Part 3 Chapter 9 Summary

Roosevelt died about five in the afternoon. Within two hours Truman called together his wife, members of his Cabinet, and Chief Justice Harlan Stone into the Cabinet Room where he took the oath of office under a picture of Woodrow Wilson with his hand on a Bible owned by a White House usher.

Americans reacted to their new President with some fear. His very ordinariness cut two ways. On the one hand, he seemed open and honest. On the other hand, he seemed too ordinary, especially after the patrician Roosevelt. Roosevelt had come from an upper class family with old money, but Truman had come from hardscrabble pioneer stock. Roosevelt had an aristocratic speaking mannerism developed at Harvard. Truman, who never attended college, spoke plainly and with a Midwestern accent. Roosevelt could be devious and indirect. Truman was the opposite. Roosevelt...