Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure
The True Story of a Great American Road Trip
by Matthew Algeo
Overview
From the Publisher
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.
My thoughts
Hats off to BAMM.com's book preview email newsletter I subscribe to for alerting me of this book. Their service is terrific and I get a lot of good recommendations from their newsletters!
I absolutely loved this book. I wasn't entirely sure what the author was going to come up with as he made the same road trip that Harry and Bess Truman made after the Presidency came to an end, but he came up with fascinating political and current event tie-ins that made the book a terrific read! The author is witty and clever, and his interviews with people who interacted with the Truman's on the road trip were anything but mundane. It's interesting to see what has and hasn't changed through the years, and to revisit some of the restaurants and hotels that the Truman's enjoyed along the way.
I was so impressed with the author that I've ordered his book about "the Steagles". I can't wait to get started on it.
Favorite Passage
Shortly after checking in, Truman invited the reporters who'd covered his return to the capital up to his suite. The trip, he said, was "wonderful," "lovely."
His smile, one reporter noted, was wider than ever.
He said he had no plans to see President Eisenhower. "He's too busy to see every Tom, Dick and Harry that comes to town," he said, putting special emphasis on the last name.
