Larry Gara

This was an excellent history book, packed with information and perspective about this brief, but important part of American History. He treated Franklin Pierce with objectivity and revealed a man who was not ready, and arguably not capable, of being president of the United States of America. I have great pity for Pierce's personal life, suffering the death of all three children. His wife was plagued with illness and the same tragedies. He had a serious illness too, the treatment for which was about eighty years before his time.
Slavery is just wrong. It has always been wrong. Pierce should have known better and he let his politics prevent him from even examining "right vs. wrong" when it came to policy and governance. We should know better when it comes to our racism.
I live in "Pierce County" Washington, named for him. I wish we could change the name of our County.
Some of the prose was cause for some reading stumble but it was only a small fraction of the time where I had to re-read a sentence. He tried so hard to make each sentence fresh and packed with information and this can cause a stumble for this reader. Plus, this type of concise history is always packed with lots of names and dates and that slows me down too.… (altro)