James K. Polk by John SeigenthalerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pleasantly surprised by how prolific and successful a president he was. He was no Jefferson or Lincoln, but definitely better than the presidents before and after him. He incorporated California and Oregon territories (which had sort of been incorporated already, but the Brits were jointly in charge), and annexed Texas, which caused a war. Still, he accomplished things, which is more than can be said of the other presidents during this time.
Extremely interesting the manner in which he was finally given the nomination.
Truman's quote about Polk (and also Kennedy's) also very interesting.
Polk apparently instituted a real "big block of cheese day", which Jackson gets credit for but didn't really do.
Marx has a racist quote in here too (p. 147)
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