Author : Jean H. Baker
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 198 pages
File Size : 31,36 MB
Release : 2004
Category : Presidents
ISBN : 9780805069464
1. Buchanan, James, 1791-1868 2. Presidents United States Biography 3. United States - Politics and Government - 1857-1861.
Author : James Buchanan
Publisher :
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 24,67 MB
Release : 1866
Category : United States
ISBN :
Author : Robert Strauss
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 35,90 MB
Release : 2016-10-01
Category : History
ISBN : 1493024841
Worst. President. Ever. flips the great presidential biography on its head, offering an enlightening—and highly entertaining!—account of poor James Buchanan’s presidency to prove once and for all that, well, few leaders could have done worse. But author Robert Strauss does much more, leading readers out of Buchanan’s terrible term in office—meddling in the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, exacerbating the Panic of 1857, helping foment the John Brown uprisings and “Bloody Kansas,” virtually inviting a half-dozen states to secede from the Union as a lame duck, and on and on—to explore with insight and humor his own obsession with presidents, and ultimately the entire notion of ranking our presidents. He guides us through the POTUS rating game of historians and others who have made their own Mount Rushmores—or Marianas Trenches!—of presidential achievement, showing why Buchanan easily loses to any of the others, but also offering insights into presidential history buffs like himself, the forgotten "lesser" presidential sites, sex and the presidency, the presidency itself, and how and why it can often take the best measures out of even the most dedicated men.
Author : Thomas J. Balcerski
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 34,5 MB
Release : 2019-08-02
Category : History
ISBN : 0190914602
The friendship of the bachelor politicians James Buchanan (1791-1868) of Pennsylvania and William Rufus King (1786-1853) of Alabama has excited much speculation through the years. Why did neither marry? Might they have been gay? Or was their relationship a nineteenth-century version of the modern-day "bromance"? In Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King, Thomas J. Balcerski explores the lives of these two politicians and discovers one of the most significant collaborations in American political history. He traces the parallels in the men's personal and professional lives before elected office, including their failed romantic courtships and the stories they told about them. Unlikely companions from the start, they lived together as congressional messmates in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse and became close confidantes. Around the nation's capital, the men were mocked for their effeminacy and perhaps their sexuality, and they were likened to Siamese twins. Over time, their intimate friendship blossomed into a significant cross-sectional political partnership. Balcerski examines Buchanan's and King's contributions to the Jacksonian political agenda, manifest destiny, and the increasingly divisive debates over slavery, while contesting interpretations that the men lacked political principles and deserved blame for the breakdown of the union. He closely narrates each man's rise to national prominence, as William Rufus King was elected vice-president in 1852 and James Buchanan the nation's fifteenth president in 1856, despite the political gossip that circulated about them. While exploring a same-sex relationship that powerfully shaped national events in the antebellum era, Bosom Friends demonstrates that intimate male friendships among politicians were--and continue to be--an important part of success in American politics.
Author : C. Jerome
Publisher :
Page : 82 pages
File Size : 42,65 MB
Release : 1856
Category :
ISBN :
Author : Garry Boulard
Publisher : iUniverse
Page : 196 pages
File Size : 31,86 MB
Release : 2015-03-23
Category : History
ISBN : 1491759623
Just 24 hours after former President James Buchanan died on June 1, 1868, the Chicago Tribune rejoiced: “This desolate old man has gone to his grave. No son or daughter is doomed to acknowledge an ancestry from him.” Nearly a century and a half later, in 2004, writer Christopher Buckley observed “It is probably just as well that James Buchanan was our only bachelor president. There are no descendants bracing every morning on opening the paper to find another heading announcing: ‘Buchanan Once Again Rated Worst President in History.’” How to explain such remarkably consistent historical views of the man who turned over a divided and demoralized country to Abraham Lincoln, the same man regarded through the decades by presidential scholars as the worst president in U.S. history? In this exploration of the presidency of James Buchanan, 1857-61, Garry Boulard revisits the 15th President and comes away with a stunning conclusion: Buchanan’s performance as the nation’s chief executive was even more deplorable and sordid than scholars generally know, making his status as the country’s worst president richly deserved. Boulard documents Buchanan’s failure to stand up to the slaveholding interests of the South, his indecisiveness in dealing with the secession movement, and his inability to provide leadership during the nation’s gravest constitutional crisis. Using the letters of Buchanan, as well as those of more than two dozen political leaders and thinkers of the time, Boulard presents a narrative of a timid and vacillating president whose drift and isolation opened the door to the Civil War. The author of The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce: The Story of a President and the Civil War (iUniverse, 2006), Boulard has reported for the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times and is a business writer for the Albuquerque-based Construction Reporter.
