The Hidden White House

The Hidden White House PDF Author: Robert Klara
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250000270
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
"In 1948, Harry Truman, President of the United States, almost fell through the ceiling of the Blue Room in a bathtub into a meeting of the Daughters of the American Revolution. A team of the nation's top architects was hastily assembled to inspect the White House, and upon seeing the state the old mansion was in, insisted the First Family be evicted immediately. What followed was the biggest home-improvement job the nation had ever seen"--

The Hidden White House

The Hidden White House PDF Author: Robert Klara
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250000270
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
"In 1948, Harry Truman, President of the United States, almost fell through the ceiling of the Blue Room in a bathtub into a meeting of the Daughters of the American Revolution. A team of the nation's top architects was hastily assembled to inspect the White House, and upon seeing the state the old mansion was in, insisted the First Family be evicted immediately. What followed was the biggest home-improvement job the nation had ever seen"--

The Truman White House

The Truman White House PDF Author: Francis H. Heller
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700631534
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This retrospective study brings together twenty-two key associates of President Truman’s to consider the administrative operation of the presidency from 1945 to 1953. A record of the discussions that took place at the conference held in May 1977 sponsored by the Harry S. Truman Library Institute for National and international Affairs, it presents an assortment of views on Truman’s administrative philosophies and practices. The contributors are persons who were close to Truman throughout his presidency: members of the cabinet, the White House staff, and senior officials in Executive Office agencies. Sharing personal reflections are, among others, Charles Brannan, W. Averell Harriman, Leon H. Keyserling, Charles S. Murphy, Richard E. Neustadt, John W. Snyder, Elmer B. Staats, and the late Tom C. Clark. Coordinating the interaction with incisive questions and comments on general administrative history are Edward H. Hobbs of Auburn University, Dorothy Buckton James of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Louis W. Koenig of New York University, and Chester A. Newland of the University of Southern California. A number of important administrative aspects of Truman’s presidency are touched upon as the participants review the years of their White House experience. They talk about policy making in the areas of national security and foreign affairs, about budget and economic matters, relations with Congress, domestic problems such as civil rights, presidential appointments, and even press relations. They exchange anecdotes about the president’s style and their working relationships with him in staff meetings, cabinet meetings, and private briefing sessions. They consider whether Truman had a chief of staff or the equivalent and debate the “liberal” versus the “conservative stance of the Truman presidency. The creation of the Central Intelligence Agency and the establishment of the National Security Council, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the National Security Resources Board during Truman’s administration clearly improved and strengthened the organization of and the institutional aids to the presidency. In answer to the question of what can be learned from the way Truman operated the presidency, however the overriding theme of the exchanges recorded here is that the style of the White House is—inescapably—the president’s style. The picture that emerges in the pages of life and work in Truman’s administration is one of informality, enthusiasm, and camaraderie. A family-like atmosphere pervaded the staff, and the president played the crucial role in setting the tone. Thus, the White House between 1945 and 1853 was orderly because Harry Truman was an orderly person; it was profoundly human because that was Truman’s way. Truman is remembered by his key associates as a prodigious worker and a thorough professional. To those who wrote and spoke for this volume there is no question that the nation was well served by the way Harry Truman managed his affairs in the White House. Incorporating a broad spectrum of firsthand information on the administrative concepts and practices of the Truman era, this book will be of prime interest to all students of government and executive organization.

Bess Wallace Truman

Bess Wallace Truman PDF Author: Sara L. Sale
Publisher: Modern First Ladies
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Sale shows how Bess Truman remade the office of the first lady to suit her own personality and along the way earned the admiration and respect of the American people. --Publisher.

Fight House

Fight House PDF Author: Tevi Troy
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1621578372
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"Fight House looks juicy as all hell" - National Review “Troy seamlessly weaves West Wing gossip with significant moments in modern history.” - Jewish Insider THE WHITE HOUSE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A FIGHT HOUSE President Trump’s White House is famously tumultuous. But as presidential historian and former White House staffer Tevi Troy reminds us, bitter rivalries inside the White House are nothing new. From the presidencies of Harry S. Truman, when the modern White House staff took shape, to Donald Trump, the White House has been filled with ambitious people playing for the highest stakes and bearing bitter grudges. In Fight House, you’ll discover: -The advisor to President Harry Truman that General George Marshall refused to acknowledge -How the supposed “Camelot” Kennedy White House was rife with conflict -How Dr. Henry Kissinger displaced other national security advisors to gain President Richard Nixon’s ear -Why President Jimmy Carter’s personal pettiness and obsession with detail led to a dysfunctional White House—and played a role in his losing the 1980 election -How the contrasting management styles of President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan led to some epic White House staff clashes -Why the “No Drama Obama” White House was anything but no drama Insightful, entertaining, and important, Tevi Troy’s Fight House will delight and instruct anyone interested in American politics and presidential history.

The Accidental President

The Accidental President PDF Author: Albert J. Baime
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544617347
Category : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Languages : en
Pages : 461

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Book Description
During the atomic, earthshaking first 120 days of Harry Truman's unlikely presidency, an unprepared, small-town man had to take on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and a secret weapon of unimaginable power--marking the most dramatic rise to greatness in American history.

