New Fillmore Book
Early next month another addition to The American Presidents Series will be released. The series is a collection of brief biographies of the Presidents of the United States by reputable and well-respected historians. They average about 150 pages each and are a sort of executive summary of that presidents life, but seem to contain a surprising amount of information, with a lot of interesting nuggets of information on that President's life.
The latest addition to the series is Paul Finkleman's biography of Millard Fillmore. It is scheduled to be available on Amazon on May 10th. (It was originally set for release last week, but now the release date appears to have been postponed yet again.) Following is a summary of this volume from the publisher:
In the summer of 1850, America was at a terrible crossroads. Congress was in an uproar over slavery, and it was not clear if a compromise could be found. In the midst of the debate, President Zachary Taylor suddenly took ill and died. The presidency, and the crisis, now fell to the little-known vice president from upstate New York.
In this eye-opening biography, the legal scholar and historian Paul Finkelman reveals how Millard Fillmore's response to the crisis he inherited set the country on a dangerous path that led to the Civil War. He shows how Fillmore stubbornly catered to the South, alienating his fellow Northerners and creating a fatal rift in the Whig Party, which would soon disappear from American politics as would Fillmore himself, after failing to regain the White House under the banner of the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic "Know Nothing" Party.
Though Fillmore did have an eye toward the future, dispatching Commodore Matthew Perry on the famous voyage that opened Japan to the West and on the central issues of the age immigration, religious toleration, and most of all slavery his myopic vision led to the destruction of his presidency, his party, and ultimately, the Union itself.
A lengthy excerpt from the book can be found here for all you Millard Fillmore enthusiasts who just can't wait another eleven days.
The latest addition to the series is Paul Finkleman's biography of Millard Fillmore. It is scheduled to be available on Amazon on May 10th. (It was originally set for release last week, but now the release date appears to have been postponed yet again.) Following is a summary of this volume from the publisher:
In the summer of 1850, America was at a terrible crossroads. Congress was in an uproar over slavery, and it was not clear if a compromise could be found. In the midst of the debate, President Zachary Taylor suddenly took ill and died. The presidency, and the crisis, now fell to the little-known vice president from upstate New York.
In this eye-opening biography, the legal scholar and historian Paul Finkelman reveals how Millard Fillmore's response to the crisis he inherited set the country on a dangerous path that led to the Civil War. He shows how Fillmore stubbornly catered to the South, alienating his fellow Northerners and creating a fatal rift in the Whig Party, which would soon disappear from American politics as would Fillmore himself, after failing to regain the White House under the banner of the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic "Know Nothing" Party.
Though Fillmore did have an eye toward the future, dispatching Commodore Matthew Perry on the famous voyage that opened Japan to the West and on the central issues of the age immigration, religious toleration, and most of all slavery his myopic vision led to the destruction of his presidency, his party, and ultimately, the Union itself.
A lengthy excerpt from the book can be found here for all you Millard Fillmore enthusiasts who just can't wait another eleven days.