A Country of Vast Designs

Robert Merry sheds light on that often-overlooked four years of American history during which the country doubled in size, Andrew Jackson's world came to an abrupt end, and the seeds of the Civil War were sown. Merry seeks to help us understand the enigmatic, socially inept, and almost impossibly successful one-term president who presided over it all. Michael Prichard's authoritative baritone presents James Polk's complex story with extraordinary clarity. This is not a history of frontiers, mountain men, and soldiers, but a history of politicians, generals, and political journalists--a link between John Meacham's AMERICAN LION and Doris Kearns Goodwin's TEAM OF RIVALS. As delivered by Prichard, the accounts are personal, without any tone of gossip, and the characters are vivid enough for a listener to remember. F.C. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

September 7, 2009
Merry, president and editor-in-chief of Congressional Quarterly Inc., offers a wide-ranging, provocative analysis of the controversial presidency of James K. Polk. Using a broad spectrum of published and archival sources, Merry depicts Polk as an unabashed expansionist. His political career was devoted to extending American power across the continent. Polk saw the fulfillment of manifest destiny as transcending even the festering issue of slavery. Elected president in 1844, he pursued confrontational diplomacy with Britain, structured a war with Mexico and enlarged the U.S. by over a third, essentially to its present boundaries, in a single term of office. Polk's achievements were correspondingly controversial across the political spectrum. Merry uses congressional debates and newspaper quotations to depict the genesis of a fundamental, enduring debate on America's nature and role. Conceding Polk's “personal lapses and his least impressive traits.” Merry makes a strong case that Polk's America embraced a sweeping vision of national destiny that he fulfilled. Merry's conclusion that history turns not on morality but on power, energy and will may be uncomfortable, but he successfully illustrates it. 16 pages of b&w photos; 1 map.