My Obsession With Young Hickory
My obsession with James K. Polk began, of all places, with a song by one of my favourite bands, They Might Be Giants. One their more obscure tunes that gained a sort of cult following was a song called James K. Polk. It contains a pretty good history lesson that lists all of Polk's impressive accomplishments in a few short verses. If you've never heard it, I found a video version of it with a collage that someone did of Polk's life as told in the song.
Find more videos like this on The Fremd High School American Studies Ning
Hearing the song made me want to learn more about Polk, so I read about him, first in a concise biography by John Siegenthaler, part of the American Presidents series. That led to another and another, with the best being Walter Borneman's "Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America."
In 2007 I was on vacation at Pensacola Beach. My friend Tyler (who lives in Mobile) and I drove across the state of Alabama (about a 6 hour drive if I remember correctly) into Columbia, Tennessee, to see the Polk Ancestral Home and Museum. (There are a few pics behind the cut.)
What is fascinating about Polk is, like the song says, how he set a few simple goals and achieved them despite being a dark horse candidate and despite declaring that he was not going to seek re-election when his term was done. He was a micro-managing workaholic who probably literally worked himself to death. He didn't trust his cabinet members to perform even small tasks and as photographs taken in his Presidency demonstrate, he aged considerably over his term. He also had a Machiavellian side. He was accused by some including then Congressman Abraham Lincoln of going to war with Mexico on false grounds (reminding one of Lyndon Johnson and the Bay of Tonkin, or George W. Bush and WMD.)
Polk and his wife Sarah never had any children. It's likely that crude gall bladder surgery performed on Polk as a teenager left his man-plumbing damaged and unable to work.
There are a lot more dorky stories about Polk, enough to keep a Presidential History Geek like me amazed and amused for a long time. No wonder authors keep writing interesting biographies about him.
Find more videos like this on The Fremd High School American Studies Ning
Hearing the song made me want to learn more about Polk, so I read about him, first in a concise biography by John Siegenthaler, part of the American Presidents series. That led to another and another, with the best being Walter Borneman's "Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America."
In 2007 I was on vacation at Pensacola Beach. My friend Tyler (who lives in Mobile) and I drove across the state of Alabama (about a 6 hour drive if I remember correctly) into Columbia, Tennessee, to see the Polk Ancestral Home and Museum. (There are a few pics behind the cut.)
What is fascinating about Polk is, like the song says, how he set a few simple goals and achieved them despite being a dark horse candidate and despite declaring that he was not going to seek re-election when his term was done. He was a micro-managing workaholic who probably literally worked himself to death. He didn't trust his cabinet members to perform even small tasks and as photographs taken in his Presidency demonstrate, he aged considerably over his term. He also had a Machiavellian side. He was accused by some including then Congressman Abraham Lincoln of going to war with Mexico on false grounds (reminding one of Lyndon Johnson and the Bay of Tonkin, or George W. Bush and WMD.)
Polk and his wife Sarah never had any children. It's likely that crude gall bladder surgery performed on Polk as a teenager left his man-plumbing damaged and unable to work.
There are a lot more dorky stories about Polk, enough to keep a Presidential History Geek like me amazed and amused for a long time. No wonder authors keep writing interesting biographies about him.