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A Country Of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, The Mexican War And The Conquest Of The American Continent (2009)

by Robert W. Merry(Favorite Author)

3.78 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0743297431 (ISBN13: 9780743297431)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Simon & Schuster

review 1: Mr. Merry chooses to write about James Polk and the expansion of America in the 1840s, when America acquired Texas, undisputed rights to the Pacific Northwest, California and the Southwest. America almost fought a war with England in this process and fought a war with Mexico. The story is largely forgotten today and Mr. merry does a good job of re-introducing us to our own history. However, Mr. Merry' biography is too adulatory of President Polk, too narrow in scope and too pregnant with praise for manifest destiny to be taken seriously as a work of history. Mr. Merry relates the life of James Polk and his presidency in a chronological fashion with little attempt to integrate the facts into the cultural current of the times. A far better recent work on the period whic... moreh covers the political history, as well as the cultural, economic and social history is What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe(which is cited several times by Mr. Merry). Because, Mr. merry so deemphasizes the society around the election and presidency of Polk, Mr. Merry treats war critics of Polk (and there were many) as resulting to extraneous topics like slavery to oppose the war. In Mr. Merry's view,the war was simply about the expansion of America to a continental power. However, contemporaries, both Northern and Southern, understood the war to be about the preservation of slavery. Slavery dominated congress at the time and the calls for abolition and cessation steadily grew to overshadow all other issues. Mr. Merry also tries to emphasize some sort of grass roots support for Polk by emphasizing the warm reception Mr. Polk received in the very few trips he took outside of Washington. Mr. Merry completely ignores the fact that outside of Washington, as well as inside, President Polk, was a polarizing figure. Finally, although the work is extensively cited, I question the many references to Wikipedia and other popular web sites as legitimate sources in what portrays itself as a serious work of history.
review 2: An interesting story of one man's vision for the country and how he accomplished so much he set out to do in his four years as president. Polk is pushed in the corner by more charismatic men in our country's history. However, and however you might think of how it happened, the nation, under Polk, spread to the Pacific. A great conflagration(kindled, in part, by Polk's land expansion) is at the doorstep at the time of Polk's death - just a few months after he left office. The coming Civil War hovers over this narrative and makes its events even more engaging. less

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