James Monroe
Author: Gary Hart
The former senator and presidential candidate offers a provocative new assessment of the first “national security president”
James Monroe is remembered today primarily for two things: for being the last of the “Virginia Dynasty”—following George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison—and for issuing the Monroe Doctrine, his statement of principles in 1823 that the western hemisphere was to be considered closed to European intervention. But Gary Hart sees Monroe as a president ahead of his time, whose priorities and accomplishments in establishing America’s “national security” have a great deal in common with chief executives of our own time.
Unlike his predecessors Jefferson and Madison, Monroe was at his core a military man. He joined the Continental Army at the age of seventeen and served with distinction in many pivotal battles. (He is prominently featured at Washington’s side in the iconic painting Washington Crossing the Delaware.) And throughout his career as a senator, governor, ambassador, secretary of state, secretary of war, and president, he never lost sight of the fact that without secure borders and friendly relations with neighbors, the American people could never be truly safe in their independence. As president he embarked on an ambitious series of treaties, annexations, and military confrontations that would secure America’s homeland against foreign attack for nearly two hundred years. Hart details the accomplishments and priorities of this forward-looking president, whose security concerns clearly echothose we face in our time.
Library Journal
Recent biographies have stoked public interest in the Founding Fathers. Now former U.S. senator Hart (The Fourth Power: A New Grand Strategy for the United States in the Twenty-First Century) studies James Monroe, the last of the Virginia dynasty, who, although president at an important time in U.S. history (1817-25), is often overlooked. Hart argues that in the years after the disastrous War of 1812, Monroe was "the first `national security president,' whose consistent underlying motivation was to expand and establish the borders of the U.S. and to make it the dominant power in the Western Hemisphere, free of European interference." Drawing heavily on Harry Ammon's seminal James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity and other sources, Hart makes a credible case for this thesis, showing that Monroe's experiences as an officer in the Revolutionary War, governor of Virginia, member of Congress, secretary of state and war, and diplomat gave him a unique perspective on America's strategic weaknesses and the means to overcome them. While this brief if well-written account lacks the depth of Ammon's work, it is a satisfying and informative read. Recommended for public libraries, especially those that do not have the Ammon book in their collections.-Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, PA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A nearly forgotten president comes in for soft-spoken tribute, courtesy of one-time U.S. Senator Hart (The Fourth Power, 2004, etc.). Hart allows that it is difficult to make a case for considering James Monroe "a great president by the standards usually reserved for great presidents." That notwithstanding, Hart says, Monroe was a skilled diplomat whose quiet, dogged work yielded the Louisiana Purchase and averted war with France, Spain and England; as president, he helped guide the nation out of an economic depression, and, of course, he formulated the principles that would come to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. It is this last achievement for which Monroe is best remembered, though few casual students of American history are conversant with the details. Hart ably elucidates those principles, among which are the serving of notice that the U.S. would not allow the extension of any monarchical European government into the Americas and that it would actively bar the reassertion of European power over any former colony that had declared itself free, as so much of South America had done with respect to Spain. Moreover, Hart observes, whereas the conventional view of the Monroe Doctrine is that it is a unilateralist declaration that "Europe is no longer welcome in the Western Hemisphere," the actual formulation is reciprocal, assuring that the U.S. would not interfere in European affairs but would also not tolerate European interference in American affairs broadly viewed. Hart notes that Monroe was "a military man before he was a diplomat or politician," with a well-honed view of geopolitics and an understanding, early on, that America's destiny lay in westward expansion and emergence as aworld power. Finally, on the personal front, Hart approvingly records that though Monroe was not above ambition or self-aggrandizement, he was also capable of distinguishing politics from friendship and was known for his warmth and kindness. A well-written, useful precis of Monroe's life and career.
