02039cam a2200337 a 4500 123232239 OCoLC 20250710104819.0 070412s2008 nyuab b 001 0beng d 2007014040 9781400065608 (alk. paper) 1400065607 (alk. paper) 26218318 (OCoLC)123232239 DLC DLC BTCTA BAKER YDXCP NOG AJM n-us--- NOGA E417 .B67 2008 973.6/1092 B 22 Borneman, Walter R., 1952- 15832 Polk : the man who transformed the presidency and America / Walter R. Borneman. 1st ed. New York : Random House, c2008. xxiii, 422 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. [396]-404) and index. The first complete biography of a president often overshadowed in image but seldom outdone in accomplishment. James K. Polk's pledge to serve a single term, which many thought would make him a lame duck, enabled him to rise above electoral politics and to outflank his adversaries. Thus he plotted and attained a formidable agenda: He fought for and won tariff reductions, reestablished an independent Treasury, and most notably, brought Texas into the Union, bluffed Great Britain out of the lion's share of Oregon, and wrested California and much of the Southwest from Mexico. In tracing Polk's life and career, author Borneman dispels conventional views of Polk as an accidental president. Instead, we see Polk as he was--a decisive, if not partisan, statesman whose near doubling of America's boundaries and expansive broadening of executive powers redefined the country at large, as well as the nature of its highest office. Polk, James K. (James Knox), 1795-1849. 15833 Presidents United States Biography. 12546 United States Politics and government 1845-1849. 15834 ddc BOOK 29327 29327 ddc 0 0 ABELJ ABELJ B 2024-02-14 25.99 0 B POLK 65825 2024-02-14 2024-02-14 BOOK 1