Harry S. Truman became President of the United States on April 12, 1945. He assumed office during a time of great circumstance, leading America through the last few months of the Second World War, and shepherding the free world through eight years in which the fragile postwar peace could easily have been broken. A poor farmer from rural Missouri, Truman epitomized the everyday American. He prided himself on being a man of the people, a simple farmer and humble citizen in an extraordinary circumstance. Throughout his time in office, and in the decades since his retirement, critics have accused Truman of having been inexperienced and unable to manage the trials of the Presidency. Nonetheless, President Truman maintained the postwar peace while setting the course for the United States to win the Cold War, saved Europe through the Marshall Plan, consolidated the liberal advances made through Roosevelt's New Deal, and led America's economy through eight years of prosperity. Perennially underestimated, Harry Truman proved to be one of the most important Presidents of the twentieth century, and the story of his Presidency is one that truly deserves a prominent place in American history.