James Herriot's Dog Stories

This succinct, admiring biography views Harry Truman as a strong, decisive and much-underrated president. A British politician and author (Asquith, Jenkins stresses Truman's accomplishments in the world arena, where the failed haberdasher achieved an ""even more difficult'' feat than his wartime predecessor, FDR, by becoming ``the leader of the free world at peace.'' After briefly recalling Truman's youth and early political career, Jenkins shows that he assumed the presidency ill-prepared, with only the ``courage of desperation,'' yet managed to begin the era of Pax Americana. The author's fresh views on such Truman achievements as the Marshall Plan and NATO are informed by Jenkins's own vantage as a British leader in the postwar period. Photos not seen by PW. (June 4)