“The Buck Stops Here: Harry Truman’s Improbable Path to the Presidency”

“Life’s Uncertain Outcomes” is a history lecture series that considers people’s lived experiences and how historical circumstances and choices made by individuals and the decisions of others shaped the direction of their lives. Lectures are presented by History Department faculty members and Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturers throughout the academic year.

In the final lecture of the series, Chris Kimball, PhD, will discuss Harry S. Truman. Preceded in the White House by the patrician Franklin D. Roosevelt and succeeded by General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, Truman followed a much different path to the presidency, one that did not hint at its final destination. Truman was not the first self-made person to become president, but his career was remarkable for its time. A farmer and store owner who became a minor cog in Kansas City’s Democratic Party machine, Truman went from being a county judge in Missouri to president of the United States in just 10 years. He was ill-prepared for the challenges of the atomic era, but is now seen as having been quite effective, and his story reveals many of the dramatic changes in the United States and the world during the first half of the 20th century.

The event is free.