A Companion to Harry Truman (ACHT) aims to provide an overview of scholarship that situates the Truman administration's policies and their long-term impact, as well as Harry Truman the man and politician himself, within U.S. and world history. In this regard, it has much to offer, with a series of 27 chapters written by eminent scholars, mostly historians and a few political scientists.
Part I, “Considering Truman in Historical Perspective,” contains one chapter that examines Truman's role in historical, popular, and political memory and another that discusses Truman's leadership. In Part II, “Enduring Questions,” ACHT covers realist, revisionist, and post-revisionist explanations of the Cold War; Truman's decision to use the nuclear bomb; and U.S. versus international accounts of the origins of the Cold War. Part III on “Truman, the State, and the World System” reviews foreign economic policy, NSC-68, and the president's foreign policy advisers, and Part IV...