in the 1960s. FDR was, indeed, a great man, but Truman hardly merits the praise that McCullough and others have heaped on him.
Rating:
Summary: A Man Of Character
Review: It took me 6 weeks to finish this book, six enjoyable ones at that. McCullough has a way of making history come alive. I found myself thinking "what would Harry S Truman do" in a situation I was in? What shines through in this book is Truman's character and the ability to pick himself off the mat as he often needed to. Not only is this book a great biography about a great man but also an excellent inspirational one as well.
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