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Harry S. Truman and the American Presidency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Robert J. Williams
Robert J. Williams
Affiliation:
Politics at the University of Durham.An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Annual Conference of the Political Studies Association at the University of Sheffield in April 1979.
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Extract

This essay has two basic intentions: first, to sketch a biographical portrait of Truman in such a way as to throw light on the methods, values and attitudes that he brought to the Presidency, and, second, to evaluate Truman's enduring contribution, in terms of responsibilities, procedures and organization, to the institution or office of the Presidency. In short, it is concerned to explore both Truman's conception of, and his contribution to, the modern Presidency.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , December 1979 , pp. 393 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

1 See Daniels, J., The Man of Independence (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1950)Google Scholar; Steinberg, A., The Man from Missouri: the Life and Times of Harry S. Truman (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962)Google Scholar; Truman, M., Harry S. Truman (New York: Pocket Book, 1972)Google Scholar.

2 In particular, Tugwell, R. G., Off Course: From Truman to Nixon (New York: Praeger, 1971)Google Scholar.

3 Cochran, B., Harry Truman and the Crisis Presidency (Freeport, New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1973)Google Scholar.

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5 For a good account of Truman's relations with the Pendergast machine, see Dorsett, Lyle W., The Pendergast Machine (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1968)Google Scholar.

6 Barber, J. D., The Presidential Character (2nd edn., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1977)Google Scholar.

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8 Barber, p. 272.

9 For Truman's relations with the liberal community, see the excellent account by Hamby, A. L., Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1973)Google Scholar.

10 Davies, R. O., in Kirkendall, R. S., ed., The Truman Period as a Research Field (Columbia, Univ. Missouri Press, 1967), p. 171Google Scholar.

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12 Quoted in Borden, M., ed., America's Eleven Greatest Presidents (2nd edn., Chicago: Rand McNally, 1971), p. ixGoogle Scholar.

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14 See Theoharis, A., “The Truman Presidency: Trial and Error,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, 55 (1971), 49–58Google Scholar.

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16 Neustadt, R. E., Presidential Power (New York: Mentor, 1964), p. 166Google Scholar.

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18 Phillips, C., The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession (New York: Macmillan, 1966), p. 398Google Scholar.

19 Neustadt, p. 166.

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24 Neustadt, p. 163.

25 Tugwell, R. G., quoted in Huthmacher, J. H., ed., The Truman Years: The Reconstruction of Postwar America (Hinsdale, Illinois: Dryden Press, 1972), p. 59Google Scholar.

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27 B. J. Bernstein, in Huthmacher, p. 107.

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32 E. E. Cornwell, in Kirkendall, p. 225.

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34 For a good general account of the use of such commissions, see Wolanin, T. R., Presidential Advisory Commissions; Truman to Nixon (Madison: Univ. Wisconsin Press, 1975)Google Scholar.

35 See Neustadt, R. E., “Presidency and Legislation: The Growth of Central Clearance,” American Political Science Review, No. 3, 09 1954, 641–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for the standard account of this innovation.

36 Neustadt, “Presidency and Legislation,” p. 658.

37 Theoharis, p. 51.

38 Cornwell, in Kirkendall, p. 246.

39 See, in particular, Hartmann, S. M., Truman and the 80th Congress (Columbia: Univ. Missouri Press, 1971)Google Scholar.

40 Neustadt, R. E., “Congress and the Fair Deal: A Legislative Balance Sheet,” Public Policy, 5 (1954), 351–81Google Scholar. This quote taken from extract in Huthmacher, p. 78.

41 Quoted in Polsby, N., ed., The Modern Presidency (New York: Random House, 1973), p. 43Google Scholar.

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44 See Lee, R. A., “The Turnip Session of the Do-Nothing Congress,” Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, 44 (1963), 256–67Google Scholar.

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47 Sitkoff, H. in Kirkendall, , The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal, 1972, p. 97Google Scholar.

48 Sitkoff, H., in Kirkendall, , The Truman Period as a Research Field, A Reappraisal, 1972, p. 101Google Scholar.

49 Borden, p. 283.

50 Quoted by R. S. Kirkendall, in Borden, p. 281.

51 But see my “Kennedy and Congress: The Struggle for the New Frontier,” Political Studies, 27 (1979)Google Scholar, for a discussion of some of these issues.

52 Although the first officially designated agents for legislative liaison first appeared in the White House during the Truman administration, the liaison staff had a maximum of two members and remained messengers rather than responsible and senior political agents. See Holtzman, A., Legislative Liaison: Executive Leadership in Congress (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1970), pp. 230–34Google Scholar.

53 Neustadt, “Presidency and Legislation,” p. 1000.

54 See Bailey, T. A., Presidential Greatness (New York: Appleton Century-Crofts, 1966)Google Scholar, especially Chap. 3.

55 For an excellent review essay on the conflicting interpretations of Truman's foreign policy record see Smith, G., “Harry, We Hardly Know You: Revisionism, Politics and Diplomacy, 1945–1954,” American Political Science Review, 70 (1976), 560–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 Phillips, p. 399.

57 Cochran, , Harry Truman and the Crisis Presidency, p. 393Google Scholar.

58 Bailey, p. 25.

59 Hamby, p. 140.

60 Huthmacher, p. 6.

61 Bernstein, B. J., in Kirkendall, , ed., The Truman Period as a Research Field, p. 88Google Scholar.

62 Ferrell, R. H. in Kirkendall, , ed., The Truman Period as a Research Field; A Reappraisal, 1972, p. 24Google Scholar.

63 Hamby, p. 63.

64 Radical critics stress the inadequacy of Truman's objectives but do so “with little reference to the limitations upon both political possibility and reform conceptualisation that existed in the 1940s,” Hamby, , in Kirkendall, , ed., The Truman Period as a Research Field: A Reappraisal, 1972, p. 143Google Scholar.

65 See Barber, The Presidential Character, passim.

66 Hargrove, E. C., “Presidential Personality and Revisionist Views of the Presidency,” American Journal of Political Science, 4 (1973), 822Google Scholar.

67 For critiques of Barber's methods see George, A., “Assessing Presidential Character,” World Politics (1974), 234–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Quails, J. H., “Barber's Typological Analysis of Political Leaders,” American Political Science Review, 71 (1977), 182–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68 Lubell, Samuel, The Future of American Politics, p. 38Google Scholar.