There are too few treatments of one of America's most significant presidencies, that of James Knox Polk. A friend asked "what was the deal about Polk" while I was reading the book. The answer is: "well, do you like the American Southwest and Washington state?" Polk was responsible for both being gained for our country in their present forms.
Bergeron's book is a good academic telling of this most significant of times. Arranged by major topic, his biography covers the crisis with Mexico and the war; the crisis with Great Britain over setting the boundary of the Pacific Northwest; the cabinet members Polk chose and worked with (significant because at the time the precedent was for presidents to govern with and through their cabinets; giving secretaries much greater veto power over issues in their sphere than now exists), his relationship with Congress and his emergence as a politician.
Polk's fascinating political personae as well as the personalities he had to deal with are well described. Particularly on the Texas question, the war with Mexico and the negotiations with Great Britain, the reader is given a very good step-by-step picture of the cabinet debates and perspectives surrounding the president's eventual courses of action. I came away feeling the author had researched the topics thoroughly enough to present a fairly complete picture of all three crises; allowing the reader an enjoyable bird's-eye view as the action unfolded. The details of life as a mid-1800's American president are also told. It is hard to imagine in this day and age a president holding twice weekly office hours for any person to visit with their problem (or more often request for office) or cabinet meetings in an age where secretaries had to be dealt with as their own political forces through wooing, placating and managing. In these details, Bergeron helps to paint a presidency that has disappeared but also an environment that exerted strong influences on the way a president executed his office.
This is very much a political-presidential biography. Although a chapter does try to capture his essence as a man, the focus is squarely on the pivotal four years in which he came to epitomize manifest destiny and draw our map to something that would be easily recognized by today's Americans.
The work is told in somewhat of an academic style. For a student of history and politics, it is a fascinating story. One gains a sense of the issues Polk confronted as well as the issues he helped create and successfully dealt with. This is a well documented and enjoyable treatment of a president more should know.
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