geeky
Drama like this makes for excellent reading, and at least four authors have retold this tale superbly. While the story itself makes for interesting reading, the skill of these authors adds to the enjoyment of the story's retelling.
In a previous entry in this series I recommended the works of David Pietrusza. He wrote about this election in his 2011 book 1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Transformed America, reviewed here. In the book, Pietrusza tells the story of how Truman turned things around, by drawing support from Wallace and his Progressives and how he limited the loss of support to segregationists by seeming to be all things to everyone on the issue of civil rights. He also describes how Thomas Dewey snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by running a sterile campaign that failed to fight back against attacks, failed to showcase the candidate in swing states, and that paid the price of assuming victory rather than earning it. What makes this book such an enjoyable read are the stories Pietrusza tells, and he's got a million of them, from the way the candidates' spouses felt to how the Chicago Tribune came to post the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman". This book makes for excellent summer reading.
For more of an analytical analysis of the election (but no less entertaining reading), I recommend Zachary Karabell's 2000 book The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election, reviewed here. Karabell writes an intelligent, informative and very readable account of how Truman snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. When victory looked impossible for Truman, his base being gnawed at from the left and from the right by two strong third party candidates, and when every media outlet had declared victory for Dewey long before a single vote was cast, Karabell tells us how Truman whistled past his political graveyard and followed a strategy designed to attract blue collar labor support in the cities as well as rural agricultural votes, and how he managed to hang on to most of the left as well as a good portion of the south. Karabell clearly explains how Truman had a plan and how he struck to it, never wavering. This book also has its share of humorous anecdotes. Karabell's description of an unfortunate incident at the Democratic Convention involving pigeons trapped in a floral display in a hot convention hall is worth the price of the book alone. But the real genius is Karabell explaining how all of Truman's strategies would backfire on him in his next term, as well as the pitfalls of 1948 style polling methods.
For yet another take on this election, readers can go to Philip White's 2014 work Whistle Stop: How 31,000 Miles of Train Travel, 352 Speeches, and a Little Midwest Gumption Saved the Presidency of Harry Truman, reviewed here. This book looks at the election from the perspective of Truman's campaign team, the Research Division, chaired by Bill Batt and overseen by Washington wise man Clark Clifford. It looks at Truman's blueprint of a very demanding campaign schedule of criss-crossing the country by train (the "Ferdinand Magellan", also known as the "Last Chance Special") with early mornings and late nights, Truman's exceptional work ethic and his addresses to large and small crowds, infused with a local flavor provided by the Research Division. The formula was to attack the Republican controlled 80th Congress, or as Truman pejoratively called them, the "Do-Nothing Congress", a group that Truman painted as beholding to special interest groups, the banks and the rich. It was an interesting time in America, a time when the President was not ashamed to call himself a liberal. Given virtually no chance of winning the election by every nationally known pollster, the author makes the case for how Truman's optimism and belief in his own cause was the catalyst for his amazing come-from-behind victory.
Finally, Truman's Triumphs: The 1948 Election and the Making of Postwar America (part of the American Presidential Elections series) by Andrew Busch, provides more of an academic, but clearly written insightful analysis of the 1948 election and its broader implications for the nation. The book covers the entire year of 1948, culminating with the election on November 2, 1948. Busch also provides context from events immediately before and after this election. Busch argues that the 1948 election was a validation of the domestic policy of the New Deal, of the foreign policy of containment, and of the federal policy advocating civil rights. Less anecdotal and more analytical than many of the other books about the election, it still serves up an interesting read about this fascinating election.
The election is discussed in a number of insightful biographies of Truman's life, including David McCullough's masterful work. But for the reader interested in reading with a focus on what turned out to be a most amazing upset which defied almost everyone's expectations, these four books offer a good selection to choose from.