Where The Buck Stopped

TITLE: TRUMAN

AUTHOR: DAVID MC CULLOUGH

PUBLISHER: SIMON & SCHUSTER; 1,117 PAGES; $30

THE BOTTOM LINE: A relentlessly detailed biography celebrates America's favorite common-man President.

"Who knows," a young Harry Truman wrote to his future wife Bess, "maybe I'll be like Cincinnatus and be elected constable someday." The ideal of the noble citizen reluctantly laying down his plow to spend a few years cleaning up his government is deeply appealing to most Americans, especially now during this open season on professional politicians. Such sentiments account for the burst of enthusiasm greeting Ross Perot and for the best-sellerdom that inevitably awaits David...

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