Biennial Award Honors Scholar of Truman Era

Kansas City, Mo. – The Truman Library Institute has awarded Kevin Peraino the 2018 Harry S. Truman Book Award for A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China (Penguin Random House, 2017). Established in 1963, the Harry S. Truman Book Award recognizes the best book published within a two-year period focused on the Truman era of history.

A Force So Swift is a fast-paced narrative about the moment that China began to climb back to the center of world power. Peraino focuses on the Truman administration’s response to the rise of communist forces in China in 1949 and how that political revolution continues to shape East Asian politics today.

Peraino is a veteran foreign correspondent who worked as senior writer and bureau chief at Newsweek for a decade. He is also the author of Lincoln in the World: The Making of a Statesman and the Dawn of American Power. Peraino joins 27 other distinguished authors including Dean Acheson, Alonzo Hamby and Wilson D. Miscamble who have received this prestigious biennial award for their work.

The Harry S. Truman Book Award Committee is chaired by R. Crosby Kemper, III, chief executive officer of the Kansas City Public Library. Committee members include Nick Cullather, professor of history, Indiana University at Bloomington; Alonzo L. Hamby, distinguished professor emeritus of history, Ohio University; Rev. Wilson D. (Bill) Miscamble, C.S.C., professor of history, University of Notre Dame; and Jason Parker, associate professor of history, Texas A&M University.

Peraino will share highlights of his book and sign copies when he accepts the Harry S. Truman Book Award at a free public program taking place Thursday, September 27, at the Truman Library. The event is free to attend but RSVPs are requested. Find more details here.