James K. Polk: Jacksonian, 1795-1843, Volume 1

This is Volume One of the first new study in a generation of America's most underrated president and a full account of Polk's pre-presidential career.Since Polk was immersed in so many of the major political developments of the day -- the rise of popular democracy, the conflicts over the national bank and other crucial issues of Jackson's administrations -- his biography is also a history of his generation's political experience. With a sure hand Professor Sellers brings out Polk's character -- his ambition, his determination, his faith in the electorate -- and the nature of his friends, his enemies, and the times in which he moved.Polk began his career in the Tennessee legislature, served seven terms in the national House of Representatives (two as speaker), and then won the governorship of Tennessee as a stepping stone to the vice presidency and ultimately, he dared hope, the presidency. By portraying in absorbing detail the complex of motives and ambitions from which the major events in Tennessee and Washington were woven during these years, the author has given real life to the historian's generalizations about the Jacksonian epoch.