Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

The presidency of James K. Polk (1845-1849), rated "near great" by many historians, became largely lost from public consciousness in the furor of the Civil War, but it has been experiencing a renewed respect due to biographies such as this. Polk had four major goals as President, all of which he accomplished: establish a national treasury, reduce the tariff, settle the boundaries of the Oregon Territory with Britain, and acquire California. These last two added modern Oregon, Idaho, Washington state, California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Montana to our country's territory. Polk was also heavily involved in acquiring Texas, which was annexed by President Tyler the day before Polk show more took office. He is also known for the strength with which he guided his Cabinet and the entire administration and the power he wrested for the Presidency, so visible in recent years.

Borneman provides an evenly-paced and very readable account of Polk's life and work and the political atmosphere in which his career flourished, failed, and then reached its apex. It was eerie, however, to read the means by which the U.S. approached gaining a strong enough foothold in Texas, California and the Oregon Territory that claims for those areas could potentially be made: the government encouraged Americans to move and settle there in large numbers without permission from either the Mexican or British governments, respectively. Sound familiar? show less

4443. Polk The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America, by Walter R. Borneman (read 29 May 2008) This is an extremely readable biography and is totally up-to-date. There are adequate footnotes, and a good bibliography. There is nothing esoteric about it, and when some issues in Polk's time are of less interest today (e.g., the Bank war) such get less attention. The important things, like the Mexican War and expansion of the country are covered in full and while What Hath God Wrought is a more "learned" book this book is extremely satisfying and seems to tell everything one wants to know about Polk, who while he had his faults did set out to do good things for the country and succeeded. His faults were faults many at the time were show more guilty of, and I think it is right to rank him as a near-great president. show less

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America by Walter R. Borneman is a biography of the 11th President of the United States. Mr. Borneman is a well-known American historian and lawyer.

A biography of President James K. Polk. In this biography, the author re-evaluates the contribution made by Mr. Polk to the country and the institution of the Presidency.

I didn’t know much about Mr. Polk before reading this book and I came away with a brand new appreciation for the man. This is a well-researched, well written and the author makes a good argument about Mr. Polk being one of the most able Presidents the United States has had.

Polk, who presided over the Mexican-American War, accomplished his goal but acquiring the territory in show more the west of the continent including California and Oregon. The great accomplishments of this President where lost mainly because

An excellent biography of a President who was probably the most influential person to hold office between Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Borneman wrote a readable and informative account of Polk’s life and time in office.

For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com show less

President James K. Polk, our 11th president, was one of our least-known great/near great presidents. In this excellent biography, possibly the best presidential bio I've read since David McCullough's John Adams, I got to know him a whole lot better.

Polk accomplished what he set out to do. One key area was the acquisition of territory in the west, California, the Oregon Territory, among others. The most interesting parts of this book, I thought, dealt with this topic.

Polk also presided over the Mexican-American War (who knew that there were Whig generals and Democrat generals?) and strengthened the presidency, in terms of war declarations and others.

Interestingly, he died soon after he left office. I think he had a post-presidency of 119 show more days. His widow survived him by over 40 years.

This is quite a fascinating book. Highly recommended!! show less

James Knox Polk is remembered mainly as the first "dark horse" president but historians feel that he was a near-great president. He grew as a politician under the tutelage of Andrew Jackson. He was a compromise candidate of the Democrat party in 1844 after serving as Governor of Tennessee and Speaker of the House of Representatives. He promised before election that he would only serve one term ad that his objectives were to reduce the tariff, create an independent federal Treasury, annex Texas and bring in Oregon and California . He accomplished all of these while serving as commander-in chief during the Mexican American War.

Polk was a no-nonsense President who, when Rivers and Harbors legislation was proposed ( the largest bit of pork show more barrel legislation ever put before the congress) at the same time as important legislation regarding tariff reduction, Polk waited for the passage of other vital legislation before vetoing the rivers and harbor bill with the message "many of the projects were of a local measure and far beyond what could be called essential to the nation's commerce" .He stated that "to call the mouth of a creek, a harbor, cannot confer the authority to spend money for its improvement."
"Should this bill become law, the precedent that it establishes will inevitably lead to large and annually increasing appropriations and drains upon the treasury. For it is not to be doubted that new and other localities will demand of their representatives in Congress " equal representation.

POLITICAL COMMENT
Polk presidency seems to be mirror reflection of what is happening in today's politics - he was accused of starting the Mexican War and the Whigs were constantly battling to show him up, but when it came time to act, the appropriations that were needed were passed without issue. To this day we have unnecessary expenses for "improvements" that are not needed simply as part of pork barrel legislation.What a shame that we did not learn from history. show less

I liked it and I did not like it, except for the "Mexican War" which was clearly a main part of the book. I would have put it down ere the first shot was ever fired and it would be one more book unfinished! This book was, to a great extent, also a book about Jackson, Clay, Van Buren, and as a side note only, Lincoln.

Very little was written about the native population that was so dearly affected by the western expansion. Borneman wrote, "A man with no qualms about buying and selling other human beings [Polk enslaved more than one, though this book is not about slavery] probably did not dwell on how expansionist policies might affect indigenous Native Americans or, for that matter, any nationality occupying coveted tarritory" (location show more 634).

In 1948 Arthur M. Schlesinger asked prominent historians to rank U.S. Presidents, on their performance in the White House. Polk came in at 10 out of 29. He repeated this poll in 1962, and Polk came in at 8 out of 31. Then Schlesinger, Jr. put the poll out once more in 1996, and Polk came in at 9 out of 39.

I don't know who Random House uses to copy edit their digitization of books, but I'd be happy to oblige them. Consistently when the book referred to Mr. & Mrs. Smith (or similarly named folks), they were referred to as "the Smiths," (which is correct). But when James Polk and Sarah Polk were referred to jointly, they were consistently referred to as "the Polk's." Argh. Are we no longer teaching punctuation grammar? show less

I was pleasantly surprised by this biography. It was incredibly well-researched, noted and argued. While I really only remembered Polk for the "54' 40" or Fight!" slogan, this author makes a compelling argument that Polk was one of the most able of presidents. (He also taught me that the 54' 40" slogan came into play after Polk was elected.) I would highly recommend this biography to anyone looking for a closer look into American history in the murky era of Presidents between Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln.