"Mr. Donovan has reached in every direction for helpful insights into the Truman character, and much of what he comes up with is presented for the first time from documents, memoirs and letters freshly available. Yet his scholarship is as unobtrusive as it is prodigious. His style is crisp and direct, much in Truman's own manner. Events of staggering complexity are set forth with a clarity and economy that make the obscure comprehensible by shunning pedantic irrelevancies."--New York Times

"Conflict and Crisis is an extraordinarily fine blend of journalistic technique and historical method. Mr. Donovan writes very well, and his story is based upon extensive research in the major primary sources as well as relevant printed material. He is thoroughly conversant with the work of academic historians and adds his reporter's gift for description and narrative. His judgments are consistently sound and balanced. This is the best and fullest account yet of Truman's first term."--Alonzo L. Hamby

"From his own incomparable observation post at the Truman White House, as well as from scholarly sources and newly opened records, Robert Donovan has fashioned a masterly account worthy of his subject: pungent, plain-spoken, unvarnished. A readable, fair-minded, solid account of a remarkable presidency."--James MacGregor Burns

"Fascinating. I have enjoyed reliving those years with Harry Truman, relearning things I knew before, learning a lot I never knew, and seeing it all with Donovan's guidance from the perspective of 1977."--James Tobin

About the Author

Formerly a newspaper journalist and senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Robert J. Donovan covered the White House during the Truman years for the New York Herald Tribune. He is also the author of several books, including Tumultuous Years: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1949-1953 and Boxing the Kangaroo: A Reporter's Memoir.