Interview with Steve Drummond, Author of "The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption"

Warning Icon This event is in the past.

When:
January 30, 2024
12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Where:
Law School DJK 2242
471 W. Palmer Ave
Detroit, MI 48202
Event category: Meal/Food/Beverages
In-person
RSVP is closed.

Join us on January 30, 2024, at 12:15 p.m. in room DJK 2024 to watch our interview with Steve Drummond, Author of "The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win WWII."

The interview will be conducted by U.S. Senate Historian, Kate Scott.

Boxed lunches and free coffee and tea will be provided!


Book Synopsis:

The story of how a little-known junior senator fought wartime corruption and, in the process, set himself up to become vice president and ultimately President Harry Truman.

Months before Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt knew that the United States was on the verge of entering another world war for which it was dangerously ill-prepared. The urgent times demanded a transformation of the economy, with the government bankrolling the unfathomably expensive task of enlisting millions of citizens while also producing the equipment necessary to successfully fight—all of which opened up opportunities for graft, fraud and corruption.

In The Watchdog, Steve Drummond draws the reader into the fast-paced story of how Harry Truman, still a newcomer to Washington politics, cobbled together a bipartisan team of men and women that took on powerful corporate entities and the Pentagon, placing Truman in the national spotlight and paving his path to the White House.

Drawing on the largely unexamined records of the Truman Committee as well as oral histories, personal letters, newspaper archives and interviews, Steve Drummond—an award-winning senior editor and executive producer at NPR—brings the colorful characters and intrigue of the committee’s work to life. The Watchdog provides readers with a window to a time that was far from perfect but where it was possible to root out corruption and hold those responsible to account. It shows us what can be possible if politicians are governed by the principles of their office rather than self-interest. 

 

About the Author:

Steve Drummond is a journalist at NPR in Washington, where he has been a senior editor for more than two decades. He has been a reporter with newspapers in Florida and the Associated Press in Michigan and has written for many publications, including the St. Petersburg Times, the Detroit News, the New York TimesEducation Week and Teacher Magazine. He lives in Maryland, where he also teaches journalism at the University of Maryland.

Contact

Levin Center
levincenter@wayne.edu

Cost

Free
January 2024
SU M TU W TH F SA
31123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031123