Faced with the likely loss of the 1948 presidential elections, Harry S. 
Truman decided to do what he did best: talk straight. When Truman 
boarded the train to head west in June 1948, he and his campaign 
advisors decided to shift from prepared text to extemporaneous 
stump speeches. The "new Truman" emerged as a feisty, engaged 
speaker, brimming with ideas on policies and programs important to 
the common citizen.

    Steven R. Goldzwig engagingly chronicles the origins of Truman's 
"give 'em hell" image and the honing of his rhetorical delivery 
during his ostensibly nonpolitical train trip west, which came to be 
known as his "whistle-stop tour." At the time, Truman was both 
applauded and derided by the public, but his speeches delivered at 
each stop helped win him the presidency. Goldzwig's detailed look at 
the background of the campaign, Truman's preparations and goals, 
the train trip itself, and the text and tone of the speeches helps us 
better understand how Truman carried the 1948 election and came to 
represent the plainspoken "man of the people" who returns from 
behind to win, against all odds.

_________________________________________________________

STEVEN R. GOLDZWIG teaches in the department of 
communication studies at Marquette University. He has received 
numerous awards and is an associate editor for Communication 
Monographs. He lives in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin.


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