New York Times Bestseller

The host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe reveals how President Harry Truman defended democracy against the Soviet threat at the dawn of the Cold War.

“A compelling account of a great man and a great American moment. Harry Truman comes to life in these pages— and his is a life that repays our attention now more than ever.”— Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning presidential historian

History called on Harry Truman to unite the Western world against Soviet communism, but first he had to rally Republicans and Democrats behind America’s most dramatic foreign policy shift since George Washington delivered his farewell address. How did one of the least prepared presidents to walk into the Oval Office become one of its most successful?

In Saving Freedom, Joe Scarborough recounts the historic forces that moved Truman toward his country’s long twilight struggle against Soviet communism, and how this untested president acted decisively to build a lasting coalition that would influence America’s foreign policy for generations to come. On March 12, 1947, Truman delivered an address before a joint session of Congress announcing a policy of containment that would soon become known as the Truman Doctrine, which pledged that the United States would “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” The untested president’s policy was a radical shift from 150 years of isolationism, but it would prove to be the pivotal moment that guaranteed Western Europe’s freedom, the American Century’s rise, and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.

An inspiring tale of American leadership, fierce determination, bipartisan unity, and courage, Saving Freedom offers timeless lessons to help shape our nation’s present and its future.