num_pages: 461
description: The dramatic pulse-pounding story of Harry Trumans first four months in office when this unlikely small-town former farmer and haberdasher had to take on Germany Japan Stalin and the atomic bomb with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Heroes are often defined as ordinary characters who get thrust into extraordinary circumstances and through courage and a dash of luck cement their place in history. Chosen as FDRs fourth-term vice president for his well-praised work ethic good judgment and lack of enemies Harry S. Truman was the prototypical ordinary man still considered an obscure Missouri politician. That is until he was shockingly thrust in over his head after FDR's sudden death. At the climactic moments of the Second World War Truman had to play judge and jury during the founding of the United Nations the Potsdam Conference the Manhattan Project the Nazi surrender the liberation of concentration camps and the decision to drop the bomb and end World War II. Tightly focused meticulously researched and using documents not available to previous biographers The Accidental President escorts readers into the situation room with Truman during this tumultuous history-making 120 days when the stakes were high and the challenges even higher. 
language: English
title: The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World
publisher: Mariner Books