The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World

A. J. Baime is an American journalist and author. He is best known for his works on the automobile industry and the US presidency. A native of New Jersey, he received his bachelor of arts degree at the University of New Hampshire, followed by a master’s degree at New York University. His career as a journalist took him through many different publications, including Gentleman’s Quarterly, Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Maxim. One of his main areas of specialization has been automobiles, and for over a decade, he has written a column for the Wall Street Journal entitled “My Ride” that tells the story of a person and the vehicle that is special to them. His 2010 book Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans described how the American automotive industry tried to build a car capable of outracing the dominant Italian team. The book was a bestseller and was adapted into the 2019 film Ford v. Ferrari, directed by James Mangold and starring Christian Bale and Matt Damon. Baime’s interest in American industry then led him to study Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency and his cooperation with corporate America to prepare the United States for possible entry into World War II in The Arsenal of Democracy (2014).