From Publishers Weekly
This newest addition to the American Presidents series edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. offers a solid portrait of an unlikable man who achieved extraordinary things. A Tennesseean like Polk, Seigenthaler (founding editorial director of USA Today) agrees with those who rate this dour, partisan, grudge-holding, one-term president a success. Polk took office in 1845 with four aims in mind: to lower the tariff, take federal deposits away from private banks, wrest the Oregon territory from joint possession with Great Britain and make California an American territory. In achieving everything he sought, Polk was more successful than most presidents. National sentiment favored him. He was politically skillful. And by declaring that he'd serve for only one term, Polk freed himself to push ahead without his eyes on re-election. But Seigenthaler fails to evaluate the consequences of Polk's successes. His first three goals were reasonably uncontroversial, their effects specific and contained. But his last-to take California from Mexico-ended in war with that nation, ostensibly over Texas. The war brought Texas, California and the entire Southwest into American possession. It also cost Mexico half its territory. More consequentially, it heightened national tensions over slavery and set in motion the bitter events that culminated in civil war. To be sure, those events lie beyond the biography of a man who died long before the Civil War began. But a presidency takes on meaning from its context and consequences. In the end, this biography nicely paints a four-year term, but leaves us wanting an assessment of its significance within the longer span of history.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.'s periodic polls of his fellow experts, Polk is invariably deemed a near-great president. But most Americans know him only because they once memorized a list of the presidents. Seigenthaler concedes that Polk merits his high ranking because he achieved his four major objectives. Otherwise, he isn't particularly appealing. Sober, honest, hardworking, decent, he hitched his star to political supernova Andrew Jackson and enjoyed what undeviating loyalty to Jackson's Democrats brought him. In a big career setback, he resigned as Speaker of the House and then lost the Tennessee gubernatorial race. But he remained poised, and when supposed Democratic shoo-in Martin Van Buren joined Whig nominee Henry Clay in opposition to admitting Texas to the Union, he won the 1844 nomination and election. Then he (1) lowered the tariff, (2) created an independent federal treasury, (3) acquired Oregon from Britain, and (4) after waging the Mexican War, bought California from Mexico. In this new volume in the American Presidents series, Seigenthaler makes Polk as interesting as he'll probably ever be. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
The story of a pivotal president who watched over our westward expansion and solidified the dream of Jacksonian democracy
James K. Polk was a shrewd and decisive commander in chief, the youngest president elected to guide the still-young nation, who served as Speaker of the House and governor of Tennessee before taking office in 1845. Considered a natural successor to Andrew Jackson, “Young Hickory” miraculously revived his floundering political career by riding a wave of public sentiment in favor of annexing the Republic of Texas to the Union.
Shortly after his inauguration, he settled the disputed Oregon boundary and by 1846 had declared war on Mexico in hopes of annexing California. The considerably smaller American army never lost a battle. At home, however, Polk suffered a political firestorm of antiwar attacks from many fronts. Despite his tremendous accomplishments, he left office an extremely unpopular man, on whom stress had taken such a physical toll that he died within three months of departing Washington. Fellow Tennessean John Seigenthaler traces the life of this president who, as Truman noted, “said what he intended to do and did it.”
About the Author
John Seigenthaler is the founder of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. An administrative assistant to Robert F. Kennedy, he was an award-winning journalist for The Nashvile Tennessean for forty-three years, finally serving as the paper’s editor, publisher, and CEO, and was named founding editorial director of USA Today in 1982. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
James K. Polk (The American Presidents Series) FROM THE PUBLISHER
"In the summer of 1844, James K. Polk's political career was in ruins. As the Democratic National Convention approached, Polk had thought himself assured of the vice presidential nomination, but the presidential front-runner, former president Martin Van Buren, had made it clear that he had little interest in him. Van Buren was on a mission to regain the White House, which he had lost in 1840, and he needed a strong running mate. Polk had three strikes against him. First, Polk had been unable to deliver his and Andrew Jackson's home state of Tennessee in 1840, while Polk was governor. Second, he was fresh from having lost the governor's mansion - for a second time. And third, Van Buren - as well as the Whigs' candidate, Henry Clay - had just taken a stand against the annexation of Texas, whereas Polk had come out in its favor." "But as the delegates assembled in Baltimore, Polk perceived a wave of public sentiment in favor of bringing Texas into the Union, and he rode that wave all the way to the nomination and eventually the White House - the first "dark horse" candidate to do so. Congress soon annexed Texas, and Polk continued to look west, becoming the champion of what was known as "manifest destiny." He settled the disputed Oregon boundary with Great Britain, extending U.S. territory to the Pacific Ocean, and waged war on Mexico in hopes of winning California and New Mexico. The considerably smaller American army never lost a battle, and the southwest territories became part of the United States in 1848." At home, however, Polk suffered a political firestorm of antiwar attacks, particularly from the Whigs. Despite tremendous accomplishments in just four years - from pushing the westward expansion to restoring an independent Treasury to ushering in an era of free trade - "Young Hickory" left office feeling the sting of criticism and suffering from a stressful presidency that had taken a heavy physical toll. He died within three months of departing Washington.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
