Despite our collective memory of that election, Mr. Gullan argues that it was neither the "greatest upset in American political history" (as popular mythology would have it) nor merely a successful extension of the coalition built by Franklin Roosevelt (as many historians contend). Aided by so many advantages and fortuitous circumstances, Mr. Gullan declares, Truman should have won by an even larger margin.

Notwithstanding the near unanimous opinion of polls, pundits, and publications favoring Dewey, a win by the New York governor would have been the authentic upset. Making his case, Mr. Gullan surveys Truman's background and re-creates the happy but anxious years just after the war, as well as the events of this remarkable campaign. He shows why, in retrospect, the results of 1948 make it - along with 1932 and 1968 - one of the three most important elections in the twentieth century.

In his narrative, Mr. Gullan explains that Truman was rarely the "solitary rider" whom we remember. In 1948, Alben Barkley, James Rowe, Robert A. Taft, Henry Wallace, Clark Clifford, Strom Thurmond, even Joseph Stalin formed an important part of the story.