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Jean H. Baker

James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857-1861 Hardcover – June 7, 2004

by Jean H. Baker (Author), Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (Editor)

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Part of: The American Presidents (42 books)

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A provocative reconsideration of a presidency on the brink of Civil War

Almost no president was as well trained and well prepared for the office as James Buchanan. He had served in the Pennsylvania state legislature, the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate; he was Secretary of State and was even offered a seat on the Supreme Court. And yet, by every measure except his own, James Buchanan was a miserable failure as president, leaving office in disgrace. Virtually all of his intentions were thwarted by his own inability to compromise: he had been unable to resolve issues of slavery, caused his party to split-thereby ensuring the election of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln-and made the Civil War all but inevitable.

Historian Jean H. Baker explains that we have rightly placed Buchanan at the end of the presidential rankings, but his poor presidency should not be an excuse to forget him. To study Buchanan is to consider the implications of weak leadership in a time of national crisis. Elegantly written, Baker's volume offers a balanced look at a crucial moment in our nation's history and explores a man who, when given the opportunity, failed to rise to the challenge.

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Part of series

The American Presidents
Print length

192 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Times Books
Publication date

June 7, 2004
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.56 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

9780805069464
ISBN-13

978-0805069464

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Editorial Reviews

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"[A] sweeping narrative, beautifully written and scrupulously evenhanded, [that] does full justice to Stevenson and his people.... Ambitious, elegiac, and provocative."

About the Author

Jean H. Baker is a professor of history at Goucher College. She is the author of several books, including The Stevensons, Mary Todd Lincoln, Margaret Sanger, and Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., (1917-2007) was the preeminent political historian of our time. For more than half a century, he was a cornerstone figure in the intellectual life of the nation and a fixture on the political scene. He won two Pulitzer prizes for The Age of Jackson (1946) and A Thousand Days (1966), and in 1988 received the National Humanities Medal. He published the first volume of his autobiography, A Life in the Twentieth Century, in 2000.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0805069461
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Times Books
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 7, 2004
Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780805069464
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0805069464
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.56 x 8.5 inches
Part of series ‏ : ‎ The American Presidents
Best Sellers Rank: #245,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #390 in US Presidents
- #1,797 in U.S. State & Local History
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(465)

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Chris
Nice, concise biography
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2010
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This was the second book from this series that I've read (JQ Adams the other), and I've really enjoyed both. It's a well-written book that effectively provides background on Buchanan and covers the important aspects of his presidency, yet it still manages to include interesting anecdotes. It's not 152 pages over-crammed with information. Generally I prefer to read books on periods than individuals, but this was a beneficial book on one of the most important -- if for the wrong reasons -- presidents in our history.

There is no denying that Baker's take on Buchanan is negative. How could it not be? He always rates at or near the bottom of the presidential ratings. Baker shows the reader why Buchanan was qualified to be president, and she wonders why he failed so spectacularly in spite of his resume. Her main argument is that his pro-southern views misguided him the most, and his disdain for Republicans and desire to please southern gentlemen led him down the path toward Civil War. Whether the war was inevitable or not, Buchanan played a part in its arrival, Baker argues.

Unlike some reviewers, I did not think Baker had an axe to grind with Buchanan or anything. I just think that in telling the story of Buchanan's presidency, one can't help but appear negative. His administration was, by and large, a giant negative. I think this is a good book, and it's important to learn about the man who preceded Lincoln and the Civil War.

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Ricardo Mio
Blamed everyone but himself
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2016
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
It was like the scene in a movie where everything goes incredibly wrong and the main character is the last to know. In this case, the character was the president of the United States, James Buchanan. In December 1860, he realized too late that his good friends and political advisors—all Southerners—were no longer listening to him. They were busy making plans for the immediate secession of the Southern slave states. Unlike the movie character, Buchanan sees no solution and becomes paralyzed with fear. “His hair was askew,” writes the author. “Usually well informed, he forgot orders that he had given and dispatches that he had read. He made his advisors come to the upstairs library, unable some days to lift himself out of bed. He cursed and wept, and his hands trembled.”

