Saving Freedom audiobook

This is another book that looks at a specific topic or issue in a president’s life. It is not a biography. I noticed this is becoming a trend now to dissect an issue in history or a president/prime minister’s life rather than writing about the entire event.The book is well written and researched. Scarborough focuses primarily on President Truman’s foreign policy achievements. Truman’s major concern after WWII was rebuilding a starving and destroyed Europe; and, Stalin’s aggression and how to stop it before all of Europe became part of the USSR. The author does provide a bit of background for those not familiar with the topic. I was interested, considering today’s dysfunctional Senate, how Truman and Arthur Vandenberg worked together. I noticed that Scarborough quoted Winston Churchill “Truman more than any other man saved civilization”. If you are interested in this topic, you will enjoy reading this book.I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is eight hours and five minutes. Joe Scarborough does a good job narrating the book.

There’s an interesting trend in the past 20 years or so, of authors of history and biographies taking their subjects and writing about selected parts of their lives. Former congressman and current “Morning Joe” pundit has done this with Harry Truman and the important foreign policy moves he made during his 8 years in office. His new book, “Saving Freedom: Truman, the Cold War, and the Fight for Western Civilization”, begins basically after the end of World War 2, and recounts the beginning of a Cold War with our former ally, the Soviet Union.I’m sure everyone reading this review are familiar with Truman’s first few months in office after succeeding Franklin Roosevelt in April, 1945. Truman found out - at long last - about our development of an atomic bomb. Truman was very clear about the bomb being yet another weapon-of-choice against the Japanese. He later said he had no doubt in using the two bombs to help facilitate Japanese surrender. (If you’re really interested in that time period, please check out A J Baime’s excellent work, “The Accidental President: Harry S Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World”.) Scarborough’s book sort of picks up where Baime’s book ends.Scarborough looks at how Stalin took advantage of a dying Franklin Roosevelt when they met at Yalta in February, 1945 to discuss the coming post war reorganization of Germany and Europe. Winston Churchill was there, too, but the general assumption was that the post war world would have 2 major influences - the United States and the Soviet Union. Truman stepped into the role of Stalin’s adversary.Truman also recognized that the US couldn’t return to its isolationist roots. We had to have a place at the world table and not hide behind the expose of oceans, separating us from Europe and Asia. We had to get involved in the post war world.Scarborough’s book is a great read for an armchair historian.

Joe Scarborough brings a deft touch to his storytelling and analysis of Harry Truman’s foreign policy successes. He translates this well to the challenges that remain now for a new American administration. May Joe Biden be half as successful as Harry Truman!A great listen with extra bonus content. Thank you fir a job well done!

Excellent. I never knew how fascinating was the life of Harry Truman! Joe Scarborough’s book is packed full of information about President Truman and his various cabinet members, & how they led America in a new, international world stage. His writing style is clear and engaging, as well.

A good short book on how Harry Truman steered the United States through the end of the World War II in Europe and used the Atomic bomb twice on Japan to end the war in Asia. He then kept a strong eye on Stalin and the Iron Curtin. Joe Scarborough is very attached to Harry Truman and tells the reader why he thinks he’s a great president. Very interesting.

Saving Freedom is both a light biography of Harry Truman and a history of the Truman Doctrine. The style is to bounce back and forth from Truman's earlier life to the pivotal decision in 1947 to provide aid to Greece to prevent communist guerrillas from taking over the country. This decision and the efforts to implement it comprise the bulk of the book, which goes into (sometimes agonizing) detail about every step in the process from the speech to Congress to the legislative drafting to the efforts to win over key legislators to the implementation of the relief to Greece. While a significant historical event, the description of the legislative sausage-making was more than I was interested in, and there was no chance that I would ever recall most of the many names that were involved in the process.There is also some discussion of Truman's decision to recognize Israel and the Election of 1948, but most of Truman's second term, including the Korean War and any domestic policy, is not covered. It's a book about how the Truman Doctrine and the age of American intervention began and not a lot else. But it's a very strong account of this subject and presents a convincing case for Truman's historical significance.

