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neglet's review against another edition
Plus points for being thorough and exhaustively researched in explaining VB’s career, especially how local NY state politics had a huge influence on national and presidential races. Minus points for being extremely dense, introducing dozens of minor figures and then never giving context to reorient them in the reader’s mind when they are reintroduced into the story. Also could have used more at the end to explore VB’s legacy.
VB’s career: extremely interesting. This bio: a bit of a slog.
VB’s career: extremely interesting. This bio: a bit of a slog.
cspiwak's review
2.0
I have been reading my way through the presidential biographies and this was the first one I didn't enjoy. It had a great deal of detail about every aspect of political wheeling and dealing on a more scholarly level than I was really looking for
alanfederman's review
3.0
The book provided some great insight into the person of Martin Van Buren, but the writing focused too much on the minute details of his life and times and didn't provide enough context into the broader issues of the day (slavery, banking, expansion). At times Van Buren seemed more a 'politician' than a leader, and the book didn't give him enough credit for what seemed to be some pretty progressive ideas for his time. An interesting character, more context would have helped. On to William Henry Harrison.
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