"Nearly all were farmers, plain-mannered and plainspoken, people with little formal education. Many of them were unlettered, even illiterate. They were not, however, poor or downtrodden." Part 1, Chapter 1, page 15

"Truman liked to say in later years that he had the happiest childhood ever." Part 1, Chapter 2, Page 39

"You were all that a girl could be possibly and impossibly. You may not have guessed it but I have been crazy about you ever since we went to Sunday School together. But I never had the nerve to think you'd even look at me." Part 1, Chapter 4, Page 84

"For years afterward at reunions in Kansas City, with whiskey flowing, there would be much lighthearted banter and kidding over this first encounter with the enemy, and Battery D's so-called "Battle of Who Run." But there was nothing the least comical about the situation at the time. With his blistering verbal barrage and the...