Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure- The True Story of a Great American Road Trip .epub

From Publishers Weekly Public radio reporter Algeo ( Last Team Standing ) brings the 1950s into focus with a fascinating reconstruction of Harry and Bess Truman's postpresidential 2,500-mile road trip. I like to take trips—any kind of trip, Truman wrote. They are about the only recreation I have besides reading. Between 2006 and 2008, Algeo retraced their journey with stopovers at some of the same diners and hotels the couple visited. When Truman left the White House in 1953, he returned to Independence, Mo., rejecting lucrative offers he felt would commercialize the presidency. His only income was a small army pension. Acquiring a 1953 Chrysler, the Trumans set out with no fanfare and a curious notion of traveling incognito. However, reporters and newsreel cameras soon turned their vehicular vacation into an ongoing media event. The book benefits from extensive research through oral history interviews and papers at the Harry S. Truman Library, and Algeo's own interviews with eyewitnesses. With deliberate detours, this book is a portal into the past with layers of details providing unusual authenticity and a portrait of the president as an ordinary man. 20 b&w photos, 1 map. (May) Copyright В© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review "One of the Best Books of the Year." — Washington Post "An engaging account . . . Well-researched." — Wall Street Journal “Now, this is whatвЂTMs called a road trip.” -- In Transit , New York Times travel blog "Matthew Algeo recalls [my grandparents'] memorable trip beautifully and with the sense of humor it deserves." — Clifton Truman Daniel , grandson of Harry S. Truman " Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure resonates Aaron Copeland's 'Fanfare for the Common Man'—brassy, bright, energetic, brief and declaratively American." — Washington Times "Enlivened by Algeo"s endeavors to see the places where Truman stopped, this is an engaging historical sidebar." — Booklist Online “Algeo chronicles this unlikely excursion in great and wonderful detail. . . . [An] enchanting glimpse into a much simpler age.” -- Library Journal “An absolutely wonderful book.” — Virginian-Pilot Although the words in the title technically are correct, they imply two things that won't be found in the reading of the book: 1) This road trip is "Excellent" and "True" so there must be something awesome in it to leave the reader incredulous 2)The focus is on the actual 1953 road trip at all times, or at least the vast majority of the time While there certainly were some events that occurred in Harry's trip that were unlikely, none of the events made me think the author was lying to jazz up the story. "True" doesn't need to be in the title at all. Also, the actual events of the trip only take up about half of the book. The other half is made up of flashbacks and flashforwards concerning the people and places that were visited. I'm happy that the digressions are in there, because they're quite educational and interesting. I just expected the book to cover a timespan of about two weeks and no more. The road trip sounded nice and all, and made me want to take one myself, but there really wasn't anything special about it other than the people that went on it were sought-after celebrities. They didn't go skydiving or anything. They just ate pot roast and things like that. The trip itself simply wasn't exciting enough to make a whole book, so a lot of local history had to be tossed in there. I had to admit though, it was nice to see a reporter cover some history that goes in a different direction than wars and natural disasters. Seeing the history of small country restaurants and roadside motels from the 50's to the present was actually quite refreshing. I'm pleased with everything about the book except its title. I think a more accurate title would have been: "A Drive Across America, Harry's Time and Today."

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.

From Missouri to New York and back again, this recounting of an amazing journey chronicles the road trip of a former president and his wife and their amusing, failed attempts to keep a low profile. Diners, bellhops, and cabbies shouted out “Hiya, Harry!” whenever they recognized the former president, and, out for his daily constitutional on the streets of New York, Harry even stumbled into the sidewalk shot of the newly launched Today show. Along the way there are brief detours into relevant topics, such as the postwar American auto industry, McCarthyism, the development of the nation’s highway system, and the decline of Main Street America. By the end of the 2,500-mile journey, readers will have a new and heartfelt appreciation for America’s last citizen-president.

From Missouri to New York and back again, this recounting of an amazing journey chronicles the road trip of a former president and his wife and their amusing, failed attempts to keep a low profile. Diners, bellhops, and cabbies shouted out Hiya, Harry! whenever they recognized the former president, and, out for his daily constitutional on the streets of New York, Harry even stumbled into the sidewalk shot of the newly launchedTodayshow. Along the way there are brief detours into relevant topics, such as the postwar American auto industry, McCarthyism, the development of the nations highway system, and the decline of Main Street America. By the end of the 2,500-mile journey, readers will have a new and heartfelt appreciation for Americas last citizen-president -- globalbooksinprint.com Author retraces the 1953 2,500-mile cross-country road trip of Harry and Bess Truman. Describes the Trumans' post-presidential life in Missouri, when they lived on Harry's army pension, and provides first-person accounts of the original journey Presents a recounting of an amazing journey, from Missouri to New York and back again, that chronicles the road trip of a former president and his wife and their amusing, failed attempts to keep a low profile.