Customer Reviews

Zachary Taylor: The American Presidents Series: The 12th President, 1849-1850 (American Presidents (Times))

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Eisenhower handles Taylor's military career and his exploits in the Mexican War very neatly and offers selections from other Taylor biographers like Hamilton and Bauer to aid his case and offer the casual reader alternate windows into the life. A very neat summary of a very brief administration, Eisenhower's account never seems rushed or unduly cursory. The books in the American Presidents series vary wildly in quality. This particular volume is not a breath-taking small gem like Hans Trefousse on Hayes or a specialist treasure like Ira Rutkow's book on Garfield, but Eisenhower nevertheless provides a splendid small book on an unfortunately overlooked president.

"Zachary Taylor" by John Eisenhower is a good introduction for anyone who wants to learn more about Zachary Taylor, US President from 1849-1850.

The book covers areas of Taylor's life, including:

1. Birth in Virginia and move to Kentucky while still a very young child.

2. Military career that included important service in the Mexican War.

3. Happy home life and tragic loss of a daughter.

4. Encouragements from politicians to run for president.

5. Presidential campaign and election.

6. Brief term and premature death.

7. Analysis of life (family, military, business, politics).

The author comes up with an interesting point - if Taylor were re-elected, the Civil War could have been avoided. Whether or not you agree with the point, one cannot help but wonder.

The book flows freely and is an easy read. The book is a good introduction to President Taylor. However, I am sure there are more comprehensive biographies for readers who wish to learn more.

Recommended.

Usually the presidents between Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln are all lumped together as failures. While some just before the Civil War were, there were some very interesting stories that sadly never came to fruition. Zachary Taylor is one of those presidents. A strong leader and a national here, he died just as the country was hitting that vital cross roads between reconciliation and War. Taylor's military career was equally impressive and again he was a key player in one of our lesser known events, the Mexican/American War

John Eisenhower is a sharp and crisp writer who does a wonderful job evoking the era and the passions that drove on not only a professional and political level, but also on a personal level. A book well worth reading!

Zachary Taylor ranks among that small group of presidents who was more famous for what they did before they became president than for their achievements once they occupied the office. A career army officer, he shot to fame when he led his troops to victory over Mexican forces in the Mexican War. Basking in the adulation of a grateful nation, his parlayed his triumph into a victory as the Whig candidate in the 1848 presidential election, only to have his presidency cut short by his death less than a year and a half after taking office.

Given Taylor's background and claim to fame, John S. D. Eisenhower would seem to be the ideal candidate to write a biography of America's 12th president. The son of a former president, he was a career army officer himself before retiring to become a prolific author of military histories. Yet the end result is disappointing. Eisenhower's slim book is a sketchy account of Taylor's life, one that provides only the barest of details about the man and little real understanding of his role in American history. The first quarter-century of Taylor's life are covered in a scant eight paragraphs, reflecting the lack of effort in understanding the role these early years played in shaping his personality. Much of his early military career is also glossed over in a rush to get to the critical years of the Mexican War. These chapters play to Eisenhower's strengths, allowing him to draw upon his previous work on the conflict, So Far from God: The U.S. War With Mexico, 1846-1848. Yet even here precious space is wasted providing unnecessary or superfluous background to events, diminishing the book's value as a biography of Taylor even further.

Though Eisenhower's final chapters dealing with Taylor's time as president provide more in the way of detail and analysis, they cannot make up for the overall deficiencies of this book. Overall Eisenhower's biography is a disappointing entry in "The American Presidents" series, one that fails to reflect the considerable strengths the author brought to the project. Readers seeking more than the barest details of Taylor's life would be better off picking up K. Jack Bauer's far more substantial Zachary Taylor : Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest instead of this book, with fails to satisfy any real appetite to learn about Taylor or his role in American history.

To bring perspective to this year's eventful presidential campaign, I have been reading several volumes of the American Presidents Series edited by the late Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and Sean Willentz. Each volume consists of a short biography of one of our presidents, prepared by a scholar with a particular interest in him, together with an assessment of his achievements. There is much to be learned in these short books about American history and about the nature of leadership.

The series covers the great and important presidents, such as Washington, Lincoln. Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, together with the lesser-known and less successful presidents. This recent volume in the series by John Eisenhower explores one of the shorter and more obscure presidencies, that of Zachary Taylor. Taylor (1784 -- 1850) was the twelfth president of the United States. He served only 16 months (1849 -- 1850) before dying in office. Even though Taylor's time in office was short and uneventful, Eisenhower's book suggests that he has something to teach in our difficult days.

Taylor was born in Virginia but lived from his early years in Kentucky. Although not highly educated, Taylor became wealthy, owned several plantations, and was a slaveholder. Through mid-life, his life oscillated between military service and his plantation, including the desire for time with his family. Taylor earned a reputation in the War of 1812 and in several Indian wars. But his early military career had many long idle stretches. Taylor's life shows a certain restlessness.

