Book Description
Politics was in Benjamin Harrison's blood. His great-grandfather signed the Declaration and his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, was the ninth president of the United States. Harrison, a leading Indiana lawyer, became a Republican Party champion, even taking a leave from the Civil War to campaign for Lincoln. After a scandal-free term in the Senate-no small feat in the Gilded Age-the Republicans chose Harrison as their presidential candidate in 1888. Despite losing the popular vote, he trounced the incumbent, Grover Cleveland, in the electoral college. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

ANOTHER 19TH CENTURY PRESIDENT WHO'S BARELY REMEMBERED TODAY!
A new biography on Benjamin Harrison, our 23rd president, has been written by Charles Calhoun who is a professor of history at East Carolina University.Harrison is solely remembered now for being the one-term president who served between rival Grover Cleveland's two non-consecutive stints in office.

Harrison was elected for one term in 1888 by defeating incumbent Grover Cleveland.He then lost to Cleveland four years later in a re-match over pretty much the same issues once the president's popularity dropped when the nation's economy tanked in a recession so he was shown the White House door by the voters.

Harrison's time in the White House more resembles the tenure of George Herbert Walker Bush, our current incumbent's father, who was also a somewhat popular president yet got tossed out after one term when it appeared he was out of touch with the public.The younger Bush seemed to have learned the lessons from the defeat of Harrison, his father and other one-term presidents who lost their second term chances by making sure he attacked first on the issues in his re-election contest instead of being put on the defensive to criticism of his administration by Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 election.

Harrison grew up with privilege, just like the current officeholder, being the grandson of a chief executive and a descendant to one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.He ably served in the Civil War, then entered politics against the advice of his father to rise through the ranks of political positions until he was the Republican Party presidential nominee of 1888.

That contest was a close race and Harrison won the electoral count for the win even though Cleveland actually got more votes from the public in the same manner the younger Bush did in his 2000 election triumph over Al Gore.And he took office with his party controlling both houses of Congress just like our current leader.

But the Republicans of the late 1880's were complete opposites to the GOP politicians of today.Then, they were in favor of tariffs on imported goods from other countries to pay for government services.Today, they encourage open borders and the constant arrival of foreign-made products to power the economy and the elimination of all government interference in global commerce to the detriment of American manufacturers who must now compete with cheap labor outside our country and are forced to keep wages as low as possible to the American worker in order to stay in business.

Most of the money coming into the U.S. Treasury in those years was through the fees raised by tariffs on those imports. Harrison campaigned in the 1888 election against Cleveland to keep those protective tariffs in place since there was no federal income tax on citizens to raise government revenues at that time.His strategy was successful and he defeated the first Democrat to be elected to the presidency since 1856.But things began to immediately go wrong for the Indiana politician upon arriving in Washington and taking the oath of office.

Calhoun makes the argument that Harrison's presidency soured when he tried to please too many special interest groups of his own party as the nation had its first billion dollar peacetime budget and Harrison's Republican Party subsequently lost control of both houses of Congress in the 1890 mid-term contest as a result of voter dissatisfaction.An ill-advised attempt to annex Hawaii as part of the growing nation and the constant fighting between his administration and both parties in Congress led to his sliding popularity as his upcoming re-election approached.

His opponent in the 1892 contest would be former President Grover Cleveland who was trying to win his job back.A lackluster campaign on Harrison's part plus the death of his wife two weeks before Election Day took away all of his interest in keeping the presidency so only got 43 percent of the vote and left office a dispirited man.

Harrison paid the price from a scorned populace by trying to please too many special business interests when the country was becoming less agrarian and relying more on manufacturing to spur economic growth in order to compete with the other nations of the world.

"Little Ben" was bigger than we thought
Benjamin Harrison lived most of his adult life in Indianapolis, and his handsome brick Victorian home on Delaware Street has long been a memorial open to the public.Yet even the citizens of his hometown are vague on who he really was.Many confuse him with his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, "Old Tippecanoe" as he was called, who also served in the White House, albeit for only thirty days. Some see the signature of "Benj Harrison" on the Declaration of Independence and assume that the Indianapolis resident was in Philadelphia in 1776.If they only stopped to think, they would realize that the city of Indianapolis was not founded until 1821 and that their Benj Harrison was not born until 1833.The signer was the great-grandfather of the 23rd President.Charles Calhoun has done a scholarly job of helping stamp out the ignorance and confusion surrounding Benjamin Harrison, the last President to sport a beard and the first to decorate a Christmas tree in the White House.He and his wife Caroline were occupants of the Executive Mansion when electricity was first installed, replacing the gaslight fixtures.The old story goes that they were both afraid of the strange new utility and refused to touch the light switches.Harrison was the second shortest of our Presidents, coming in at 5' 6" and was affectionately referred to as "Little Ben" by the 1000 soldiers of the 70th Indiana Regiment who followed him into the Civil War.His bravery in battle was recognized by General Joseph Hooker ("Fighting Joe") who awarded Harrison a battlefield promotion to Brigadier General.Calhoun makes a good case that Harrison could be considered one of the earliest "activist" Presidents, long before Theodore Roosevelt became the poster boy for the position.He makes the point that Harrison's term helped to restore the power of the Presidency that had been nearly destroyed by the impeachment attempt on Andrew Johnson.Harrison surprised and irritated his own party when he bucked their directives and insisted that party hacks would not automatically get patronage.He wanted to make sure his appointees were qualified for their jobs.It sounds like a "no-brainer" today, but it was liberal thinking in those days.Six states came into the Union under Harrison, more than any other Presidential term.Oklahoma was opened for settlement, 13 million acres of land were put into reserve for national forests, the size of the Navy was greatly increased, and Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the McKinley Tariff.So it's not like nothing happened under Benjamin Harrison.Calhoun points out that Harrison often had to serve as his own Secretary of State as a result of frequent "illness" on the part of James G. Blaine, whose relationship with Harrison can only be described as "chilly."Toward the end of his term, in the midst of a re-election campaign, Harrison's beloved wife Caroline was dying of tuberculosis.He stayed at her bedside."I was so removed from the campaign that I can scarcely realize that I was a candidate," Harrison wrote to one supporter.Two weeks after Caroline died in the White House, Grover Cleveland won another term.But it was just as well to Harrison.He wrote, "It does not seem to me that I could have had the physical strength to go through what would have been before me if I had been re-elected, with the added burden of a great personal grief."He returned to his beloved home on Delaware Street and resumed the job he really liked from the beginning - attorney at law.Charles Calhoun, a scholar of the "Gilded Age," provides a very readable account of a President who helped lay the foundation for the 20th century.

Nice presentation of a lesser-known president
If you ask most people what they know about Benjamin Harrison they might tell you two things they remember from history class...that he was the grandson of a president (William Henry Harrison) and that his term was sandwiched in between the two non-consecutive terms of Grover Cleveland. Beyond that, Benjamin Harrison remains a mystery to most, but author Charles Calhoun has done a crisp and clear job of relating Harrison's life and term in office.

This is the third of the American Presidents series I have read and I think that these books serve better in telling the stories of the more obscure presidents. The brief length of the Harrison book (as well as the ones I've read about Arthur and Harding) give just enough overview regarding these men. They are nice "starter" books, which might, one would hope, prompt the reader to seek out deeper accounts of the lives of these presidents. That said, Calhoun's book offers a good flow of information. Harrison is usually rated in the middle of the presidential mix, and Calhoun creates no impression that Harrison should be moved up or down. He was a solid, if stoic president with some notable legislative accomplishments. While never rising to the stature that a more forceful president might have, Harrison nonetheless fought for rights of blacks to vote and was keen on providing a pension for Union veterans of the Civil War. It was fascinating to read that Frederick Douglass said of Harrison, "to my mind, we never had a greater president". That's certainly high praise coming from one of the leading abolitionists of the nineteenth century and a man who knew Abraham Lincoln personally. Harrison had a few challenges abroad, but his four years were generally quiet as the country saw the passage of such landmark legislation as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Harrison's political problems as president seemed to stem as much from members of his own Republican party, especially his wily Secretary of State, James G. Blaine. Through a combination of forces against him, Harrison lost badly to Grover Cleveland in 1892.