Ironically, when James Buchanan took office as president in 1857, he was widely acclaimed as a well-prepared leader who could solve the brewing crisis between North and South. How he should come to his bewildering predicament in December 1860, is the subject of this short (152 pages) and insightful book by historian Jean H. Baker. Ms Baker understands leadership, and makes a compelling case that Buchanan’s failure was a failure of leadership. She’s also one heck of a writer and a born story-teller.

The biggest failure of Buchanan’s predecessor, Franklin Pierce, was mishandling the Kansas-Nebraska Act, that brought the nation a step closer to civil war. Surely, Buchanan wouldn’t make the same mistake. He was a proven negotiator who had served three presidents—twice as a foreign minister, and once as secretary of state. What the nation didn’t realize was just how far Buchanan’s political views tilted south. He surrounded himself with Southerners whose company he preferred. He made them advisors and Cabinet officers, as the ones he confided in and on whose judgement he relied. Buchanan inherited a number of problems not of his making: (1) the “Bloody Kansas” crisis that still raged, (2) the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dred Scott v. Sanford, which came days after he took office; (3) the Panic of 1857, and (4) a crisis brewing in Utah involving the Mormons.

Without a central bank there was little Buchanan could do about the economic recession. He couldn’t reverse the Dred Scott decision either, but he could have joined with 80 percent of Americans outside the South outraged by the decision. Instead, he railed at Northern abolitionists and embraced the decision. Instead of sending federal troops to stop the bloodletting in Kansas, he sent them to Utah where negotiations were underway and a military presence was unneeded. Buchanan had one last chance to redeem himself with a bogus state constitution cooked up by the aggressive and highly vocal proslavery minority in Kansas. Instead of denouncing the constitution as a fraud and travesty of justice, he authorized the bribing of Congressmen in both houses to assure its passage, which would have made Kansas a slave state. It didn’t work. The measure failed and Buchanan’s bribery attempts were exposed. Free elections were held and Kansas entered the Union as a free state, in January 1861. In the critical months between Abraham Lincoln’s election and his inauguration, Buchanan did absolutely nothing as the South fortified itself with illegally confiscated Union arms and prepared for war. Once Buchanan left office, he blamed everyone but himself. Today, historians rank him as our worst president.

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Peydirt18
"Old Buck" stopped there...
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2012
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
Hindsight is always 20/20, and it is always easier to be a Monday Morning Quarterback. Given that President Buchanan immediately proceeded the immortal Abraham Lincoln, and, it seems, it has been almost universally accepted that Buchanan's polcies led us right into the Civil War, it is easy to throw stones at Old Buck. Regardless if you agreed with his policies, or not, it has to be admitted that this was an abysmal presidency.

Elected as a strict interpretist of the Constitution, Buchanan was mired in hypocricy throught his presidency. He believed a weak executive limited his ability to "meddle" in domestic affairs. However, even though it does appear that if he could have been a little more forceful, he could have negated the cessation movement with a little force. On the flip side of the coin, he had no qualms using Federal troops to attack the Mormons in Utah for their polygamist practices.

I agree with some of the other reviews that state the author had a tremendous bias against Buchanan, and due to that bias, the book is written from a slanted perspective. However, given how poorly his presidency went, I think even an objective review warrants a negative painting.

I found it interesting that he was the only bachelor to take the White House, that there were rumors that he had a homosexual relationship, that he did not have to shave, he was cross-eyed, and turned down nominations to the Supreme Court on two occasions.

I give this book 3 stars because I think it was well written, and researched, but, I think the bias against Buchanan for his "pro-southern sympathies" was a little too present in the writing.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Nice, concise biography

5.0 out of 5 stars Blamed everyone but himself

3.0 out of 5 stars "Old Buck" stopped there...

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4.0 out of 5 stars James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857-1861

Nice, concise biography

Blamed everyone but himself

"Old Buck" stopped there...

James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857-1861