The Truman Presidency

Michael James Lacey (Edited by)

9780521407731, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 June 1991

472 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.69 kg

Written by leading authorities in the fields of the contemporary social, political, and diplomatic history of the United States, the essays in this volume provide a wide-ranging overview of the intentions, achievements, and failures of the Truman administration. Divided into sections on domestic politics and issues, and foreign policy and national defence, the volume gives an authoritative appraisal of some of the major events and problems of the time in the light of recent scholarship. The essays make clear the overriding importance of the wartime experience for the Truman era.

Acknowledgments
Introduction and summary: the Truman era in retrospect Michael J. Lacey
1. The mind and character of Harry S. Truman Alonzo L. Hamby
Part I. Domestic Politics and Issues: 2. Forging America's postwar order: domestic politics and political economy in the age of Truman Robert Griffith
3. Attitudes toward industry in the Truman administration: the macroeconomic origins of microeconomic policy Craufurd D. Goodwin
4. Labor in the Truman era: origins of the 'private welfare state' Nelson Lichtenstein
5. Postwar American society: dissent and social reform William H. Chafe
6. 'Some sort of peace': President Truman, the American people, and the atomic bomb Paul Boyer
Part II. Foreign Policy and National Defense: 7. The national security state reconsidered: Truman and economic containment, 1945–1950 Robert A. Pollard
8. The insecurities of victory: the United States and the perception of the Soviet threat after World War II John Lewis Gaddis
9. Alliance and autonomy: European identity and US foreign policy objectives in the Truman years Charles S. Maier
10. US policy in the Near East: the triumphs and tribulations of the Truman administration Bruce R. Kuniholm
11. Toward a post-colonial order: Truman administration policies toward South and Southeast Asia Robert J. McMahon
12. Occupied Japan and the cold war in Asia John W. Dower
13. The Truman administration and the Korean War Barton J. Bernstein
About the authors
Index.

Subject Areas: Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], History of the Americas [HBJK]