Reading history always calms me down. Just when you think you’re living in an age of total insanity, you sit down with a good book and realize been there done that. This is one of those books.

 The author Matthew Algeo has researched a wonderfully esoteric event in history. Did you know that Harry Truman once spent the day touring the French countryside with Pablo Picasso?

This interesting story recounts the events that led up to these two meeting in 1958.

In the process of telling this very humanistic tale, we get a chance to learn a little about the biography of both of these historic giants.

I’ve read two other Truman biographies, neither one mentioned this event. That causes this book to be particularly intriguing.

Along with the biographic information we also got several very nice history lessons.

The first is a capsule summary of how modern art came to be. We are introduced to some of the main artists. He names specific works, so you can easily look them up and see what he talks about.

During this explanation we learn a bit about a few of the early modern art museums. And how they morphed into some of the most famous modern museums.

There is even a CIA covert operation dealing with an American modern art exposition. Quite intriguing.

 The geopolitical aspect fascinated me also. The early to mid-20^th century brimmed with strangeness and intrigue. Of course, many of the earliest seeds of weirdness came out of Weimar Germany. He goes on to explain some of the political tensions that modern art was creating.

 He briefly mentioned the roots of that unique Soviet Realism Art as a rebuttal to the modern art trend in USSR. That is, paint modern art and die, comrade. I always wondered how that came about.

He points out how modern art proved to be the catalyst for critical cultural and political decisions in both Europe and the US.

Another interesting aspect of the book was how much simpler life was back then. Truman, one of the most controversial world leaders, traveled freely unescorted by secret service or massive entourages.

This era existed before everything became driven by the media and hype.

Although, Algeo did mention how this was about to change. He gave a brief aside about the advent of paparazzi around this time.

There was nothing wildly profound in this story. Just a small incident. Understanding a little more about this period and events makes todays turmoil seem just a little less perilous. I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining and informative book.