John C. Calhoun: A Biography

by Irving H. Bartlett

Overview

John C. Calhoun was a rare figure in American history: a lifelong politician who was also a profound political philosopher. Vice president under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, he was a dominant presence in the U.S. Senate. Now comes a major new biography from the author of Daniel Webster.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393332865
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/1994
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	729,576
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

Editorial Reviews

Bartlett ( Wendell and Ann Phillips , Norton, 1982; Daniel Webster , Norton, 1981) examines in detail the life and career of one of the South's great men. He reveals the highlights of Calhoun's career: his role as a war hawk in Congress in 1812, his almost total reformation of the War Department as Secretary of War under President Monroe, and his many clashes with a paranoid but popular Andrew Jackson. He also details Calhoun's family life, revealing a man who appears to be very different from the persona cultivated in public. But, as Bartlett shows, Calhoun's most historic role was as the creator of the concept of nullification, which was a response to the Tariff Crisis of 1824. Calhoun's prime concern was how a state may protect itself against unjust and unconstitutional Federal legislation. A well-wrought study written in an accessible style; highly recommended.-- Robert A. Curtis, Taylor Memorial P.L., Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

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