Review: Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor by John S.D. Eisenhower
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Going through some mediocre presidents now, and it shows. Taylor seems to have been a pretty good general who was unfortunately unprepared (or just not cut out) for the presidency. He wanted to be "The people's president", so he refused to become too entrenched with his own party (the whigs), and thereby lost out on a lot of goodwill, while not gaining much ground with the opposition (the democrats). This seems to be a trend with generals who become presidents (Eisenhower, Washington, etc.)

Interesting to note he coined the term "First lady", for Dolly Madison's death.

The book mentions a claim that, had he survived, he might have been able to avert the civil war, being a Southern slave holder who opposed slavery. I very much doubt it.

I don't like giving it 3 stars, even though it's a 3 star book, mainly because I doubt it could have been much better, given the material. Let's say 3.5 for now.

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