Gullan, Harold I. 1931–

views updated

Gullan, Harold I. 1931–

(Harold Ives Gullan)

PERSONAL: Born August 7, 1931, in Baltimore, MD; married December 29, 1962; wife's name Elizabeth H.; children: William. Ethnicity: "White." Education: John Hopkins University, B.A., 1953; St. Joseph's University, M.A., 1989; Temple University, Ph.D., 1998. Politics: Independent Republican. Religion: Episcopalian. Hobbies and other interests: Travel, amateur singing, amateur sports.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Edward W. Knappmann, New England Publishing Associates, P.O. Box 5, Chester, CT 06412. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Historian and writer. Visiting professor at several educational institutions.

WRITINGS:

The Upset that Wasn't: Harry S Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948, Ivan R. Dee (Chicago, IL), 1998.

Faith of Our Mothers: The Women Who Inspired America's Presidents, William B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 2001.

First Fathers: The Men Who Inspired Our Presidents, John Wiley and Sons (Hoboken, NJ), 2004.

Jumping through Hoops: Why Penn Wins, Camino Books (Philadelphia, PA), 2006.

Contributor to Presidential Studies Quarterly.

SIDELIGHTS: Harold I. Gullan's first book, The Upset that Wasn't: Harry S Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948 was published on the fiftieth anniversary of what has often been called a political upset, the victory of Truman over Thomas E. Dewey in what some consider to be one of the most important elections of the twentieth century. In his book, Gullan presents a view that counters this popular view; he would have considered it an upset if Dewey had won.

Truman entered politics when his haberdashery business failed, at the urging of T.J. "Boss" Pendergast. He won in a race for district judge, then in 1934 was elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1944, Truman became Franklin Delano Roosevelt's vice president and assumed the presidency five months later with Roosevelt's death. During the years following World War II, the economy of the United States returned to the production of consumer goods. Unemployment spawned labor problems, and voters turned Congress over to the Republicans, but the new majority was unable to dismantle the popular New Deal Programs of Roosevelt. Truman and Dewey both leaned toward the middle, Truman from the left and Dewey from the right. While Dewey and running-mate Earl Warren ran what some have characterized as a rather dull and unambitious campaign, Truman crossed the country greeting voters from the platforms of trains, while Alben Barkley, his folksy vice presidential running mate, secured the votes of the South, the Farm Belt, and the border states.

In his book Gullan examines the third-party campaigns of Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond and the Progressive Party's Henry Wallace, races that were not embraced by voters. Secretary of State George Marshall was a strong, positive influence on Truman's candidacy. Gullan also notes that the 1948 election drew the lowest number of voters in twenty years. This may have been due in part to the fact that Dewey did not attack Truman's foreign policy. Truman's win may also have been strengthened by a stronger black vote in 1948. In a Kirkus Reviews article, the writer called the book "a lucid, enlightening, historical survey, as well as a nostalgic look at a bygone era." A Publishers Weekly reviewer said it "is a very readable history focusing on the thirtieth president, one of the great gut politicians of the century."

In Faith of Our Mothers: The Women Who Inspired America's Presidents Gullan looks at the impact of mothers on the U.S. presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush. The word "faith" is used to address, not only the confidence that these women imparted to their sons, but the religious faith that informed their upbringing and influenced their actions as national leaders. Gullan followed this publication with First Fathers: The Men Who Inspired Our Presidents. In it the reader learns that some U.S. presidents did not have strong father figures in their lives, and others had fathers whose impact was more negative than supportive, but several others, such as Theodore Roosevelt, benefited greatly from the father-son relationship. Gullan collects in one thematic volume the biographical snippets gleaned from a multitude of presidential life histories and critical analyses. Though the author does briefly mention the imperfections of these presidential parents where warranted, the tone of the book is mainly adulatory, according to John Robert Greene in his assessment for History: Review of New Books.