Featured Conservative Authors
Conservative Book Zone
Conservative Classics
General Market Books
Shop our bookstore where you will find books for each conservative topic you are looking for!
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness
| Our Price |
$ 20.28
|
|
| Retail Value |
$ 26.00 |
|
| You Save |
$ 5.72 (22%) |
|
| Item Number |
2255441 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Item Description...
Overview
The epic story of James Monroe-- the last of America's Founding Fathers -- who transformed a small, fragile nation beset by enemies into a glorious and powerful empire stretching "from sea to shining sea."
Publishers Description
In this lively and compelling biography Harlow Giles Unger reveals the dominant political figure of a generation. A fierce fighter in four critical Revolutionary War battles and a courageous survivor of Valley Forge and a near-fatal wound at the Battle of Trenton, James Monroe (1751–1831) went on to become America's first full-time politician, dedicating his life to securing America's national and international durability. Decorated by George Washington for his exploits as a soldier, Monroe became a congressman, a senator, U.S. minister to France and Britain, governor of Virginia, secretary of state, secretary of war, and finally America's fifth president. The country embraced Monroe's dreams of empire and elected him to two terms, the second time unanimously. Mentored by each of America's first four presidents, Monroe was unquestionably the best prepared president in our history. Like David McCullough's John Adams and Jon Meacham's recent book on Andrew Jackson, this new biography of Monroe is both a solid read and stellar scholarship—history in the grand tradition. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 388
Dimensions: Length: 1.25" Width: 6" Height: 9"
Weight: 1.35 lbs.
Binding Hardcover
Release Date Sep 29, 2009
ISBN 0306818086
EAN 9780306818080
|
Availability 0 units.
|
More About Harlow G. Unger
Product Categories
Similar Products
Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | One of the Poorest Presidential Bios Jan 26, 2010 |
Bought this book with no prior research, there just isn't much out there on Monroe so I was happy to see something new on him. If I had simply read the inside cover notes I would have at least had a clue that this book was hagiographic in nature. The author obviously is quite enamored with the subject, to the point of being blind to the facts.
The book is also empty of analysis and quite dull. A straightforward, textbook biography except for a completely one sided view of the subject. Unbalanced in the story telling - a two term president, we hit the presidency on about page 260 of 347 and then spend the remainder talking about styles and Monroe's trips around the country.
Most importantly, according to the author, Monroe did nothing wrong and everybody else did nothing right. Catch this great nugget from the very last page of the book - "One by one, President Monroe's self-serving, politically ambitious successors undermined the national unity he created during his presidency, and during the thirty-five years that followed, the Era of Good Feelings metamorphosed into civil war." Give that some thought. Guess if Monroe remained president we would have remained happy and at peace - and with slaves!
He doesn't debate who authored the Monroe doctrine, to hear the author Adams had nothing to do with it. Monroe's first trip to France was a roaring success, Monroe played a major role in winning the revolutionary war, Monroe's wife was the bravest, smartest and prettiest first lady ever, etc. I could go on forever.
I've never given a "1" review but on this I wish I could give a "0". I'm almost ashamed to have bought and read this book. If the quote above was on page one perhaps it would have saved me some time.
Avoid at all cost. | | |  | Fascinating History - A Must Read Jan 21, 2010 |
| A fascinating account of the life and politics of James Monroe who was only 18 when the Declaration of Independence was signed. Monroe served in the Continental Army, the Virginia Legislature, as Secretary of State, Secretary of War and as our Fifth President. Learn more than you ever knew about Monroe who authored the Manifest Destiny surge of the United States as far as the Rocky Mountains and created the Monroe Doctrine. | | |  | Some inaccuracies Jan 11, 2010 |
| When Unger analyzes the relationship of Monroe with his contemporaries, I have my doubts. Unger mentions several times that Alexander Hamilton was frustrated by his unsuccessful political efforts to become president. Hamilton did not run for president and could not, because he was not a natural born citizen of the United States and therefore constitutionally barred. This make me unsure of Unger's other facts and analysis in the book. | | |  | A Faithful Follower Who Served With Good Luck Jan 5, 2010 |
The Last Founding Father, a biography of James Monroe by Harlow Giles Unger provides a solid history of a good man frequently overlooked in the Pantheon of our Founding Fathers. And for good reason. He benefitted greatly from the work of his predecessors and was thus the beneficiary of historical good luck. While he presided over what is now known as the Era of Good Feeling, he does not deserve full credit for making it happen.
Unger has written a number of useful books on this seminal period of American history. My favorite was one Unger wrote on General Lafayette, but this book is not quite up to that high standard. To me, it seemed that the author gave Monroe too much credit and found too few warts. While basically a good person, Monroe seemed to me to be more of a good follower who was elevated to the Presidency by virtue of his lifelong loyalty to those who preceded him in office.
The book is well worth reading, however, when one wants to round out his or her knowledge of a period of political creativity which the world had never seen before.
While history has perhaps not lauded Monroe enough, recent American Presidents make me pine for one as good as Monroe. We hope Unger will continue to contribute to our knowledge with his careful and extensive research about this great period when our unique democratic government was born. | | | | Very Good, but a glaring error Jan 1, 2010 |
I have thoroughly enjoyed this single volume narrative of the life and especially the presidency of James Monroe. Having been on an early republic biographical kick for the past couple of months, I have knocked off R.N. Smith's Patriarch about Washington, R. Chernow's Alexander Hamilton (fantastic and exhaustive), E.P. Crapol's John Tyler, J. Meacham's American Lion, with W.R. Borneman's Polk waiting on the shelf. Unger's Monroe has been a wonderful read, but I wish that editors would do a better job of correcting copy before going to print. As I got to the end, on page 314, there is a glaring error as the narrative states that "On December 2, 1783, Monroe strode into Congress to deliver his seventh annual message to that body." Well, I do not know exactly what James Monroe was doing on December 2, 1783 (most likely, he was hanging out with fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson because they had both been elected to the new Congress, and Monroe was broke and Jefferson had money), but he was certainly not addressing Congress as the President, since the excecutive branch did not yet exist and the only Congress was the Confederation Congress rapidly showing its inability to effectively deal with the issues of a new nation of sovereign states. However, on December 2, 1823, James Monroe was in fact the president and was addressing a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives for the seventh time as the chief executive officer. I was so enjoying the narrative until this derailment over a simple editorial oversight in the chronology. Otherwise, an excellent book.
| | | Write your own review about The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness
|
|
