Often forgotten and overlooked, the U.S.-Mexican War featured false starts, atrocities, and daring back-channel negotiations as it divided the nation, paved the way for the Civil War a generation later, and launched the career of Abraham Lincoln. Amy S. Greenberg’s skilled storytelling and rigorous scholarship bring this American war for empire to life with memorable characters, plotlines, and … legacies.
When President James K. Polk compelled a divided Congress to support his war with Mexico, it was the first time that the young American nation would engage another republic in battle. Caught up in the conflict and the political furor surrounding it were Abraham Lincoln, then a new congressman; Polk, the dour president committed to territorial expansion at any cost; and Henry Clay, the aging statesman whose presidential hopes had been frustrated once again, but who still harbored influence and had one last great speech up his sleeve. Beyond these illustrious figures, A Wicked War follows several fascinating and long-neglected characters: Lincoln’s archrival John Hardin, whose death opened the door to Lincoln’s rise; Nicholas Trist, gentleman diplomat and secret negotiator, who broke with his president to negotiate a fair peace; and Polk’s wife, Sarah, whose shrewd politicking was crucial in the Oval Office.
This definitive history of the 1846 conflict paints an intimate portrait of the major players and their world. It is a story of Indian fights, Manifest Destiny, secret military maneuvers, gunshot wounds, and political spin. Along the way it captures a young Lincoln mismatching his clothes, the lasting influence of the Founding Fathers, the birth of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and America’s first national antiwar movement. A key chapter in the creation of the United States, it is the story of a burgeoning nation and an unforgettable conflict that has shaped American history.
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This book brought to life a war that I knew very little about. Amy Greenberg is gifted in the sometimes dry arena of history writing. Historical fiction writers can tell a tale, but historical fact writers have to present the reflection of life as it was or the best approximation that can reasonably be put together with the resources available. Greenberg does this wonderfully. I really enjoyed this book. Honestly I read it like a novel it was so well presented.
A great evenings reading.
And a great reference book for further research into American history.
Illumines a period in US History that most people have little knowledge of. Oddly parallel to much of our own politics today and lifts up the aggrandizing
and racist attitudes of US with regard to Mexico. We simply stole a third of the country using a false premise and an outright lie about being attacked. Excellent read.
Everyone who attended high school in this country knows something of the Mexican American War but this is a well researched, convincing account of the major actors who were responsible for the war and the mood of Americans especially those living in what was then the western U.S. A real eye opener.
An insightful look into a forgotten war, with echos into todays governments. decisions. It shows how politicians were willing to ignore the fundamental principles that the country was founded on for short term gains.
This book left me with a much better understanding of what is happening in politics now and how we have not really progressed much from the 1840’s. I am very glad I read it. I think it was well done.
Following an interest I have read a great deal on the pre-Civil war period starting with the end of the Mexican war in 1848. When the opportunity to read A Wicked War came along, I thought it might answer a few questions I had concerning the period that followed. I was right to follow that impulse. The book is extraordinarily well written and in addition to the fascinating history it also provided excellent profiles of President Polk, Senator Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln and a very interesting Nicholas Trist, a person about whom I knew nothing until I read the book. I recommend A Wicked War to anyone with an interest in Nineteenth century US history.
Provocative thought inducing about the Polk administration and in particular the Mexican American War.
An excellent account of an ill conceived war, based on land avarice and racist views, inviting comparison to later U.S. conflicts. A lesson in dirty politics and immoral decisions by those in power.
An interesting approach by the author to tell the history of Mexico and U.S. of 180 years ago through the lives of people involved, both famous and infamous. Well done on any number of levels.
An intriguing look at the interactions of several families and individuals, perhaps not as much with each other directly, but influenced strongly by each other’s actions around a not very savory period of American expansion. The individuals selected were truly historically influential and changed by their experience around the themes and actions of slavery, territorial expansion, racism, and opportunism represented in the most or perhaps one of the first “Wicked Wars” in the country’s history. A innovative and historically well researched look at the lives of Lincoln, Clay, the Hardin family, and Polk