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Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip | 
| Author: Matthew Algeo
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.03
as of 3/22/2010 01:25 CDT details
You Save: $10.92 (44%)
New (36) Used (16) from $13.70
Seller: backpack_books
Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 43622
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 1556527772
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.918092
EAN: 9781556527777
ASIN: 1556527772
Publication Date: May 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9781556527777 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
On June 19, 1953, Harry Truman got up early, packed the trunk of his Chrysler New Yorker, and did something no other former president has done before or since: he hit the road. No Secret Service protection. No traveling press. Just Harry and his childhood sweetheart Bess, off to visit old friends, take in a Broadway play, celebrate their wedding anniversary in the Big Apple, and blow a bit of the money he’d just received to write his memoirs. Hopefully incognito. In this lively history, author Matthew Algeo meticulously details how Truman’s plan to blend in went wonderfully awry. Fellow diners, bellhops, cabbies, squealing teenagers at a Future Homemakers of America convention, and one very by-the-book Pennsylvania state trooper--all unknowingly conspired to blow his cover. Algeo revisits the Trumans’ route, staying at the same hotels and eating at the same diners, and takes readers on brief detours into topics such as the postwar American auto industry, McCarthyism, the nation’s highway system, and the decline of Main Street America. By the end of the 2,500-mile journey, you will have a new and heartfelt appreciation for America’s last citizen-president.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
 Unique Advanture March 16, 2010
Nicholas Puner
Once more, no need to summarize the "plot." Truman and his wife, Bess, did what no other former president has done since: took an unscripted, unchaperoned 2500 mile road trip on their own in 1953, a few months after Truman left office.
Matthew Algeo takes this thin gruel and turns it into 200+ pages of interesting vignettes, anecdotes, and general information. If a reader has been infected by David McCullough's overpraised hagiography, TRUMAN, here, along with Merle Miller's PLAIN SPEAKING is the antidote: the real Truman revealed--not as a saint--but as a flesh and blood human being. An Everyman who became president first by fate and second by his own pluck and skill.
Of course one wonders whether Truman really thought he could travel incognito and unrecognized a few months after leaving the White House. More likely, the idea of basking in the spontaneous affection of his fellow citizens, as he turned up unheralded in their midst, appealed to his vanity and bespoke the deracination he experienced leaving the corridors of ultimate power. Algeo does not speculate; he takes the trip at face value. No matter. We're along for the ride, and it's fun.
 What fun. March 14, 2010
C. Mirviss
What a fun biography. I love biographies and this is my favorite so far. My whole family knows about Truman's "morning constitution".
 Race, & Rosenbergs February 14, 2010
J. Cronin
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
An irrepressibly interesting and almost impossible to imagine event that, in the hands of a good writer, would have made an excellent short story. As it is, this book is a collection of digressions about race relations, executed spies and McCarthyism, all delivered with as much insight as the best high school term paper can provide. For added pleasure, there is another long segment in which the author visits the owner of an old Chrysler similar to Truman's. The car owner's comments about the state of automotive technology in 1953 are duly recorded, as are the author's admissions as to his own ignorance concerning all things automotive. Charming; another 2 page report for the civics class in the can!
All in all, the attractive atmosphere created by this event is enough to warrant such a book as this; I only wish it would have been written by a more acomplished author.
22%? Are you kidding me? February 10, 2010
JOHN GODFREY (Milwaukee ,WI USA)
An interesting historical footnote that can never be duplicated. Harry Truman was just out of the presidency six months in June, 1953. He was already a little stir-crazy & wanted to take a vacation. Not just a vacation, a road trip. Bess was game & they had just been offered a very good deal, on a brand new 1953 New Yorker. There was a goal of course. He was to give a speech to a veterans group two weeks hence in Philadelphia. What better way than to drive, just the two of them. Philadelphia was half a continent away from Independence, Mo. Harry was not a very good driver & Bess was going to make sure he did not exceed the 55mph speed limit. They were going to travel incognito. At least that was the plan. Pretty soon half the country was on to them. There were hours when then did slip off the radar, but not often. There was no secret service protecting ex-presidents at thet time. As much as possible they were going to travel the nascent National Highway, soon to spread coast to coast. They were able to drive over 100 miles of the yet uncompleted Pennsylvania turnpike. The author, Matthew Algeo endeavored to retrace their journey 50 years later. Where possible, he ate where they ate, slept where they slept, once in that
new American invention, the motel & stopped at gas stations they stopped at. They had a lot of friends to crash with along the way. It was difficult, as many of those places are long gone. He was able to talk to people they met on the way. A few are still around. They were wild about Harry. At least the idea of unexpectedly meeting the last president. It seems that 22% approval rating he left with was up considerably. Mr. Algeo takes many little detours along the way talking politics, histories of small towns they past through & current events of the day (the Rosenbergs were executed durung their trip). After Philly they made their way up to New York City to visit their daughter. While there Harry continued his habit of going for long early morning walks. He walked past Rockefeller Center & became one of the faces in the crowd at the Today Show. Some bright fellow on the show spotted him & got an interview on the spot on national tv. In this book we discovered a more nuanced Bess than when she was First Lady. She hated that. Now she was happier than she had ever been. She was a serious fan of baseball, very athletic & most of all had Harry to herself. Most of the time. He loved it too. He might have been a little wistful at times. She was not. Mr. Algeo packs a lot into this relatively short hard to put down book. I give it the maximum 5*.
a delightful, anecdotal account of Harry and Bess February 8, 2010
John E. Drury (Washington, DC United States)
Albeo captures the tang of Harry Truman's Midwest originality, his political combativeness, and his freshness as a person. Albeo, writing with clarity and wit, uncovers little known or unreported facts about Harry; his generosity and friendship towards Herbert Hoover, his stilted relationship with Ike, his animosity toward Nixon, and Nixon's unreported kindness toward Truman in bringing the White House piano to him. The reader learns about Truman's small Army pension on leaving the presidency and the similarity of both Harry and Tricky Dick in not capitalizing on their ex president status in contrast with the gluttonous conduct of Gerry Ford and Bill Clinton.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
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