Synopses & Reviews
On June 19, 1953, Harry Truman got up early, packed the trunk of his Chrysler New Yorker, and did something no other former president has done before or since: he hit the road. No Secret Service protection. No traveling press. Just Harry and his childhood sweetheart Bess, off to visit old friends, take in a Broadway play, celebrate their wedding anniversary in the Big Apple, and blow a bit of the money hed just received to write his memoirs. Hopefully incognito.
In this lively history, author Matthew Algeo meticulously details how Trumans plan to blend in went wonderfully awry. Fellow diners, bellhops, cabbies, squealing teenagers at a Future Homemakers of America convention, and one very by-the-book Pennsylvania state trooper all unknowingly conspired to blow his cover. Algeo revisits the Trumans route, staying at the same hotels and eating at the same diners, and takes readers on brief detours into topics such as the postwar American auto industry, McCarthyism, the nations highway system, and the decline of Main Street America. By the end of the 2,500-mile journey, you will have a new and heartfelt appreciation for Americas last citizen-president.
Review
"Matthew Algeo recalls [my grandparents'] memorable trip beautifully and with the sense of humor it deserves." Clifton Truman Daniel, grandson of Harry S. Truman.
"Combines . . . history with the ever-popular road book, researching, duplicating, and reporting in detail on the last trip the Trumans took, driving their new Chrysler to Washington, and back to Independence." Max J. Skidmore, author, After the White House: Former Presidents as Private Citizens
Review
"Combines . . . history with the ever-popular road book, researching, duplicating, and reporting in detail on the last trip the Trumans took, driving their new Chrysler to Washington, and back to Independence." Max J. Skidmore, author, After the White House: Former Presidents as Private Citizens
Review
"With deliberate detours, this book is a portal into the past with layers of details providing unusual authenticity and a portrait of the president as an ordinary man." Publishers Weekly
Review
"One of the Best Books of the Year." —Washington Post
Review
"Matthew Algeo recalls [my grandparents'] memorable trip beautifully and with the sense of humor it deserves." Clifton Truman Daniel, grandson of Harry S. Truman
Review
"Enlivened by Algeo"s endeavors to see the places where Truman stopped, this is an engaging historical sidebar." Booklist Online
Review
“Abraham Lincoln loved animals. So did his boys. Whatever else historians disagree over, they accept this as true. Yet none have focused on the story of the Lincoln family pets and their meaning to the sixteenth president. Thankfully, Matthew Algeo has now done so, producing a charming and thoughtful study that begins with Fido, the Lincoln family dog, but covers much, much more.” —Matthew Pinsker, author, Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home
Review
“This is a fun and thoughtful book, with a message: could there be a connection between Lincoln’s personal and political lives?” —James M. Cornelius, PhD, Curator, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
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“Abe & Fido is entertaining, but it's more than a novelty.” —Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
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“Algeo does a commendable job telling this story, and it's well worth the read.” —Animal Advocates of Alabama
Synopsis
On June 19, 1953, Harry Truman got up early, packed the trunk of his Chrysler New Yorker, and did something no other former president has done before or since: he hit the road. No Secret Service protection. No traveling press. Just Harry and his childhood sweetheart Bess, off to visit old friends, take in a Broadway play, celebrate their wedding anniversary in the Big Apple, and blow a bit of the money he'd just received to write his memoirs. Hopefully incognito. In this lively history, author Matthew Algeo meticulously details how Truman's plan to blend in went wonderfully awry. Fellow diners, bellhops, cabbies, squealing teenagers at a Future Homemakers of America convention, and one very by-the-book Pennsylvania state trooper--all unknowingly conspired to blow his cover. Algeo revisits the Trumans' route, staying at the same hotels and eating at the same diners, and takes readers on brief detours into topics such as the postwar American auto industry, McCarthyism, the nation's highway system, and the decline of Main Street America. By the end of the 2,500-mile journey, you will have a new and heartfelt appreciation for America's last citizen-president.
Synopsis
From Missouri to New York and back again, this work chronicles the amazing road trip of a former president and his wife and their amusing, failed attempts to keep a low profile.
Synopsis
In early 1861, as he prepared to leave his home in Springfield, Illinois, to move into the White House, Abraham Lincoln faced many momentous tasks, but none he dreaded more than telling his two youngest sons, Willie and Tad, that the family’s beloved pet dog, Fido, would not be accompanying them to Washington. Lincoln was afraid the skittish dog couldn’t endure the long rail journey, so he decided to leave the mutt behind with friends in Springfield.
Fido had been by Lincoln’s side as the prairie lawyer rose from obscurity to the presidency, sometimes carrying bundles of letters from the post office in his mouth as he and his master walked the streets of the state capital. Abe & Fido tells the story of two friends, an unlikely tandem who each became famous and died prematurely.
The book also explores the everyday life of Springfield in the years leading up to the Civil War, as well as Lincoln’s sometimes radical views on animal welfare and how they shaped his life and his presidency. It’s the story of a master and his dog, living through historic, tumultuous times.
About the Author
Matthew Algeo is a public radio reporter. His first book, Last Team Standing: How the Steelers and the Eagles—"The Steagles"—Saved Pro Football During World War II, won the 2006 Nelson Ross Award for best pro football historiography. For more information, visit www.trumanroadtrip.com.