I give this book five stars for several reasons, the main being that it does not tell you before the end of the first paragraph that James Buchanan was the worst president ever. Although the author appears somewhat sympathetic to Buchanan's plight of being caught in a timeline leading to war, he details the courses chosen by the President. The political and moral issue of the period had been kicked down the road so many times that it finally landed at the close of Buchanan's term. From our eyes as Monday morning quarterbacks, we can see that better choices may have been made, but we have the advantage of hindsight. All in all, I recommend this book in spite of its dated publication, and because it doesn't guide the reader to what is now accepted as Buchanan's last-place finish in presidential history. It describes events, people, decisions and politics as actual history, not commentary.
As an aside, I am a Pennsylvanian who grew up about 50 miles from our only President's home, Wheatland. This book helped me realize it was time to visit that home and give the man some credit for serving as he thought best in the coming storm.
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