Book review: The Accidental President: Harry S Truman, the Bomb and the Four Months That Changed the World By AJ Baime
- Jan 28, 2018
- 1 min read
From The Times
Although there are plenty of good biographies of Truman, few are as entertaining as Baime’s, which focuses on the four months between his unexpected accession and the end of the war with Japan.
On the morning of April 12, 1945, Harry Truman got up as usual, dropped his daughter at school and went to the office. He had little to do, and passed his time arranging a poker game with a former army friend. After lunch, he strolled into the Senate, where he was due to preside over the afternoon session.
To the amazement of many political observers, the unheralded Truman had spent the past four months as Franklin D Roosevelt’s vice-president, an obscure, bespectacled little man in a dead-end ceremonial job. While the senators droned on, he began a letter to his mother and sister. “Dear Mamma and Mary,” he wrote, “I am trying to write you a letter today from the desk of the president of the Senate … We’ve had a week of beautiful weather but it is raining and misting today.”
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