Calhoun tells of the president's dalliance with and subsequent marriage to his wife's niece, Mary (Mame) Dimmick...it's a colorful addition to the life of a pious president. The rift that this marriage caused seems never to have healed with his two adult children as Harrison died just five years after his second wedding.

Benjamin Harrison may have been a footnote in history but Charles Calhoun has rightly written about him. After all, there have been only forty-two different occupants of the presidential chair...and Harrison was one of them. I recommend this book for its insight and easy narrative style.

A fine work on a little-known president
Unlike some of the authors in the AP series, Charles Calhoun is a professional historian who has written previously about his subject's era. He clearly has the depth of knowledge to analyze Harrison and place him properly in the context of his time.
While Benjamin Harrison had a successful career prior to his election as President, he really was no more distinguished than any number of 1880s politicos. A respected Civil War officer and successful lawyer, he was a candidate because of his famous name and his popularity in the swing-state of Indiana. After his election however, Harrison was not able to hold his party together. He could not subdue or satisfy his party rival J. G. Blaine, or enact all of the desired Republican legislation. His presidency was crippled by losses in 1890 congressional elections and dissatisfaction among western Republicans. The death of wife Caroline Harrison in 1892 sapped Ben's desire to wage a strong second campaign.
I was surprised to learn that Harrison was a strong advocate of black civil rights. However, he was not very successful in stepping up federal protection for blacks in the South. Calhoun also covers Harrison's somewhat creepy relationship with his wife's niece, whom he would marry after he left the White House.
If you are not up to reading the three-volume biography of Harrison, this a good place to turn. Recommended for anyone interested in the Gilded Age.

big government men
Imagine a Republican who believes in a big government? This wonderful biography of Benjamin Harrison is useful for us today to sort out a different era. While this is short, it certainly covers an era in which few of us are very familiar. However, the era is the foundation of today, and this book opens a window for us. ... Read more

Book Description
Presents a biography of Benjamin Harrison ... Read more

Book Description
Benjamin Harrison was an early proponent of American expansion in the Pacific, a key figure in such landmark legislation as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the McKinley Tariff, and one of the Gilded Age's most eloquent speakers. Yet he remains one of our most neglected and least understood presidents. In this first interpretive study of the Harrison administration, the authors illuminate our twenty-third president's character and policies and rescue him from the long shadow of his charismatic secretary of state, James G. Blaine.

An Ohio native and Indiana lawyer, Harrison opened the second century of the American presidency in a rapidly industrializing and expanding nation. His inaugural address reflected the nation's optimism: "The masses of our people are better fed, clothed, and housed than their fathers were. The facilities for popular education have been vastly enlarged and more generally diffused. The virtues of courage and patriotism have given proof of their continued presence and increasing power in the hearts and over the lives of our people."

But the burdens and realities of his office soon imposed themselves upon Harrison. The biggest blow came at midterm with the Republicans' devastating losses in the 1890 congressional elections. In an era of congressional dominance, those losses eroded Harrison's position as a legislative advocate--at least, for domestic issues.

His impact in foreign affairs was more lasting. One of the highlights of this study is its revealing look at Harrison's visionary foreign policy, especially toward the Pacific. Socolofsky and Spetter convincingly demonstrate that although Harrison's ambition to acquire the Hawaiian Islands was not realized during his presidency, his foreign policy was a major step toward American control of Hawaii and American expansion in the Far East.

This book is part of the American Presidency Series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

With No Favors From Blaine
Not only is he one of America's lesser known presidents, Benjamin Harrison is not even the better known of presidents named Harrison. His grandfather, William Henry Harrison, bears the name most Americans remember if they recognize the Harrison name at all. Old Harrison made his name as a dashing military hero; his grandson decades later would fight well under Sherman and attained the rank of brevet brigadier general, but as events would unfold, the country was awash in brevet generals in 1888.

The University Press of Kansas began its presidency series with a treatment of George Washington's tenure in 1974, and as of this writing has brought the series as far along as the presidency of George Bush, Senior. A survey of the series indicates that coincidentally or not, all the volumes to date are remarkably similar in length, just under three hundred pages in most cases. Critics may argue that presidencies such as Lincoln's or FDR's might merit more ink than, say, Franklin Pierce or our subject at hand, Benjamin Harrison. Having read several volumes, I would say that the success of the series to date has been bringing the achievements of the lesser known presidents to more public prominence. Presidents such as Hayes and the second Harrison have done better by this series than have Nixon or Kennedy, whose volumes naturally have had to compete with the products of the likes ofSorensen, Manchester, Caro, Dallek, etc.

The University Press has attempted to stay focused upon the presidencies themselves, which has had the effect of dulling some of our more charismatic leaders and their colorful pasts. [One wonders how the editors will come to grips with Monica Lewinski, when that day inevitably arrives.]Diminishment of charisma is not a problem when treating of Harrison. He was Robert Taft before there was Robert Taft, a tweedy Midwest lawyer who successfully put the excitement of war behind him and nurtured a competent, unflappable, and predictable personality. He won and lost a senate seat prior to the Republican convention of 1888, and became an eighth ballot nominee when it became clear that his party's reigning Hamlet, James G. Blaine, would not run, apparently for reasons of health.

Harrison's pragmatism led him to undertake the formation of his cabinet as an exercise in party unity. One can probably argue that Harrison's presidency never really survived the selection process, for Harrison, in a gesture of perhaps insecurity and stubbornness, refused to allow state party bosses their traditional say in cabinet appointments. Harrison chose a cabinet of men like himself: Midwesterners, brevet generals, Presbyterians. And, until the very last moment, no Blaine. Maine's favorite son assumed himself a shoo-in as Secretary of State. Blaine, a master of denial whose illnesses compromised his effectiveness in Harrison's cabinet, and Mrs. Blaine, put out by her perception of Harrison's lack of reverence for her husband, were simply two of many disgruntled forces in the Republican Party. That the Democrats would storm back in the 1890 congressional elections--aided by a distinct lack of Republican enthusiasm--was predictable early in the Harrison presidency.

Harrison's domestic policy prior to 1890 focused upon issues which, to one degree or another, had been problematic since the Civil War. Tariff restraints, currency debates, civil service reform, civil rights, management of western territories, Indian affairs [including the battle at Wounded Knee], immigration, labor issues and safety were regular staples of government debate. With the House and Senate nearly evenly matched till the 1890 elections, there were no spectacular federal breakthroughs for which Harrison could claim victory. The authors do note that the president deserves more credit for his efforts to establish federal land reserves in the teeth of opposition from the lumber industry. It is also worth noting that more states were formed under Harrison's administration than under any other president; the northwestern alignment of states, as we know them today, took shape with apparently minimal controversy.

Harrison's alienation from party leaders, an unremarkable first two years, his administrative inexperience, and a rather cold demeanor did not augur well for a long tenure in the White House. The disastrous [for Republicans] returns of 1890 assured that Harrison in all likelihood would not lead the ticket in 1892. [His wife's illness and death in that year would make such considerations irrelevant when the time came at any rate.]

Harrison turned his attention to foreign affairs in the last half of his presidency. By 1890 it was beginning to dawn upon politicians of both parties that affairs in Central and South America were taking on an added importance in this country's commerce and defense. For most of the century America's chief concern had been the designs of foreign powers from across the sea. Now the necessity of an ocean-to-ocean canal involved this country more deeply into the relations of South American countries themselves. Harrison was not the first, and certainly not the last, president to assert American hegemony on the South American continent, and his warlike gestures toward Chile were of a cloth with McKinley and certainly Roosevelt, who admired Harrison's belligerence. Harrison also saw the importance of American military and fueling bases in the Pacific in the face of growing German interest in the region. It is not clear that Harrison fully appreciated the unfolding of the new international military order in the way that an Alfred Thayer Mahan or Theodore Roosevelt would, but he can be commended for fidelity to a policy that made the American position in South America and the Pacific much more tenable. And, it should be noted, Harrison conducted his foreign policy without the help of Blaine, who was too ill to assist and too proud to step aside.

Harrison was re-nominated by the anti-Blaine forces of his own party but without wholesale Republican support. The death of his wife during the campaign presaged the elector outcome and Cleveland's re-emergence. ... Read more

Book Description
Presents a biography of Benjamin Harrison ... Read more

Book Description
An illustrated biography of Benjamin Harrison, discussing his early life, his military career, his marriages and children, his presidential term, and his post-White House activities. ... Read more