This newest addition to the American Presidents series edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. offers a solid portrait of an unlikable man who achieved extraordinary things. A Tennesseean like Polk, Seigenthaler (founding editorial director of USA Today) agrees with those who rate this dour, partisan, grudge-holding, one-term president a success. Polk took office in 1845 with four aims in mind: to lower the tariff, take federal deposits away from private banks, wrest the Oregon territory from joint possession with Great Britain and make California an American territory. In achieving everything he sought, Polk was more successful than most presidents. National sentiment favored him. He was politically skillful. And by declaring that he'd serve for only one term, Polk freed himself to push ahead without his eyes on re-election. But Seigenthaler fails to evaluate the consequences of Polk's successes. His first three goals were reasonably uncontroversial, their effects specific and contained. But his last-to take California from Mexico-ended in war with that nation, ostensibly over Texas. The war brought Texas, California and the entire Southwest into American possession. It also cost Mexico half its territory. More consequentially, it heightened national tensions over slavery and set in motion the bitter events that culminated in civil war. To be sure, those events lie beyond the biography of a man who died long before the Civil War began. But a presidency takes on meaning from its context and consequences. In the end, this biography nicely paints a four-year term, but leaves us wanting an assessment of its significance within the longer span of history. (Jan. 4) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Foreign Affairs
James Knox Polk is so little known to even the educated public that essayist James Thurber once suggested that a society be formed to invent and circulate amusing anecdotes about him. Yet Polk, who acquired roughly one-third of the territory that today comprises the United States, is consistently ranked by historians as one of the most effective U.S. presidents. Seigenthaler crisply summarizes the conventional case for Polk's (near) greatness. Coming into office, Polk listed four goals for his administration: reducing tariffs, acquiring California from Mexico and Oregon from the United Kingdom, and introducing the "independent subtreasury" system to take U.S. funds out of the coffers of private banks. He accomplished them all. As to why Polk is not better remembered, Seigenthaler notes that historians have generally sympathized with Whig critics of the Mexican War and that Polk's journals reveal an unsympathetic and small-minded personality. One could add to this that the battles over tariffs and bank policy are utterly incomprehensible to all but a handful of specialists today, and the fall of the British Empire makes it hard for Americans to appreciate how much skill and daring went into the diplomatic bluff that led Sir Robert Peel's government to accept a division of the Oregon Territory that so markedly favored the weaker United States.
Kirkus Reviews
James K. Polk waged war against Mexico, and almost against Britain, to increase the size of the US by a full third. Yet, writes fellow Tennessean Seigenthaler, "somehow he is the least acknowledged among our presidents, which is somewhat mystifying." Perhaps not so mystifying, given that the Mexican-American War, widely known at the time as "Mr. Polk's War," was highly controversial, protested by the likes of Emerson, Thoreau, and a young Abe Lincoln. Even today, a certain amount of shame attaches to the American invasion of Mexico, which netted California, New Mexico, most of Arizona, and other territories, serving to lessen Polk's reputation. Seigenthaler, founding editorial director of USA Today and veteran Tennessean journalist, allows that Polk, like his mentor Andrew Jackson-Polk's career, he writes, "was grafted as a limb to the trunk of Jackson's political tree"-was always spoiling for a fight. But, he argues, Polk worked from a sense of "moral certitude and self-righteousness" and probably believed, as did so many of his compatriots, that only American intervention could save Mexico from its innate barbarism. Interestingly, Seigenthaler adds, Polk seems to have been reading the mood of the nation correctly when he advocated annexation of the then-independent Republic of Texas in 1844, which the leading politicians, Democrat Martin Van Buren and Whig Henry Clay, refused to do. Swept into national office, Polk came to see states' rights as secondary to the national interest, and he became a champion of American empire-building. His work in this regard won him admirers, but it also led him to "virtually incarcerate himself in the White House for the full tenure of his presidency"and to micro-manage his generals 2,000 miles distant, who disregarded his orders anyway. The stress of his presidency, the author suggests, condemned him to an early grave, and he died soon after leaving office. Against many historians, Seigenthaler applauds Polk for achievements that he insists are "nothing short of remarkable, changing forever the geography and economy of the country."
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