David L. Roll’s “Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt’s Shadow and Remade the World” (Dutton, 544 pgs., $33) emphasizes how the unprepared new president excelled in statecraft as he grew into the presidency.
Not since David McCullough’s tour de force biography of Truman in 1992 has an author attempted to focus on a specific attribute of Truman’s political career. Roll succeeds brilliantly.
When he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, after the sudden death of Franklin Roosevelt, Truman was oblivious to most of Roosevelt’s plans, promises and/or directives. Since his nomination as vice president, Roll explains, Truman had met with Roosevelt only a handful of times and none with “serious discussions.”
It is the transition — the transfer of power — that is the focus of Roll’s clear, heavily researched narrative.
Andrew Roberts in The Wall Street Journal says it best: “Roll has a fine sense of all the key figures around Truman, but it is his insights into the man himself that are so valuable … this book confirms Truman as a giant of American — indeed global — history.”
A lawyer turned historian, Roll masterfully uses his research on two earlier biographies of chief Roosevelt aide Harry Hopkins and Chief of the Army, Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall to enhance and enlarge Truman’s presidential efforts.
Roll also more clearly defines when and how Truman learned of the Manhattan Project and its atomic bomb. Helping to clarify the myth that Truman learned of the atomic bomb only after he became president, Roll stresses that Truman’s Senate committee in 1942, which investigated defense contracts, was told of a secret weapons project on several earlier occasions.
What is true is that Truman did not know of the weapon’s true potential until he read, as Roll relates, a memo from Gen. Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project. The memorandum succinctly said the power of the nuclear explosion was “between five and twenty thousand tons of TNT and the potential (of the bomb) for winning the war more quickly with a saving in American lives.”
Again, it’s the details that Roll incorporates in his narrative that bring life to his storytelling.
The nation’s 34th press secretary
William & Mary’s own Jen Psaki carved out an enviable 20-year career in politics, which she carefully uses to mold a narrative on how to be a more effective communicator.
“Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World” (Scribner, 240 pgs., $28.99) uses her vast experience to put things forthright just as she did as press secretary for President Joe Biden and spokesperson for the Department of State under Secretary of State John Kerry.
A 2000 graduate of William & Mary with a double major in English and sociology, Psaki told the college student newspaper in 2015 that the college “served me professionally in many ways, including the fact that it enabled me to develop strong writing skills (and) spend time really learning how to communicate effectively …”
Those traits stood her in good stead in her work on three democratic presidential campaigns and her various appointed political positions, she explained. With a knack for words and phraseology one need only look at some of the titles of her book’s chapters to know exactly what they will entail:
“Remember when that nice man won the election?” “That’s not credible!” “If you can’t say anything nice, you still have to say something,” “When to serve a PsakiBomb?” “A Punch Line China would find Funny” and “Russia says you’re getting fired?”
Psaki uses her keen wit in the book, just as she used it in her press conferences and briefings. She also is known for clarity in skillfully delivering her messages.
She had two young children in her last years of public service and details problems associated with raising kids and White House hitches at the same time. Some of those are found in Chapter 8 — “Kindergarten Open House on the Worst Day in the White House.”
Comedian and commentator on life in general Chelsea Handler says: “You don’t have to love politics to love this book. But with candor and humor, Jen shows the reader what it’s actually like to be in front of the political spotlight, including how to navigate different kinds of bosses and how to deliver a powerful message.”
Today, Psaki can be seen on MSNBC almost daily and, almost ironically, she announced President Biden’s decision not to run for reelection in the late afternoon of July 21.
Some old Alexandria history
“True Tales of Old Alexandria” (The History Press, 192 pgs., $24.99) by Ted Pulliam is a marvelous companion to his earlier illustrated volume, “Historic Alexandria.”
Pulliam stresses at the outset that the stories contained herein are about “real” events that took place from 1609 to 2018 in or around Alexandria. Included in the vignettes are colonists, cannibals, Native Americans, an inept British general, a notorious 17th century as well as a Union soldier, Army Gen. George S. Patton and even six 1920s bank robbers.
One of the more interesting chapters features British Major Gen. Edward Braddock of French and Indian War fame. There is a road in Alexandria named for him and Pulliam wanted to know why. What was the connection?
Simply stated: Alexandria was the headquarters for Braddock after he came to the colonies with troops to confront the French and Indian menace. However, readers will enjoy Pulliam’s 17-page historical explanation.
Another interesting chapter is titled “Boots, Saddles & Tanks: The U.S. Army’s Horse Cavalry Between the two World Wars.” Pulliam’s crisp narrative is full of so many facts that one feels like they are watching an old 7th Cavalry movie or a World War I documentary. It’s the horse soldiers versus armored cavalry. And Patton and his crew win.
Just released is another Pulliam book, “Here’s a Letter from Thy Dear Son: Letters of a Georgia Family during the Civil War Era” from the Mercer University Press. A family of modest means communicates among themselves war experiences and their own disruptions and hardships.
Have a comment or suggestion for Kale? Contact him at Kaleonbooks95@gmail.com.
