Franklin Pierce (Profiles of the Presidents)

Rating:
Summary: The most tragic and inept figure to ever serve as President
Review: The Profiles of the Presidents series is establishing itself as the first place young readers should turn for information about the Presidents. As is usually the case with any juvenile biography about a President, the less you know about that particular President the more impressive you will find the volume to be (it is hard just to cover the basics about Abraham Lincoln or F.D.R. in this small of a book). Such is the case with Barbara Somervill's look at Franklin Pierce. Somervill begins her book with the obvious question, Franklin Who? After all, his opponent, Mexican War hero General Winfield Scott is still better known today that Pierce, who was nominated on the 49th ballot by the Democrats in 1852. More importantly, before she even begins the story of Pierce's life and political career, Somervill establishes that he was not up to the office and is one of the five worst presidents in the nation's history.

The rest of this book looks at how Pierce went from a student, lawyer, and politician in New Hampshire to his service in the Mexican War, ironically, under Scott. Pierce was chosen to run because he was a northerner who favored slavery, which certainly makes it clear how that issue was coming to a head during the final decade before the Civil War; he had been a Senator before the Mexican War, which shows how desperate the Democrats were to find a "dough faced" nominee. The story of Pierce's one term in the White House is essentially that of a series of tragic deaths in his family and administration and a complete lack of political success either at home or abroad. After leaving office Pierce began drinking heavily until the day he died.

The presidency of this man is as depressing a tale as young students are going to read in this series, from the death of his son in a train wreck between the election and the inaugural to his complete inability to do anything to prevent the coming war. This begs the question as to what anybody could have done during those years to do anything other than slow down the race to Civil War. Consequently, it is not so much that Peirce has any significant degree of responsibility for what would happen, but that he more than amply symbolizes the ineptness of the politicians of the country. Clearly Somervill does an excellent job of cataloguing his failures in office.

The final comment would be that these are very nice looking books. Apparently a set of colored portraits of the President were commissioned for this series, which are used not only to adorn the cover of each book but also work their way inside as well (e.g., Fillmore and Lincoln), and I really like them.

Rating:
Summary: The most tragic and inept figure to ever serve as President
Review: The Profiles of the Presidents series is establishing itself as the first place young readers should turn for information about the Presidents. As is usually the case with any juvenile biography about a President, the less you know about that particular President the more impressive you will find the volume to be (it is hard just to cover the basics about Abraham Lincoln or F.D.R. in this small of a book). Such is the case with Barbara Somervill's look at Franklin Pierce. Somervill begins her book with the obvious question, Franklin Who? After all, his opponent, Mexican War hero General Winfield Scott is still better known today that Pierce, who was nominated on the 49th ballot by the Democrats in 1852. More importantly, before she even begins the story of Pierce's life and political career, Somervill establishes that he was not up to the office and is one of the five worst presidents in the nation's history.

The rest of this book looks at how Pierce went from a student, lawyer, and politician in New Hampshire to his service in the Mexican War, ironically, under Scott. Pierce was chosen to run because he was a northerner who favored slavery, which certainly makes it clear how that issue was coming to a head during the final decade before the Civil War; he had been a Senator before the Mexican War, which shows how desperate the Democrats were to find a "dough faced" nominee. The story of Pierce's one term in the White House is essentially that of a series of tragic deaths in his family and administration and a complete lack of political success either at home or abroad. After leaving office Pierce began drinking heavily until the day he died.

The presidency of this man is as depressing a tale as young students are going to read in this series, from the death of his son in a train wreck between the election and the inaugural to his complete inability to do anything to prevent the coming war. This begs the question as to what anybody could have done during those years to do anything other than slow down the race to Civil War. Consequently, it is not so much that Peirce has any significant degree of responsibility for what would happen, but that he more than amply symbolizes the ineptness of the politicians of the country. Clearly Somervill does an excellent job of cataloguing his failures in office.

The final comment would be that these are very nice looking books. Apparently a set of colored portraits of the President were commissioned for this series, which are used not only to adorn the cover of each book but also work their way inside as well (e.g., Fillmore and Lincoln), and I really like them.