Philip White (1)

I enjoyed this book alot. If you are a fan of presidential campaign history or of mid-twentieth-century America I think you would enjoy this book too. The book was a bit dry in parts, and jumped right into the 1948 campaign without a lot of background or context. So your enjoyment might depend on how well you know your 1940s history. The book goes into some detail about the "Research Division" of the campaign and makes the case that this group was the forerunner of the "War Rooms" of modern campaigns.

Reading this book during the 2020 presidential campaign season it's fascinating to reflect on the fact that even though the times are very different, so much of politics actually remains the same. There are snippets of some of Truman's Whistle Stop speeches in the book, and you could easily imagine very similar words coming out of Joe Biden's mouth today. On the other hand, the Republican candidate, Thomas Dewey, was very laid-back (too much so it turns out), while Truman was accused of "brass knuckle fighting" based on the content of some of his speeches - a party/role reversal from then to now.… (más)

I received this signed copy from the author through a Goodreads giveaway in 2012. It got boxed up by mistake and hasn't been read until now.

This was an intriguing book, well written and we'll researched. The author obviously knows the topic of Winston Churchill very well, and it shows throughout the entire book.

The details of Churchill's life from pre-WWI through his death in 1965, especially his anti-bolshevism and anti-communisim work are very interesting. The additional information about Fulton County, Westminster College, and the men and women who organized the speech are an added bonus.

My only complaint is the title, well, actually the subtitle. I was expecting more details about the time following the speech and the responses from national and international leaders. This book focused on the preparations for the speech, from the initial invitation, to getting President Truman involved, and the incredible amount of work that went into this historic event.… (más)

I thoroughly enjoyed Whistle Stop: How 31,000 miles of Train Travel....... It began with the setting of the "Office" back home in Washington DC and who were the primary players gathering information for the traveling president. Of course this is all in the setting of deep distrust of the government after the War and the failure to follow through w needed reforms, economic and housing in particular. The Congress was not helpful with the Democratic president and they being primarily Republican. Thus was set the scene for the President to take to the people his plans for addressing the issues. However he did it in a very grassroots campaign - taking the issues directly to the people who would vote. He was able, through the use of the resources of the "Office", to bring specific issues to the forefront of each group he spoke to. Thus, he bypassed much of the machinery telling the population the issues and the possible solutions. Not an awful lot different from what we have today.… (más)