2024 Harry S. Truman Book Award Event
The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win World War II
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
6 p.m. Wine Reception | 6:30 p.m. (CT) Program
Truman Forum, Kansas City Public Library–Plaza Branch
4801 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64112
ONSTAGE & ONLINE:
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The Truman Library Institute proudly announces that the 2024 Harry S. Truman Book Award will be awarded to Steve Drummond during a public book event in Kansas City, Missouri. Please join us in person or virtually for this Signature Event on Wednesday, September 18, at 6:30 p.m. (CT) at the Truman Forum, located on the lower level of the Kansas City Public Library’s Plaza Branch, 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri. A 6 p.m. wine reception will precede the live event, which is free and open to the public.
The Watchdog shares the story of how Harry Truman, a little-known junior senator, fought wartime corruption and, in the process, set himself up to become vice president and, ultimately, commander in chief.
Months before Pearl Harbor, FDR knew that the U.S. 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.
Drummond—an award-winning senior editor and executive producer at NPR—shares 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.
The Watchdog provides 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.
BOOK SIGNING
Please Note: Books will not be available for purchase at this event.
In-Person Guests
Following his presentation, Steve Drummond will sign pre-purchased copies of The Watchdog. Books may be purchased at registration or wherever books are sold.
Livestream Attendees
Autographed books may be purchased at registration. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Drummond is an award-winning senior editor and executive producer at NPR in Washington, D.C., where he has been a senior editor for more than two decades. He has been a reporter with newspapers in Florida and the Associated Press in Michigan and has written for many publications, including the St. Petersburg Times, the Detroit News, the New York Times, Education Week and Teacher Magazine. He lives in Maryland, where he also teaches journalism at the University of Maryland.
ACCOLADES
“This is an original and insightful chronicle of an overlooked yet critical stage in the career of Harry Truman. Not only did his path to the White House begin during World War II, his dogged devotion to detail and bipartisan passion saved many battlefield lives along with billions of dollars. Vividly, The Watchdog takes Truman from junior Missouri senator to his stunning ascension as leader of a world still fighting for freedom.”—Tom Clavin, New York Times bestselling author of Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival
“Steve Drummond has written an engaging, clear-eyed story of an important but overlooked chapter in the life of Harry Truman. The Watchdog will make you long for an era when government could be made to work.”—Evan Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of First: Sandra Day O’Connor
“It takes a thoughtful and agile reporter to see the story that others have overlooked. It takes an astute student of history to understand how the past speaks to the present. Steve Drummond is both. His unlikely tale of the Truman Committee, a shocking example of governmental success, will have readers looking anew at its chairman and namesake: the wonky senator from Missouri, with a distaste for partisanship and publicity, who became our thirty-third president.”—Robin Givhan, senior critic at large of The Washington Post and author of The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History
Read an excerpt from The Watchdog.
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, 2024 and December 31, 2025 will be eligible for the 2026 Harry S. Truman Book Award. The honor carries with it a $5,000 cash award.
RECENT TRUMAN BOOK AWARD WINNERS
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