Interesting textbook: Let Freedom Ring or Longitudes and Attitudes
George Washington (The American Presidents Series)
Author: James MacGregor Burns
A premier leadership scholar and an eighteenth-century expert define the special contributions and qualifications of our first president Revolutionary hero, founding president, and first citizen of the young republic, George Washington was the most illustrious public man of his time, a man whose image today is the result of the careful grooming of his public persona to include the themes of character, self-sacrifice, and destiny. As Washington sought to interpret the Constitution’s assignment of powers to the executive branch and to establish precedent for future leaders, he relied on his key advisers and looked to form consensus as the guiding principle of government. His is a legacy of a successful experiment in collective leadership, great initiatives in establishing a strong executive branch, and the formulation of innovative and lasting economic and foreign policies. James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn also trace the arc of Washington’s increasing dissatisfaction with public life and the seeds of dissent and political parties that, ironically, grew from his insistence on consensus. In this compelling and balanced biography, Burns and Dunn give us a rich portrait of the man behind the carefully crafted mythology.
The New York Times
James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn offer a thoughtful double portrait of our most celebrated Founding Father. They contrast the public persona that George Washington self-consciously created -- with his plain black coat, regal state portraits and dignified levees, the leader ''gravely willing to sacrifice himself for his country, proud of his symbolic role embodying American nationhood'' -- with the less familiar personality that Washington chose to obscure: the ''ferociously ambitious'' country gentleman ''managing to overcome his insecurities and apprehensions, wearing the self-effacing mask of modesty, a man fiercely protective of his own reputation.'' — Allen D. Boyer
Publishers Weekly
Like other volumes in the American Presidents series, edited by Arthur Schlesinger Jr., this biographical essay focuses on a handful of themes through which to examine Washington's life before and during his presidency. The book's first half examines how Washington, "ferociously ambitious" and "fiercely protective of his own reputation," meticulously crafted his public image, even years before the American Revolution, to emphasize the virtues of self-sacrifice and dignity. While acknowledging the extent to which Washington craved esteem from others, the authors are basically sympathetic, framing his ambition within the context of his role in defining the young nation's political institutions. In fact, Washington is somewhat invisible during passages depicting the power struggles among subordinates in the first administration. This allows Burns (a Pulitzer winner for Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom) and Dunn (also Burns's coauthor on The Three Roosevelts) to build on the former's theories about "transforming leadership" (which he presented in a book of that title) and to praise Washington's creation of a collective leadership, rather than establishing a solitary ruling authority, as an achievement "never to be surpassed in American presidential history." The authors also offer a frank appraisal of how Washington inadvertently sowed the seeds of political discord even as he developed national unity. This compact appraisal won't radically alter anybody's perspective on Washington. But its points are made briefly without sacrificing substance. (Jan. 7) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
George Washington: a so-so general, at least at the start; a capable politician, even if he didn't particularly enjoy pressing the flesh. But a great president? This slender volume in Arthur Schlesinger's American Presidents series, by political historian Burns (Dead Center, 1999, etc.) and revolutionary-era historian Dunn (Sister Revolutions, 1999), hints that some of Washington's renown in that department has to do only with his being the first in the job. Yet, they add, Washington did much in office to recast the role of the chief executive as the energetic center of government, to the discomfort of contemporaries who believed that therein lay the road to kingship; his model posited "vigorous executive leadership, a flexible and resourceful administration, presidential rather than party leadership-a model that overrode the checks and balances without blatantly violating the spirit of the Constitution but that threatened to pulverize the opposition." Other presidents have followed Washington's lead to a fault, raising "formidable threats of excessive presidential power, as in the cases of a Lyndon B. Johnson and a George W. Bush," but his legacy has largely been modified by the evolution of a two-party system that requires a little more teamwork on the president's part. Burns and Dunn capably chart the course of Washington's presidency, examining what they consider to be his successes (including the reshaping of the constitutional balance of powers) and failures (among them the polarization wrought by the Jay Treaty, which "left much that was precious to Washington-national unity, the common good, his own reputation-in tatters"). In the end, they fault him only gently for occasionalmissteps in office, notably his failure to act to hasten the end of slavery. A great president, then, if with a few blemishes. Good reading for students of the office and the time.
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