Taylor's fame catapaulted with his success in the Mexican War, as he won impressive victories at Palo Alto, Monterrey, and Bueno Vista. He became a national hero even while quarreling with General Winfield Scott and with President Polk.

Taylor had not been politically active, but as a military hero, he let it be known he was interested in the presidency. But he distrusted political parties. Nominally a Whig, he would not commit to the party until forced to do so by a group of party leaders as a condition to the presidential nomination. When he identified himself as a Whig in a lengthy letter, Taylor was careful to note that he would consider himself a president of the people and would not mindlessly follow a party line. Taylor became president when he defeated the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass.

The Washington insiders of the day probably believed that with his military backgound and political inexperience, Taylor would be malleable. And Southerners assumed that Taylor would be faithful to their cause. Taylor was himself a Southerner and a slaveholder.

Both the insiders and the Southerners underestimated Taylor. The new president did not support the extension of slavery although he had no intention of abolishing it in the states where it already existed. Taylor fought for the admission of California and New Mexico -- the prizes of the Mexican War -- as free states. With the impending admission of California as a free state, Congress, led by Taylor's fellow-Whig Henry Clay proposed a series of compromises to placate the South, including a strong Fugitive Slave Law. These compromises were enacted only after Taylor's death.

As with some other military leaders who achieved the presidency, Taylor made some poor choices for his cabinet which led to scandals at the time of his death. Taylor's administration had one solid achievement in foreign policy, the Bulwer-Lytton treaty with Britain which contemplated joint American-British control of a canal to be built through Central American. This joint project was never realized, but the treaty possibly averted a war.

As Eisenhower points out, Taylor's achivement lies in his stubborn independence. As did John Quincy Adams before him, Taylor took seriously his goal to be a president for an entire nation and not for a political interest group. Against expectations, he courageously tried to limit the spread of slavery while allowing it to remain in the states which already had it. Eisenhower points out that Taylor, had he lived, might have been the last president with the opportunity to avoid the Civil War.

With his short term, Taylor is remembered more for his military exploits as "Old Rough and Ready" than for his presidency. Eisenhower believes he is underrated as a president. But, Eisenhower concludes, "such judgments [as to the rating of a president] are relatively unimportant. For Taylor deserves to be remembered for something more important: he was a man of the Union, one who placed the interests of the Union as a whole above that of his own section of the country." (p.140)

In his independence and stubborness, Zachary Taylor's presidency showed the virtues of purpose,nationalism and unity. Thus, regardless of the outcome of our impending election, it would be valuable for our new president and for Americans to work towards instilling a spirit of patriotism, unity, and common purpose, regardless of political ideology, in meeting the difficult problems we face. This is the significance of Taylor's presidency as explained in Eisenhower's fine study.

Robin Friedman

Another home run in the superb American President's series. John Eisenhower paints a picture of Zachary Taylor that leaves us wishing he was among today's candidates for President. Had he lived, he may have been able to head off the Civil War, we will never know. In short, a great biography of a great man.

I was very impressed with this very readable and interesting book about an often forgotten president. It was a quick read and very detailed about the public and private Taylor. Made me want to know more about Taylor.

You can not find a lot of books about Taylor. This is a good one. The question it leaves one with is how would have Taylor handled the Slave issue. He was from the South but I think he would have worked to do away with slavely. We will never know.

Zachary Taylor, a famous general in the Mexican-American War, was president for about sixteen months. Eisenhower speculates that the Civil War might have been avoided if Taylor had completed his term in office (and, I suppose, been re-elected for a second term), but I didn't see much evidence to back that claim up. This biography did a perfectly acceptable job of relating Taylor's life and presidency, but I didn't think that the speculation added much.

Zachary Taylor served less than a full term in the White House - 16 months. But this brief time belies the full life Old Rough and Ready spent in the field as a soldier. The book accordingly spends more time detailing his life in the military.

He was born in gentility in Virginia, but his parents shortly afterward moved to Kentucky with a land grant. He entered the military as a first lieutenant. He distinguished himself in two Indian wars in Indiana and Florida, and had to contend with an elusive enemy, and earned the nickname that would follow him all the way to the White House.

What I took from the book: Taylor was widely popular with his troops and public. He actually hated wearing his uniform, and usually appeared rumpled and informal. Underneath, he had a knack for organizing, and whipped his army into shape. Taylor often led by example, disdaining pampered treatment in spite of the fact he was entitled to it.

Taylor's weakness lay in his strength. Because of his insistence on being above party loyalty, no prominent Whigs were appointed to his cabinet. Instead, he had to rely on the advice of men who were second-tier candidates. In his inaugural address, Taylor stated a deference toward Congress in regard to domestic affairs, a notion contrary to his immediate predecessor and his way of handling the legislature.

All in all, our twelfth president comes off rather well.