The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World—A Fast-Paced Chronicle of Truman’s Tumultuous First Days Amidst World War II

by A.J. Baime

On the Fourth of July, 1917, he showed up at Bess’s house in his new uniform. She wept on his shoulder and asked that they get married. After all those years of courtship, he refused: “I don’t think it would be right for me, to ask you to tie yourself to a prospective cripple—or a sentiment.”