Harry S. Truman Book Award Winner Revisits Truman and the Bomb
Alex Wellerstein has been named winner of the 2026 Harry S. Truman Book Award for his acclaimed 2025 book, The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age (HarperCollins).
A professor of science and nuclear technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Wellerstein navigates a fascinating journey through well-traveled and much-contested scholarly terrain. The decision to use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has long divided historians, who have explored the moral and strategic dimensions of their use to end a world war and, some argue, to start the Cold War.
Drawing extensively on the archives of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, Wellerstein revisits a paper trail that historians have often cited, but he interprets the documents differently. The result is a bold and arresting interpretation of the multiple paradoxes surrounding Truman and the decision to deploy atomic weapons. Perhaps chief among these is that Truman played a smaller role in their use than we have previously understood.
Wellerstein makes a startling case that Truman was possibly the most anti-nuclear American president of the 20th century, but whose ambitions in this area were strongly constrained by the domestic and international politics of the postwar world.
The 2026 Truman Book Award selection is a must-read for all who want to truly understand not only why the bomb was dropped on Japan, but also why it has not been used since.
Watch for details on the forthcoming book award event to be held in Kansas City, Missouri. For event alerts, subscribe to TRU E-News here.
Harry S. Truman Book Award
The Harry S. Truman Book Award is presented biennially and is generously endowed by Mary and John Hunkeler. Established in 1963, the Harry S. Truman Book Award recognizes the best book published within a two-year period dealing primarily and substantially with some aspect of the history of the United States between April 12, 1945 and January 20, 1953, or with the life or career of Harry S. Truman. Books published between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2027 will be eligible for the 2028 Harry S. Truman Book Award. The honor carries with it a $5,000 cash award.
CONTACT
Lisa Sullivan
Grants Administrator
Truman Library Institute
5151 Troost Avenue, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64110
Phone | 816.400.1216
Fax | 816.400.1213
Email | Lisa.Sullivan@TrumanLibraryInstitute.org
RECENT TRUMAN BOOK AWARD WINNERS
Presentation of the 2024 Truman Book Award, as part of a Distinguished Author Event in Kansas City, Missouri. Pictured, left to right: Clifton Truman Daniel; Jason Parker, Ph.D.; Steve Drummond, honoree; Alex Burden, executive director.
2024 The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win World War II by Steve Drummond
2022 Between Containment and Rollback: The United States and the Cold War in Germany by Christian F. Osterman
2020 Grand Improvisation: America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945-1957 by Derek Leebaert
2018 A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China, 1949 by Kevin Peraino
2016 Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe by Michael Neiberg
2014 Henry Wallace’s 1948 Presidential Campaign and the Future of Postwar Liberalism by Thomas W. Devine
2012 The War for Korea, 1950-1951: They Came from the North by Allan R. Millett
2010 Selling the Korean War: Propaganda, Politics, and Public Opinion in the United States, 1950-1953 by Steven Casey
2008 From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War by Wilson D. Miscamble
2006 The Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis
2004 Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations by Stephen C. Schlesinger
2002 The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968 by Kari Frederickson
2000 Downfall: The End of the Japanese Empire by Richard B. Frank
See all awardees here.
Contact
Lisa Sullivan, Book Award Administrator
Lisa.Sullivan@TrumanLibraryInstitute.org
816.400.1216