Customer Reviews

Martin Van Buren : The Romantic Age of American Politics (Signature Series)

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It is hard to tell how a man will do as President based on his experience. Some figures with virtually no political experience became good Presidents, such as Washington and Lincoln; others were failures such as Grant or Hoover. On the other hand, political experience is no guarantee of success: John Quincy Adams and James Buchanan had decent resumes going into office and had miserable presidencies. Martin Van Buren, one of the most politically talented of all Presidents, was not an utter failure, but he didn't shine in office either.

In Niven's biography, we follow Van Buren from his impoverished roots through his rise in New York state government. Although not perfect, Van Buren had enough political astuteness and the right sort of temperment to help create and lead a party machine and elevate New York's prominence on a national level. Becoming a trusted advisor to Andrew Jackson and a member of his cabinet eventually led to his Vice Presidency and then the Presidency. With a major financial crash occurring right as he got into office, Van Buren was struggling right off the bat, and wound up serving only a single term; nonetheless, in an era of one-term presidents (from 1837 to 1861, no president was re-elected), Van Buren was hardly thrown into ignonimy after his defeat; instead, he remained a powerful member of the Democratic party for the next two decades.

Niven's biography is generally favorable although he doesn't hide Van Buren's flaws. We learn of a man who was not a great ideologue but was one of the most masterful politicians of his era, holding his own with the often more prominent figures such as Jackson, Calhoun, Clay and Webster. He also wound up being a prominent figure in the anti-slavery movement, even running on the Free-Soil ticket at one point.

At times, however, this biography is a bit ponderous and often focuses so much on the political part of Van Buren's life that the personal part is pushed aside. Thus, although this may be the best Van Buren biography available (it may also be the only one), I cannot give it a full five stars. Nonetheless, this is overall a very good book and worth reading if you are interested in this period of history.

I am currently reading a biography of every President in order. I realize with Martin Van Buren I am entering a long period of obscure Presidents, but very much looking forward to learning more about the chief executives between Jackson and Lincoln. Based on Amazon reviews, I decided that John Niven's biography was the best and most comprehensive choice.

Thankfully, I have not been disappointed. John Niven has written a readable and extremely well researched biography of our eigth President. I was most impressed with the depth of detail Niven has included and the voluminous research it undoubtedly required. Niven has clearly succeeded in covering the public life of Martin Van Buren comprehensibly and succinctly from his early days in New York politics to his final years as an active participant in the political turmoil leading to the Civil War.

The thoroughness this volume achieves regarding the political side of Van Buren's life comes at a price, however. At times this book is a dull read and seems to provide more detail, especially in the first third of the book dealing with New York machine politics, than most readers are likely to want or need. The book also does not delve very deeply into the personal side of Van Buren's life, although given that Van Buren's entire life revolved around politics (certainly far more than any previous President) this leaves fewer gaps than one might expect.

In summation, this is an excellent biography of Van Buren, though Niven obviously intended it to be a scholarly treatment meant primarily for academic level study. This biography is easy to read and well organized, though not the type of book you that you will likely want to read twice.

This is a very readable and interesting book that deals with the long and highly political life of Martin Van Buren. He comes off very well as a hard-working, fair and moral politician who practically establishes the democratic party as a well-oiled machine for both New York state and the United States. I have now read multiple books about the first eight presidents and he can hold his own with almost all of them so far. Highly recommended.

I came away from this book with a new appreciation for Martin Van Buren--who was certainly much more than the Jackson coattail rider I thought previously. This is THE definitive biography of Martin Van Buren, but I agree with the other reviewers that some of the many and DETAILED accounts of the political machinations in New York at the time were a bit much. That's really the only complaint I had about the book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and recommend it highly if you really want to know Van Buren.

First, thank you to all of those who took the time to submit reviews for this book! I read them all.

Second I am currently reading a biography on every president. I found this book to be a disappointment, and couldn't agree with many of your opinions. Of the 612 pages, only something like 50 or so actually focused on his presidency.

I thought it was poorly written, and I was lost half of the time, but maybe it was just me and my IQ of 13. The book focused more on polictics of the time, and less on Van Buren himself.

I'm better, and more informed for having read it, but the book was confusing and hard to follow, I had to go to other biographical websites to get a handle on what was going on.

I purchased the book on Millard Fillmore from the same series, I'll let you know what I think when I read that one. Hopfully better.

Like others, I've set out to read at least one biography on each American President. This particular biography is extremely well researched. A myriad of detail about Martin Van Buren and his times is presented. It's not the book if you are looking for a brief summary of the highlights of Van Buren's career, but if you are looking for detail it's great. Occasionally I got a little lost, probably due to my relative ignorance of the political figures and movements of those times. You form a definite picture of the little magician with both flaws and strengths brought forward. The one significant historical event that I didn't read about was the interaction of Van Buren with the early Mormons, of which I have read some very interesting things elsewhere.

Overshadowed by his predecessor and defined by the stigma of being only a one-term president, Martin Van Buren has rarely received his due as a political figure. Yet over a career spanning more than four decades he played a pivotal role in nineteenth century American politics. More than any other single person, it was Van Buren who created the Democratic Party and spawned the "Second Party System" in America, which helped to set the course of national politics as we know it. In this book, John Niven attempts to resuscitate Van Buren's historical image by offering readers an examination of Van Buren's life and times, one that helps to restore him to his proper place in the American pantheon.

