This extremely short work is a part of the American Presidents series of short biographies of our nation’s chief executives, and while I understand the concept, and can make allowance for the comparative obscurity of the subject in this case, 130 pages is simply not much book.

I wouldn’t recommend the American Presidents series for Presidents such as Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, either Roosevelt or most of the Presidents in the 20th century. However, for many of the 19th century Presidents, 200 pages of material will contain about all the material you need to know about Presidents such as Pierce, Tyler, Buchanan, Arthur, Garfield, Van Buren, Fillmore, Hayes, etc. Still, this work, on Franklin Pierce is as thin as water. Even worse, it is poorly presented and makes for prose that is sometimes difficult to digest.

Pierce is routinely ranked among the least effective of U. S. Presidents, largely as a result of factors beyond his control. He is blamed for fracturing the then dominant Democratic Party; however, the looming Civil War and the issues involved made such a fracture largely unavoidable. It is no coincidence that two of the most maligned U.S. Presidents are the two immediately preceding the War, as if their actions precipitated the War and that others in their position might have somehow avoided it. Certainly, Pierce was no stand out President, however in many ways, he was a victim of his place in history. ( )

Because I came to it knowing so little about Pierce, I learned quite a bit from Holt's biography, but there's no denying it is thin broth. I was surprised by Holt's admission that he had not bothered to read Hawthorne's campaign biography of Pierce--surprised as well as disappointed, since Pierce's friendship with Hawthorne is one of the things that most made me want to read up on this miserably unsuccessful president. The book is highly thesis-driven--arguing single-mindedly that Pierce's administration failed mainly because Pierce put the good of his political party ahead of that of the nation--and as a consequence has the plodding earnestness of a graduate thesis, rather than the confident sweep of the work of an eminent historian at the end of a distinguished career. Still, I'd recommend it as an introduction to the sectional crisis of the 1850s for a reader who prefers history filtered through biography. ( )

As with other books in this series it is short and well written. Despite such small format it gives all the necessary details of both Franklin Pierce' personality and political life. Well intentioned but misguided policy directly contributing to the start of Civil war is his unfortunate legacy. ( )

Unlike Larry Gara's book "The Presidency of Franklin Pierce", this entry in The American Presidents Series is actually about Pierce, and it does a very good job of giving the reader some insight into Pierce's personal and political lives and failures. Pierce is often touted as one of the worst of our leaders and a leading candidate for "The President Who Did the Most to Bring On the Civil War". If you're reading through the presidents, give this one a try - short, well-written, enough detail to get on to #15 (Buchanan) and then to the main course: Lincoln and his era. ( )

This is a very helpful book, especially if you're new to pre-Civil War era history. It not only introduces you to an American president, albeit one not favored by historians, but it also explains the laws and political groups that were important in that time period.

The book talks about the Wilmot Proviso, the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, all laws essential to understanding how the Civil War got started. It also talks about the Whigs, the Democrats, the Republicans, and the Know-Nothings, and how these parties got started or what they were going through at the time.

The author claims not to be too sympathetic to Pierce, but I found myself being somewhat sympathetic anyway. A good basic book on the ante-bellum period of American history.