A New York Times Bestseller and New York Times Notable Book

Robert Merry's brilliant and highly acclaimed history of a crucial epoch in U.S. history--the presidency of James K. Polk, "our most underrated president" (Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein).

In a one-term presidency, James K. Polk completed the story of America's Manifest Destiny--extending its territory across the continent by threatening England with war and manufacturing a controversial and unpopular two-year war with Mexico. "A crucial architect of modern America, James K. Polk deserves to...

In 1948 the column-writing Alsop brothers produced an article for the Saturday Evening Post, then the country's preminent weekly magazine. Its title: Must America Save the World?'' Their answer was a resounding yes. Indeed, Joseph and Stewart Alsop were there in those heady postwar years when the country's foreign-policy elite created what became known as the American Century. As men of words, they served as confidants of and cheerleaders for these men of deeds, who came largely from the country's patrician class. The Alsop brothers were themselves sons of this class. Theodore Roosevelt was...

The author of the acclaimed biography of President James Polk offers a fresh, playful, and challenging way of playing America's favorite game--by pitching historians' views and subsequent experts' polls against the judgment and votes of the presidents' own contemporaries.

Robert W. Merry presents a fresh, playful, and challenging way of playing America's favorite game, "Rating the Presidents," by pitching historian's views and experts' polls against the judgment and votes of the presidents' contemporaries.