John C. Calhoun: American Portrait

Excellent biography of John C. Calhoun; Congressman, Senator, Vice-President and architect of the State's Rights theory and defense of the South's 'peculiar institution'. A complex, highly intelligent man who's life can be seen as a Greek Tragedy; the very theories and politics he espoused would ultimately doom the South, and he lived long enough to realize this; but not long enough to alter his course.

Ok. Pretty weird for me to read this book but I needed to know more about this man. I disagree with him, but I feel I have a greater understanding of who he was and how he got there. Now, the book itself waxed and waned for me. Far too much use of the word very, which also means the book was just too wordy. However, it was also really good in many ways. If you need to know about Southern antebellum life and all the important political players, this book has it. I learned a lot.

And on the day I finish the book, I see how a politician and his son want to remove Calhoun's name from the son's dorm at Yale. Is this really going to accomplish the goal? What is the goal?

I don't agree with Calhoun, and maybe he doesn't deserve the honor. But show more it seems to me that if we rewrite history, we will revisit it. The take away from this book is how early on Calhoun realized the South's doom. Instead of figuring out a way to stop it at that moment, he perpetuated the doom by speaking for it. That's his great failing. We need to remember this failed legacy. show less