Book: Ascent to Power: How Truman Emerged from Roosevelt’s Shadow and Remade the World by David L. Roll
Publisher: Dutton (2024)
Named: One of Foreign Affairs’s Best Books of 2024
Audience: High School to College Level
Recommended for: AP U.S. History, Modern World History, American Government, and English Language Arts courses

Why This Book Matters for Social Studies Classrooms

David L. Roll’s meticulously researched biography offers students and educators a compelling narrative that spans the critical transition years from 1944 to 1948, examining how Harry S. Truman emerged from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s shadow to become a transformative president in his own right. Rather than simply chronicling events, Roll weaves together the complex political, international, and domestic threads that shaped not just Truman’s presidency, but the entire post-war American experience.

A Masterclass in Historical Research and Narrative

What sets Ascent to Power apart from other Truman biographies is Roll’s focus on the transition period itself—”the long shadow cast by the dead president, Truman’s struggle to emerge, and how decisions during the years of transition, 1944 through 1948, impacted the peoples who survived the sword.” The author draws from an impressive array of primary sources, making rich use of materials that provide fresh insights into this consequential presidential transition. Students will appreciate how Roll doesn’t just tell them what happened, but shows them how historians piece together the past through careful analysis of evidence.

The book demonstrates how “from a relatively unknown Missouri senator to the most powerful man on Earth, Truman’s legacy transcends” through his crucial decisions during these pivotal years. Roll resists the temptation to oversimplify the era’s challenges, instead presenting readers with the same messy, uncertain world that Truman himself navigated. This approach makes the book particularly valuable for advanced high school students who are ready to grapple with nuanced historical analysis.

Three Critical Elections, Three Different Americas

Roll’s examination of the 1944, 1946, and 1948 elections provides students with a masterful case study in American political evolution. The 1944 election reveals the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that placed Truman on the ticket despite his own reluctance, while the 1946 midterms demonstrate how quickly American priorities shifted from wartime unity to peacetime concerns about labor strikes, inflation, and the growing specter of communist influence.

The 1948 election narrative is particularly compelling for students studying political campaigns and electoral strategy. Roll shows how Truman’s upset victory over Thomas Dewey wasn’t just luck, but the result of careful coalition-building and a campaign strategy that spoke directly to ordinary Americans’ concerns about housing, civil rights, and economic opportunity.

These election studies offer excellent opportunities for classroom discussions about campaign strategies, the role of media in politics, and how economic conditions influence voting patterns—lessons that remain remarkably relevant today.

International Diplomacy in Real Time

For students studying World War II’s end and the beginning of the Cold War, Roll’s detailed coverage of major international developments provides invaluable insight into how global politics actually work. His portrayal goes beyond traditional textbook summaries to show the personal dynamics between world leaders and the evolution of U.S.-Soviet relations as Truman “inherited FDR’s hope that peace could be maintained through cooperation with the Soviets, but he would soon learn that imitating his predecessor would lead only to missteps and controversy.”

The book effectively demonstrates how Truman had to learn international diplomacy while managing unprecedented decisions about atomic weapons, Soviet expansion, and the reconstruction of Europe and Japan. Roll traces “Truman’s missteps, his growing grasp of the enormous issues that confronted him, and his successes” as he and his advisers “made choices that still define the world: the successful conclusion of World War II, the reconstruction of Germany and Japan, the confrontation with the Soviet Union, the construction of the North Atlantic Alliance.” This human element makes abstract policy decisions concrete and relatable for student readers.

Domestic Policy and Political Fractures

Roll excels at showing how domestic and international pressures intersected during Truman’s presidency, including “the conversion of a wartime economy to a peacetime one, and the launch of civil rights reforms at home.” His coverage of Truman’s domestic agenda demonstrates how a president must balance competing interests while maintaining political viability. As one contemporary observer noted, the difference between Roosevelt’s civil rights promises and Truman’s was that “Truman really means it.”

