Wild About Harry—Againrnby James Hillrn”Democracy is Lovelace and the people is Clarissa.”rn—John AdamsrnTrumanrnby David McCuUoughrnNew York: Simon & Schuster;rn1,120 pp., $30.00rnIwas born in 1946, right in the middlernof I larrv Truman’s accidental and tumultuousrnfirst term as President. I havernno memory of the man until one earlyrnNovember morning in 1952, when myrnmother and grandmother were discussingrnthe election of Dwight Eisenhower.rnAs I vaguely recall, this discussionrncentered around the Korean Warrnand Ike’s promise to go to Korea andrnbring the bovs home. Somewhere itrnturned into argumerrt, and that is whenrnI first heard the phrase that, for muchrnof mv early life at least, was to definernthe 33rd President of the UnitedrnStates—”That Damned Truman.”rnUnderstand, please, that this tookrnplace in Winfield, Kansas—”12,000rnfriendly people,” most of them Eisenhowerrnpartisans. Ike was a Kansan; Trumanrna Missourian. And consideringrnwhat we sav about politicians today,rn” I’hat Damned Truman” may havernbeen not so much a curse as it was arngrudging measure of respect, for all Irnknow.rnCertainly, others differed. Some historiansrnand political scientists have contendedrnin recent years that Harry Trumanrnwas one of the greatest of AmericanrnPresidents. One need only look at thernexhaustive bibliography compiled byrnDavid McCullough for his quite readablernand thorough Truman to understandrnthat the Truman administrationrnhas been an obsession of scholars almostrnfrom the dav his train took him homernto Independence in January of 1953.rnBut I also think it’s safe to say, twentyrnyears after his death and forty years afterrnhe left the White House, that we’re stillrnnot sure if we’re wild about Harry. Fromrntime to time, however, some of thernJames Hill is editor of the Perspectivernsection of the Arizona Republic.rnscholarship on Truman has helped producernTruman revivals that cast this machine-rnage politician—once called thernSenator from Pendcrgast—in a very favorable,rnif not fawning, light.rnBecause he lived to the age of 88,rnTruman had the opportunity to share inrna few of these reappraisals, principallyrnthe ones that occurred with the publicationrnof his memoirs in 1955, the openingrnof his library in 1957, and his 80thrnbirthday in 1964. Yet it was in thernI970’s, when he was no longer around,rnthat the idea of a true Harry Trumanrnrevival—almost elevating the man tornmthieal proportions—took hold. It norndoubt started with his daughter Margaret’srnHarry S. Truman—a remarkablyrninteresting though one-sided set-therecord-rnstraight portrait of her fatherrnpublished when he was on his deathrnbed—and went on through much of therndecade, including a popular song by thernrock-group Chicago, a hugely successfulrnone-man show b actor James Whitmore,rnand, of course, Merle Miller’s entertainingrnPlain Speaking. It should bernnoted, also, that this Truman revivalrntook place at a time when the nationrnwas coming out of the miserable war inrnVietnam and Watergate’s shock to thernpresidency. One has to presume thatrnafter Lyndon Johnson and RichardrnNixon, America was looking for anyonernwho could make the presidency lookrngood.rnAs I write, Bill Clinton has just deliveredrnhis acceptance speech for thernDemocratic nomination, and Ross Perotrnhas dropped his independent bid to seekrnthe White House. President Bu.sh is offrnsomewhere in Wyoming, and the instantrnpolls are already giving Governor Clinton,rnthe characterless candidate of just arnfew weeks ago, an enormous lead. Therncountry seems in a gridlock, the ‘otersrnalienated. Could it be that Harry Truman,rnthanks to David McCullough’srnscholarship, is looking good again?rnCertainly he is, but let’s backtrack arnbit. I’ruman, a ten-vear effort of Mr.rnMcCullough, is one of those well-timedrnworks guaranteed to get notice, winrnawards, and set off columnists and commerrtatorsrndebating the merits of thernTruman administration. It is also—andrnappropriately too, considering the greatrnamount of documentation not only ofrnTruman’s life but of America in thernpostwar era—a monument to the man.rnWhile I think that one could get a betterrnunderstanding of Jackson County,rnMissouri, under the control of Boss TomrnPendcrgast by reading Tom’s Town, arnmarvelous but largely overlooked workrnby William Reddig (reissued by the Universityrnof Missouri Press in 1986), andrnthat the review of Truman’s WhiternHouse years seems very familiar (andrnwhy not, again considering the documentation),rnthis book should not be dis-rnNOVEMBER 1992/31rnrnrn