The son of a tavern keeper, Van Buren's ambitions were evident at an early age. Possessing a friendly and charming demeanor, he rose quickly in New York politics, managing to surmount a number of prominent foes. The key to this was a political organization he built throughout the state, an organization that soon came to be known as the Albany Regency. Though initially a supporter of William Crawford for the presidency, after the 1824 election Van Buren threw his support to General Jackson, helping to deliver New York to the general's column in the subsequent election. Van Buren's reward for his untiring efforts and steadfast loyalty was the Secretaryship of State, the vice-presidency, and ultimately the presidency itself. Taking office amidst the onset of an economic depression, Van Buren's efforts could do little to alleviate the situation and was defeated in his bid for reelection in 1840 as a result. After another effort to gain his party's nomination in 1844 ended in failure, Van Buren abandoned the Democrats and ran for president as the Liberty Party nominee four years later, helping to introduce slavery as a campaign issue in presidential politics in the process - and triggering a chain of events that would end only with the secession of the South in 1861.

Niven's biography is an insightful and balanced look at Van Buren's long and impressive political career. Yet his is a biography of Van Buren as political animal; his policies receive scant attention until Niven's narrative reaches Van Buren's period as Secretary of State, with even less time spent on his personal life and political career. Such an omission weakens the overall value of the book, confining its value to Niven's impressive work in recounting the politics of early nineteenth century America. Here his account is likely to be unsurpassed, and should be read by anyone with an interest in Van Buren's political career or the often complicated twists and turns of American politics in the antebellum era.

This book is 600 pages. Had the author not included the first 300 pages, it would have gotten an extra star or two from me. The level of detail describing the political tactics used in VB's early years was crushingly tedious. There was almost no discussion of the issues that shaped VB's agenda; it was all about patronage and tactical minutiae. And it went on and on and on. This only became interesting later on in the book when the stakes had gotten big enough for me to care. Ironically, the author mentions several times how VB got a bad reputation for being a political manipulator, but spends the first half of the book talking almost exclusively about VB's political manipulations. There is nothing about VB's political vision at all until he becomes VP.

Additionally, the book is a little confusing for two reasons. I think the author mentions the name of just about everyone VB met in his entire life. There are so many names thrown out, that it's difficult to know which ones to pay attention to. The author also mentions the year about once every 10 pages. The chapter will start with "In the spring of 1836...", then the next page will say "... happened in the fall", and the page after that will have "...in the following February." Unless you write down the year in the margin of each page and keep up with the changes, you'll only be able to guess in which year the action is taking place.

Like I said, the second half of the book is better. Unless you're writing a PhD dissertation on 19th century political tactics in upstate NY, skim the first 300 pages and start paying attention after the election of 1836.

This is an excellent book in terms of being very thorough and giving a reasonably balanced view of the subject; if I disagree with the author to the extent that he considers it a compliment to call Van Buren "The Father of American Party Politics" (which he certainly was) and I do not, that's a minor quibble; he gives sufficient information to enable the reader to make up his own mind on the subject, even if he disagrees with the author, which is a very important factor in rating any biography.

Unfortunately, either the author or perhaps the editor of this edition (having not read previous editions, I'm unable to assess the source of the problem) has created a rather sloppily-written book; in addition to the occasional poor choice of words ("pouring over a labored digression", rather than "poring", for instance) there are numerous (at a guess, I'd say over a dozen, and possibly many more) instances in which a comma is completely misplaced, at such an odd point in a sentence that it becomes seriously distracting. ("...Van Buren wrote out in his sprawling, hand a brief, arguing specifically against the project.") Some might consider this a quibble that is truly picking at nits, but I expect better of a professional, scholarly work. This is the kind of thing that I might be willing to overlook in a mass-market paperback, and I would certainly shrug off if it happened once or twice even in a tome of this sort, but a dozen or more times in a book is not a slip of the typing finger, it is a matter of sloppy writing and proofreading. If I were to ignore the sloppinesses, I would rate this book five stars; it is a first-rate history but I do wish that it had been better edited.

Martin Van Buren (MVB) is nicknamed "the magician" for his ability to manage (or manipulate depending on your perspective) the party system. On one hand, MVB often used strategies of delay to check the political pulse of an idea. On the other hand, MVB was not averse to taking political gambles. Through most of his political career, MVB might be seen as an opportunist, caring most about politics than prinicple, and always looking for the next wrung to climb. However, as president MVB faced tremendously complex issues such as a major recession/depression brought on by Andrew Jackson's war with the banking industry, sectional division that was slowly mounting towards Civil War, and threats from foreign interests. During these years, MVB appears to have sought creative solutions.

I only recommend this book for the avid history lover. Niven's style is very dry, which can make reading 600+ pages excruciating at times. However, you will learn a lot. There is a lot of information about New York's history that was completely new to me. A variety of new characters were introduced. MVB's relationship with Clay and Calhoun are absolutely fascinating. Niven, unfortuantely, spends very little time on MVB as a man. I'm leaving this read with more questions than answer.