The book’s treatment of the Democratic Party’s internal struggles is particularly valuable for students studying American political parties. Roll shows how the party that had been united under Roosevelt began fracturing under the pressures of racial integration, anti-communist sentiment, and regional economic interests. The 1948 Dixiecrat revolt and Henry Wallace’s Progressive Party challenge provide excellent case studies in third-party politics and coalition maintenance, ultimately leading to Truman’s remarkable “come-from-behind campaign in the fall of 1948.”

The Rise of Anti-Communism

One of Roll’s most important contributions is his nuanced treatment of anti-communist sentiment in American politics. Rather than presenting McCarthyism as an inexplicable outbreak of paranoia, he traces the gradual build-up of anti-communist feeling through legitimate concerns about Soviet expansion, labor union infiltration, and espionage cases like Alger Hiss.

This analysis helps students understand how political movements develop over time and how leaders like Truman tried to navigate between legitimate security concerns and protection of civil liberties. The book provides excellent material for classroom discussions about the balance between national security and individual rights—a debate that continues to resonate in contemporary American politics.

Classroom Applications and Discussion Opportunities

Ascent to Power offers numerous opportunities for classroom engagement. Students can analyze primary source documents that Roll quotes extensively, compare his interpretations with other historians’ work, and debate whether Truman’s decisions were justified given the information available at the time. Unlike comprehensive biographies such as David McCullough’s Truman, Roll’s focused approach on the transition years makes it more manageable for classroom use while still providing substantial depth.

The book works particularly well for document-based question (DBQ) preparation, as Roll demonstrates how historians use multiple sources to construct arguments about the past. Advanced students can examine Roll’s research methodology to understand how professional historians conduct their work.

For English Language Arts classes, the book provides excellent examples of narrative nonfiction writing. Roll’s ability to maintain chronological clarity while weaving together multiple storylines offers students a model for organizing complex analytical writing.

Areas for Classroom Consideration

While Ascent to Power is generally accessible to strong high school readers, teachers should be prepared to provide context for some of the more detailed political and diplomatic discussions. The book assumes familiarity with basic World War II chronology and New Deal programs, so it works best as supplementary reading rather than an introduction to the era.

Some students may find the extensive detail about electoral politics and congressional maneuvering challenging to follow. Teachers might consider assigning specific chapters rather than the entire book, or using excerpts to illustrate particular themes or events.

Final Assessment

David L. Roll’s Ascent to Power represents exactly the kind of sophisticated historical analysis that advanced high school students need to read. Named one of Foreign Affairs’s Best Books of 2024, it demonstrates how good history writing combines rigorous research with compelling narrative, showing students that the past was populated by real people making difficult decisions with incomplete information.

The book’s greatest strength for educators is its focused examination of a crucial transition period that “spawned the most consequential and productive events since the Civil War” and saw the U.S. “emerge from the Second World War as the most powerful nation in the world.” Instead of presenting Truman as either a heroic figure who saved democracy or an accidental president who stumbled through crises, Roll shows us a practical politician who grew into extraordinary leadership during extraordinary times.

For students preparing for college-level history courses, Ascent to Power provides an excellent model of how professional historians approach their subject matter. For anyone seeking to understand how America emerged from World War II as a global superpower while grappling with civil rights and Cold War challenges, this book offers essential insights that illuminate both past and present.

Recommended for: AP U.S. History students studying the post-war era, advanced English students examining narrative nonfiction, and any educator looking for a sophisticated treatment of mid-20th century American politics that respects both historical complexity and student intelligence.

About the Audiobook Edition

I throughly enjoyed listening via Audible the book and purchased it in mid-may2025 as part of BOGO deal and the accompanying book is about Pope XII and WW2. I’ll be offering a review of that one soon. I highly recommend listening to Mark Bramhall and his reading of Ron Chernow’s biography of Grant which is one of my favorite books.

This is part of a collection of book and movie reviews intended to help educators. I have read/screened of of these books and at times included excerpts in my classroom over the years and highly recommend them. Keep in mind that not all classrooms are the same and every educator should evaluate school and district recommendations before using any book, movie, or podcast in classes.
To read more of my reviews follow the link.