Continuing my three-volumes-at-a-time survey of the American Presidents series, edited by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. This installment covers the presidencies of 1829-1841.
We've now passed the point where this series becomes what I remember the books I've previously read as, full biographies of the men without undue emphasis on their presidencies. What becomes interesting is how the authors - an academic historian, a presidential speechwriter (for Clinton), and a journalist, respectively - sell the evaluation of their subjects.
Sean Wilentz on Andrew Jackson has to cover the most controversial figure in the history of the presidency, and begins with a history of recent scholarly disputes over Jackson. But Wilentz says we can't fairly judge Jackson by today's standards; we have to use the standards of the time. That does leave him with plenty of room to criticize Jackson - who was hugely controversial in his own day too - either for failing to carry out his plans properly or for not properly considering their consequences. Still, there's a lot of apologia here. Jackson tended to consider his political enemies' declared moral principles to be window-dressing over personal motives, but when Jackson seems to be acting out of personal motives, Wilentz is there to assure us there were moral principles at stake. At one point, Wilentz lets the mask slip and accuses later-day Jackson critics of "the self-regarding sanctimony of posterity" (p. 121). Still, this is a readable and historically sound book. It's wholly critical of Jackson's Indian policy and largely so regarding slavery; but on economic policy (tariffs and the Bank), it's impressively lucid on the full panoply of rights, wrongs, and opposing principles at stake.
Ted Widmer on Martin Van Buren has the burden of the first obscure president in US history (kicking off a continuous run of eight before we reach Lincoln). Widmer is blatantly here to make a case, not for Van Buren's virtues which he admits are mixed, but for his importance in US history. Widmer sees Van Buren's significance as largely his having been our first real professional politician, builder of the Jacksonian Democratic party. Few documents or testimonies survive as to how Van Buren carried out this unprecedented plan, and Widmer frequently regrets their absence, but does a good job of telling the story anyway. By this viewpoint, Van Buren's unsuccessful presidency was an anti-climax, but Widmer keeps one's interest up here by describing how Van Buren's political wizardry was useless in a financial panic, and how his scheme to build a national party by eliding over differences regarding slavery ceased to work when the dispute broke into the open at the same time. Van Buren lived long, into the Civil War, having gone through a brief anti-slavery period Widmer sells for all it's worth. By the end, author has lifted subject into an apotheosis of that claimed historical importance.
Gail Collins on William Henry Harrison has the most difficult presidency to describe of the entire series: it lasted only one month, as this 68-year-old man died of the pneumonia he'd contracted by standing around coatless on a winter's day at his inauguration to prove how tough he was. So Collins just plugs through Harrison's life, fairly entertainingly. It's still a challenge, because Harrison was an underachiever. Youngest son of a wealthy planter, he went into the army for lack of anything else to do, but he was not a good general (his famous battle of Tippecanoe was actually a flub), his military career was over by his early 40s, and he spent much of his subsequent time sinking into unemployed poverty until the Whigs decided to run him for president. Accordingly, Collins concludes that the riotous campaign of 1840, not the presidency, was the highlight of Harrison's career, and focuses on that. We already got a full chapter on the campaign from Widmer on Van Buren, but you can read about it again. His presidency lasts less than five pages.
A president dead in office! This had never happened before. For what happened next, tune in to our next installment.
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