Rather than a biography of Pres. Harry S Truman, of which I have read several, this is a relatively brief account of the origins of what became known as the Truman Doctrine and the origins of the Cold War. After VE Day, and the defeat of Japan, the Soviet Union was poised to extend its domination over Eastern Europe and take over the areas that Germany had previously occupied. Scarborough's focus is on Greece which had endured Axis occupation. When the British, exhausted by fighting the Axis since 1939, confessed that they were unable to protect Greece and the Balkan states from Communist domination, Truman decided that it was up to the US to step forward and oppose Stalin's plans to effectively rule all of Eastern Europe. Through the Marshal Plan and what became known as the Truman doctrine, Truman rallied the West to preserve democracy in Greece and neighboring states rather than let the United States revert to the isolationism that had followed World War 1. Thus began the so-called Cold War and the formation of the Iron Curtain. Scarborough writes clearly and with a minimum of scholarly apparatus to tell Truman's story.

For those who want a concise history of US foreign policy following World War II, this book delivers. Scarborough tells how the US abandoned its century-long policy of isolationism to take a leadership role in world affairs. The author develops the story of Harry Truman and the decisiveness that defined his presidency.For those unfamiliar with the Greek civil war, this book provides insights into that decade-long struggle. When Greece and Turkey were vulnerable to collapse and coming under the Soviet bloc, Truman and the US had a decision to make: whether to allow those government to fall or whether to provide economic and military aid to bolster them. After such a huge expenditure of life and money to defeat Hitler and Japan, the US could not allow those sacrifices go for naught. Thus was born the Truman Doctrine -- that the US would provide economic and military aid to selected countries deemed to be important to a region in order to provide stability and defeat Communism. I believe one of Scarborough's motivation to tell this story is to show how both parties came together and acted in a bipartisan manner to do what was best for our nation and the world. He wanted to remind us that when this happens, our country is capable of accomplishing great things.

I found this book to be an interesting focus on Harry Truman’s contribution to the post WWII society we live in. Instead of writing about all of Truman’s life or his time as President, this explains in substantial detail how Greece and Turkey were likely saved from a Soviet takeover after WWII when the Truman administration convinced Congress and the American people that the US had to take a world leadership role against an expanding communist Soviet empire. I was traveling through Greece and Turkey while reading this, which made it very real and not just some recounting of history from seventy five years ago.Some of it is a little dry reading with the description of all the legislative and political deal making, but the stakes were high and it could have easily turned out differently with a major negative impact on the Western world.After reading David McCullough’s biography of Truman I respected Truman’s contribution to the US, and Joe Scarborough’s book just adds to that respect.

Very interesting read! I haven’t read much about Truman and the beginnings of the Cold War so I learned a great deal. It is crazy to see how one man who barely became president shaped 70 years of American foreign policy.

A well done and researched book. An interesting fact of American history.

I personally believe the book is insightful and inspirational. It helps the readers understand what risks and sacrifices were taken during the vanguard against the growing communist threat. Pros-It brings a whole new point of view over some of the politicians it refers to.-Sticks to the historical timeline-A reader will learn a lot from this bookCons-Definitely, a slow read, to obtain all the information-Written for a select few audiencesI would recommend this to any Cold War history lover, or to any Post World War Two history lover.

This was a treasure trove of historical American history. Spanning from the end of WWI through WWII, the Cold War, which actually started at the end of WWII, the Korean conflict and Vietnam. President Franklin Roosevelt, whom President Truman succeeded upon FDR’s death, was a bully who would back down under counter attack. President Truman was the one who had been bullied from a young age and emerged as a decisive, confident President, who preferred one to one communication over memos and and phone calls.I highly recommend this book.

A very good book and a part of history I knew very little about. Very easy to read and understand and you have to love Scarborough for dropping the F bomb today on his show.