RMWF Writers Series

Jeffrey Frank

Jeffrey Frank was a senior editor at The New Yorker and the deputy editor of The Washington Post’s Outlook section and is the author of the bestseller Ike and Dick. He has published four novels, among them the Washington Trilogy—The Columnist, Bad Publicity and Trudy Hopedale. He is a contributor to The New Yorker and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Bookforum and Vogue, among other publications.

Frank returns with his latest book, The Trials of Harry S. Truman, the first full account of the Truman presidency in nearly thirty years. Frank reports that at his low point in his time as president, Truman’s popularity rating was at 16 percent. However, seventy years later, according to the latest C-SPAN survey, he was ranked sixth most effective of the 46 U.S. presidents. The book’s subtitle reflects the theme of the biography—The Extraordinary Presidency of an Ordinary Man, 1945-1953—and recounts how so ordinary a man met the extraordinary challenge of leading America through the pivotal years of the mid-twentieth century.

Reviews for The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of An Ordinary Man, 1945-1953 from RMWF alumns:

“A fresh, deeply human perspective… Frank’s sensitive, empathetic portrait gave me a new appreciation for this innately decent, caring man, who, for all his stumbles, was committed to making a better world for those who lived in it.” —Lynne Olson, New York Times bestselling author of Citizens of London and Madame Fourcade’s Secret War

“An intimate, vivid portrait of our 33rd president and his times… a chance to rediscover one of the most improbable and compelling figures in American history.” —Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Liberation Trilogy and The British Are Coming

“A remarkable window into America’s great Cold War president. Because Frank is such a sublime writer, his heroic recounting of the Truman presidency is dazzling. This is intellectual biography at its absolute finest.” —Douglas Brinkley, the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University and author of American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race

The first 200 attendees will receive a free copy of Frank’s new book, The Trials of Harry S. Truman.

This event will be live streaming. WATCH HERE.