What they're saying ...
“Few elections have been more dramatic and decisive than Truman vs. Dewey in 1948. And few have found a more able historian than A. J. Baime, who recounts this crucial moment with compelling verve and subtle insight.”
H. W. Brands, New York Times best-selling author of Dreams of El Dorado and Heirs of the Founders
"Well-paced . . . Baime skillfully leads readers to conclude what he surely had in mind from the outset: In an election, substance matters, as does courage and decency, and Truman displayed them all in 1948."
Boston Globe
"In this presidential election year, historian and journalist A.J. Baime has given America a winner."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Accidental President comes the thrilling story of the 1948 presidential election, the greatest election upset of all time, as Truman mounted a history-making comeback and staked a claim for a new course for America.
On the eve of the 1948 election, America was a fractured country. Racism was rampant, foreign relations were fraught, and political parties were more divided than ever. Americans were certain that President Harry S. Truman’s political career was over. “The ballots haven’t been counted,” noted political columnist Fred Othman, “but there seems to be no further need for holding up an affectionate farewell to Harry Truman.” Truman’s own staff did not believe he could win. Nor did his wife, Bess. The only man in the world confident that Truman would win was Mr. Truman himself. And win he did.
The year 1948 was a fight for the soul of a nation. In Dewey Defeats Truman, A. J. Baime sheds light on one of the most action-packed six months in American history, as Truman both triumphs and oversees watershed events—the passing of the Marshall plan, the acknowledgement of Israel as a new state, the careful attention to the origins of the Cold War, and the first desegregation of the military.
Not only did Truman win the election, he succeeded in guiding his country forward at a critical time with high stakes and haunting parallels to the modern day.
