The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win World War Two

The story of how a little-known junior senator fought wartime corruption and, in the process, set himself up to become vice president and ultimately President Harry Truman.

Months before Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt knew that the United States was on the verge of entering another world war for which it was dangerously ill-prepared. The urgent times demanded a transformation of the economy, with the government bankrolling the unfathomably expensive task of enlisting millions of citizens while also producing the equipment necessary to successfully fight--all of which opened up opportunities for graft, fraud and corruption.

In The Watchdog, Steve Drummond draws the reader into the fast-paced story of how Harry Truman, still a newcomer to Washington politics, cobbled together a bipartisan team of men and women that took on powerful corporate entities and the Pentagon, placing Truman in the national spotlight and paving his path to the White House.

Drawing on the largely unexamined records of the Truman Committee as well as oral histories, personal letters, newspaper archives and interviews, Steve Drummond--an award-winning senior editor and executive producer at NPR--brings the colorful characters and intrigue of the committee's work to life. The Watchdog provides readers with a window to a time that was far from perfect but where it was possible to root out corruption and hold those responsible to account. It shows us what can be possible if politicians are governed by the principles of their office rather than self-interest.

Author: Steve Drummond
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Published: 05/09/2023
Pages: 448
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.36w x 1.27d
ISBN: 9781335449504


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 12/01/2022 pg. 20
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2023
Publishers Weekly 04/10/2023
Booklist 04/15/2023 pg. 12