Presidential Chronicles Volume III: The Path to National Fracture: The Lives of James Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan Paperback – November 14, 2021

The Path to National Fracture is the third volume of biographies in David Fisher's series Presidential Chronicles - the series of books and videos on American history as seen through the lives of the Presidents of the United States. Author David Fisher provides robust yet concise biographies of every U.S. President in this unique multi-volume collection, revealing the essential elements of their lives in the contexts of their times. Fisher makes extensive use of first-person quotations to help convey the inner thoughts of his subjects, along with a broad collection of images to help bring these stories to life. Many of the images are pulled from his vast personal collection of first edition presidential biographies, with many dating from the era in which these men were charged to lead their nation.This third volume of Presidential Chronicles (The Path to National Fracture) tells the life stories of the following five American Presidents who emerged to power in the middle of the 19th Century: James Polk Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore Franklin Pierce James BuchananFisher explores the nation’s era of westward expansion under the guise of “Manifest Destiny,” which featured a war that helped double the size of the young nation. With that growth came political peril as the northern and southern sections of the country grew increasingly divided on the topic of the expansion of slavery into these new territories. Those struggles grew violent, and the nation’s leaders struggled to maintain a united collection of states. Fisher reveals the intense Constitutional challenges faced by these leaders, the government’s attempt to use a vast compromise to keep the nation intact, and ultimately the collective failures that were traversed on the path to national fracture.The Path to National Fracture is part of Presidential Chronicles - Volumes, the print edition of the series in which each release includes four or five presidential biographies. The other released printed volumes include:Volume I: The Founders(with biographies of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe)Volume II: Democracy Expands (with biographies of John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, and John Tyler).Volume IV: War and Its Aftermath (with biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses Grant, Rutherford Hayes, and James Garfield)Volume V: Dawn of a New Century (with biographies Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt)Volume VI: Progressivism and Prosperity (with biographies of William Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, and Calvin Coolidge)Volume VII: Depression and Global War (with biographies of Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower)These biographies are also available as individual E-Books in the Presidential Chronicles - Individual series. Read more