Author : Philip Shriver Klein
Publisher : Franklin Classics
Page : 548 pages
File Size : 45,84 MB
Release : 2018-10-15
Category :
ISBN : 9780343281977
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Author : Edward L. Widmer
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 27,39 MB
Release : 2005-01-05
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0805069224
The first president born after America's independence ushers in a new era of no-holds-barred democracy The first "professional politician" to become president, the slick and dandyish Martin Van Buren was to all appearances the opposite of his predecessor, the rugged general and Democratic champion Andrew Jackson. Van Buren, a native Dutch speaker, was America's first ethnic president as well as the first New Yorker to hold the office, at a time when Manhattan was bursting with new arrivals. A sharp and adroit political operator, he established himself as a powerhouse in New York, becoming a U.S. senator, secretary of state, and vice president under Jackson, whose election he managed. His ascendancy to the Oval Office was virtually a foregone conclusion. Once he had the reins of power, however, Van Buren found the road quite a bit rougher. His attempts to find a middle ground on the most pressing issues of his day-such as the growing regional conflict over slavery-eroded his effectiveness. But it was his inability to prevent the great banking panic of 1837, and the ensuing depression, that all but ensured his fall from grace and made him the third president to be denied a second term. His many years of outfoxing his opponents finally caught up with him. Ted Widmer, a veteran of the Clinton White House, vividly brings to life the chaos and contention that plagued Van Buren's presidency-and ultimately offered an early lesson in the power of democracy.
Author : Megan M. Gunderson
Publisher : ABDO Publishing Company
Page : 42 pages
File Size : 35,99 MB
Release : 2009-01-01
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 1617850942
The United States president preserves, protects, and defends the U.S. Constitution. Each president's term influences events in America and around the world for years to come. This biography introduces young readers to the life of James Buchanan, beginning with his childhood in Cove Gap and Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Information about Buchanan's education at Dickinson College and his early career as a lawyer is discussed. In addition, his family and personal life, as well as his retirement years at Wheatland, during which he supported the Union during the American Civil War and published Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion, are highlighted. Easy-to-read text details Buchanan's military service during the War of 1812 and his political career in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served on the House Committee on the Judiciary, as minister to Russia under President Andrew Jackson, in the U.S. Senate, where he served on the Committee on Foreign Relations, as secretary of state under President James K. Polk, during which he negotiated with England over the Oregon territory, tried to prevent the Mexican War, and supported the Wilmot Proviso and the Compromise of 1850, and as minister to Great Britain under President Franklin Pierce, during which he signed the Ostend Manifesto. Finally, students will explore key events from Democratic president Buchanan's administration, including the Dred Scott case, Bleeding Kansas and the Lecompton Constitution, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and the secession of seven Southern states prior to the beginning of the American Civil War. Beautiful graphics showcase the primary source documents and photographs. A timeline, fast facts, and sidebars help put essential information at students' fingertips. In addition, a quick-reference chart provides easy access to facts about every U.S. president. Checkerboard Library is an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.
Author : Jim Nikel
Publisher : CreateSpace
Page : 44 pages
File Size : 40,34 MB
Release : 2014-08-25
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781500959180
Was President James Buchanan, Jr. our first homosexual president? That's a question historians have been debating for years. This brief book looks at the life and times of Buchanan, and raises the possibility of his sexuality. It examines what is known, and what has been speculated. Was James Buchanan, Jr. the first Gay President? Read on to find out!