The White House Looks South

The White House Looks South PDF Author: William E. Leuchtenburg
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807151424
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 877

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Book Description
Perhaps not southerners in the usual sense, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson each demonstrated a political style and philosophy that helped them influence the South and unite the country in ways that few other presidents have. Combining vivid biography and political insight, William E. Leuchtenburg offers an engaging account of relations between these three presidents and the South while also tracing how the region came to embrace a national perspective without losing its distinctive sense of place. According to Leuchtenburg, each man "had one foot below the Mason-Dixon Line, one foot above." Roosevelt, a New Yorker, spent much of the last twenty-five years of his life in Warm Springs, Georgia, where he built a "Little White House." Truman, a Missourian, grew up in a pro-Confederate town but one that also looked West because of its history as the entrepôt for the Oregon Trail. Johnson, who hailed from the former Confederate state of Texas, was a westerner as much as a southerner. Their intimate associations with the South gave these three presidents an empathy toward and acceptance in the region. In urging southerners to jettison outworn folkways, Roosevelt could speak as a neighbor and adopted son, Truman as a borderstater who had been taught to revere the Lost Cause, and Johnson as a native who had been scorned by Yankees. Leuchtenburg explores in fascinating detail how their unique attachment to "place" helped them to adopt shifting identities, which proved useful in healing rifts between North and South, in altering behavior in regard to race, and in fostering southern economic growth. The White House Looks South is the monumental work of a master historian. At a time when race, class, and gender dominate historical writing, Leuchtenburg argues that place is no less significant. In a period when America is said to be homogenized, he shows that sectional distinctions persist. And in an era when political history is devalued, he demonstrates that government can profoundly affect people's lives and that presidents can be change-makers.

Dear Bess

Dear Bess PDF Author: Harry S. Truman
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 9780826212030
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 614

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Book Description
This correspondence, which encompasses Truman's courtship of his wife, his service in the senate, his presidency, and after, reveals not only the character of Truman's mind but also a shrewd observer's view of American politics.

The Trials of Harry S. Truman

The Trials of Harry S. Truman PDF Author: Jeffrey Frank
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501102907
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
Jeffrey Frank, author of the bestselling Ike and Dick, returns with the “beguiling” (The New York Times) first full account of the Truman presidency in nearly thirty years, recounting how a seemingly ordinary man met the extraordinary challenge of leading America through the pivotal years of the mid-20th century. The nearly eight years of Harry Truman’s presidency—among the most turbulent in American history—were marked by victory in the wars against Germany and Japan; the first use of an atomic bomb and the development of far deadlier weapons; the start of the Cold War and the creation of the NATO alliance; the Marshall Plan to rebuild the wreckage of postwar Europe; the Red Scare; and the fateful decision to commit troops to fight a costly “limited war” in Korea. Historians have tended to portray Truman as stolid and decisive, with a homespun manner, but the man who emerges in The Trials of Harry S. Truman is complex and surprising. He believed that the point of public service was to improve the lives of one’s fellow citizens and fought for a national health insurance plan. While he was disturbed by the brutal treatment of African Americans and came to support stronger civil rights laws, he never relinquished the deep-rooted outlook of someone with Confederate ancestry reared in rural Missouri. He was often carried along by the rush of events and guided by men who succeeded in refining his fixed and facile view of the postwar world. And while he prided himself on his Midwestern rationality, he could act out of instinct and combativeness, as when he asserted a president’s untested power to seize the nation’s steel mills. The Truman who emerges in these pages is a man with generous impulses, loyal to friends and family, and blessed with keen political instincts, but insecure, quick to anger, and prone to hasty decisions. Archival discoveries, and research that led from Missouri to Washington, Berlin and Korea, have contributed to an indelible and “intimate” (The Washington Post) portrait of a man, born in the 19th century, who set the nation on a course that reverberates in the 21st century, a leader who never lost a schoolboy’s love for his country and its Constitution.

Shadows Over the White House

Shadows Over the White House PDF Author: Thomas A. Reppetto
Publisher: Enigma Books
ISBN: 193627471X
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
How did the American Mafia and corrupt politicians assert so much power over the nation's affairs that the Mob's influence actually reached into the White House? Harry Truman had been one of three key lieutenants of Kansas City boss Tom Pendergast. Truman controlled the county government, while another lieutenant, Mafia Boss Johnny Lazia, carried out murders and other crimes as required to keep the machine in power. Truman himself was never accused of corruption. Once elected to the Senate in 1934, he became known in Washington as Pendergast's errand boy. When Pendergast himself eventually ended up in federal prison for evading taxes on bribe money, Truman remained loyal to him. With the fall of Pendergast, Truman appeared likely to be defeated for reelection to the Senate in 1940. However, Bob Hannegan, who ran St. Louis in conjunction with Mayor Bernie Dykman, came to Truman's aid and provided the senator's margin of victory. Harry Truman eventually became president upon FDR's death, opening a period of tolerance for the Mob throughout the country. The need for margins in tight elections in certain key moments, such as John F. Kennedy's in 1960, increased Mafia influence. More connections are clearly documented during the Nixon and Reagan presidencies, when the Mob played a role in securing key voting blocs. Thomas A. Reppetto was commander of detectives in Chicago and dean of John Jay College CUNY. He is the author of American Police, American Mafia, and countless op-ed pieces in major daily newspapers.

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman PDF Author: Robert Dallek
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429998105
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
The plainspoken man from Missouri who never expected to be president yet rose to become one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century In April 1945, after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the presidency fell to a former haberdasher and clubhouse politician from Independence, Missouri. Many believed he would be overmatched by the job, but Harry S. Truman would surprise them all. Few chief executives have had so lasting an impact. Truman ushered America into the nuclear age, established the alliances and principles that would define the cold war and the national security state, started the nation on the road to civil rights, and won the most dramatic election of the twentieth century—his 1948 "whistlestop campaign" against Thomas E. Dewey. Robert Dallek, the bestselling biographer of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, shows how this unassuming yet supremely confident man rose to the occasion. Truman clashed with Southerners over civil rights, with organized labor over the right to strike, and with General Douglas MacArthur over the conduct of the Korean War. He personified Thomas Jefferson's observation that the presidency is a "splendid misery," but it was during his tenure that the United States truly came of age.