A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents, 1837 – 1861

While the nation expanded to become a continental power, the decades leading up to the Civil War were turbulent times for America.   A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents offers a series of original essays that represent our current historical understanding of the eight U.S. presidents who served between 1837 and the start of the Civil War in 1861. Featuring contributions by leading experts in American history, individual readings explore, explain, and evaluate the evolving scholarly reception of Presidents Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan – their roles, behaviors, triumphs, and failures. A wide variety of topics and themes are explored, including leadership issues during the period that culminated in the dangerous growth of sectional turmoil, leading ultimately to Southern secession and a civil war. Neither charismatic nor larger than life, these presidents are often characterized as rather ordinary men, yet they shaped the direction of the country during a critical period of U.S. history. Thought–provoking and scholarly, A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents brings new insights and fresh perspectives into the largely forgotten men who served during one of the most decisive quarter centuries of United States history.

Joel H. Silbey is Professor of History Emeritus at Cornell University. His books include Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics (2002), Storm over Texas: The Annexation Controversy and the Road to Civil War (2005), and Party Over Section: The Election of 1848 (2009).