Fans of Harry Truman might want to know that on Sept. 2 a new, short bio of the former Missourian will be published. The author is respected historian Robert Dallek and publisher Henry Holt says that “Harry S. Truman” is the “first critical re-evaluation” of the president since David McCullough’s book “Truman” (1992)

 The new book is a lot shorter (not necessarily a bad thing) as it’s part of the American Presidents Series. It is expected to be about 200 pages.

Dallek, says Holt, “argues for the application of the tag of greatness, or at least near greatness, to the plainspoken man from Missouri who achieved unconditional surrender from Germany and Japan, ushered America into the nuclear age, established the alliances and principles that would define the cold war and containment policy, and started the nation on the road to civil rights. A strong, centrist leader, Truman also won the most dramatic election of the twentieth century—his brilliant 1948 “whistle-stop campaign” against heavy favorite Thomas E. Dewey. Few chief executives have had so lasting an impact.”

Missourians probably will agree.