Polk

long political career before presidency.
swore to be one-term president, and stuck to it!
(re?)created treasury (doesn't this sort of conflict with being an heir of Andrew Jackson though)
micro-managed - didn't trust underlings to do things right.
likely died of cholera (!) w/in a few months of leaving office.

When it comes to Presidents, Polk is often overlooked. Caught between Andrew Jackson before him, and Abraham Linclon after him, Polk's presidency tends to be forgotten by the general public, even though he managed to complete everything he set out to do at the beginning of his Presidency. That said, this is a biography that manages to do Polk justice, and often, though not always, manages to excite an otherwise unremarkable presidency.

Easily the best aspect of this book is the writing style. Borneman manages to take a subject like Polk, who arguably has not had the most interesting presidency, and injects some life into his political career. He served as a Senator for Tennessee before becoming President, and he also faced a challenging time trying to bring Texas, and Oregon, and California into the Union. Yet, Borneman also manages to provide the reader with a wealth of context. Starting with Jackson's election to the Presidency, the author shows the reader the concerns and victories of each president before Polk, and, in turn, shows how they influenced him and his single term in office. This is excellent for the reader who is just jumping into the Presidency at this point, or who many need the refresher in any case.

Yet, this book does have a few issues. One is that this book relies heavily on politicking. I know this would seem obvious, considering it is, you know, about the 11th President of the United States, but there is a lot of it here. We learn about who thought of what, and who worked with who and why for X political reasons and then how it all affects Polk. It is well written, but, after a time, the author can become immersed in the details, and forgets the forest for the trees. This made me wonder what another author, like say Ellis or McCullough, could have done with this kind of information.

Another issue is Polk's character, or lack thereof, as covered in this text. The reader never discovers what he was like, nor does the reader get a sense of how certain events affected him, including those both before and during his term as President. This include a lack of information on his feelings of slavery, and the fact that he owned slaves throughout his life. The reader never learns what Polk was like as a slave owner, nor his views on slavery. His relationship with his wife is also barely covered. Yes, there is a brief few pages devoted to her in the back of the book, but it would have flowed better if she had managed to appear when the events actually happened, and not added in, seemingly at the last minute, as though it was a request of the editor.

Still, this novel was extremely well done, considering it was written for a President who was largely forgotten amidst his successors. Even if the author does occasionally get into too much political detail, and has some elements missing from the text, I still found this enjoyable to read. I give it a four out of five.