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Summary: Excellent, balanced biography of important American
Review: At almost 800 pages and about a relatively obscure period in American history, reading this book is no light endeavor. Yet, it is extremely readable and replete with fascinating information about a very important period in our nation's history: that between the presidencies of the Virginia dynasty and the Civil War. Among the many larger-than-life characters of those days, few commanded a greater presence than Henry Clay. In a long-storied congressional career, this man did as much as any president to direct the nation's course and avoid Civil War for as long as it was possible.Knowing that the author has written extensively on Andrew Jackson, I wouldn't have been surprised if this biography might have been somewhat biased against Clay, one of Jackson's deadliest enemies. It was a very nice surprise to see that Remini was extremely balanced in this study, perhaps reflecting the way most people of that day reacted to Clay themselves. Perhaps one wanted to hate him and his policies and his unabashed ambition to be president, yet on a personal level, the man was impossible not to like (except for a few hard cases like Jackson). To read about the Golden Age of our Senate, when giants trod the earth, is kind of saddening when we see what has become of that institution since then. In the days of Clay and Jackson, Remini shows us the beginnings of constitutional issues that we may take for granted now but were of intense importance in those days. Issues like the federal government's role in financing infrastructure and the chartering of a national central bank were issues that decided and ended political careers back then. Certainly slavery, its expansion and the desire to abolish is what we are most familiar with about this period. Remini does an excellent job in outlining all the positions that were taken by the abolitionists, the southern leadership and those caught in-between masterfully. Even many who advocated abolition were not necessarily doing it with the best interests of the slaves themselves in mind. Clay's own position against slavery, clearly stated by himself and the author, would be less than pleasing to today's reader, but it was not uncommon. There is a lot to learn in this book and it will give the reader a new appreciation for one of the giants this country has produced.
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Summary: Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union
Review: Henry Clay by Robert V. Remini is an encompassing work on the life of one of America's most preeminant statesman. A man who came from Virginia and made a successful life in Kentucky. A man who was known to be a powerful orator, no less than that of Daniel Webster or John C. Calhoun. But his most accomplished work was that of Speaker of the House, where his presence was most felt. A job well suited for the aspirations of Henry Clay who championed the compromise of 1850. Henry Clay would try for the Presidency three times, but those were failures, only to further him on States Rights. By avoiding the split of the United States Clay must have felt well to preserve the Union. We find Henry Clay throughout this book as the tides ebbing and flowing, rise to prominence and later to defeat. We get to see the human side of Clay in this book... odd for an author most notably for the works on Clay's arch enemy Andrew Jackson. We see Clay as a womanizer and who could drink with the best of them...but all the time we preceive his ambition and intellegence. Personal pain of the family he so loved, but his duties carrying from home makes you feel for Clay. This book is engaging, well researched, and with a believable narative. For those who are reading about the early years of the United States and the men who saw her through tough times, this is an excellent book. The Great Compromiser is found here... read it.
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Summary: A Wonderful Biography of "The Kentucky Gentleman"!
Review: It is simple, Remini is the best historian of the Jacksonian Period. This study of Clay gives the reader a full account of his life, both in private and public.The reader gets the feeling of life in Washington of mid-19th century. His writing brings the subject to life and the reseaerch promises accuracy. His tremendous work on Andrew Jackson does nothing to bias him against Clay. Remini has given us the perfect model for all other biographies. It is a masterpiece.
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Summary: There Should be A 6th Star for This Book!
Review: Over the past year, I've read biographies of all the presidents from Washington to Polk, plus biographies of other important figures of the revolutionary through the antebellum period and this book is simply the best I've read! Robert Remini is by far the best historian of the period and his writing style should be the model for all students of history. I thoroughly enjoyed his biography of Andrew Jackson and his monograph "Van Buren and the Making of the Demoncratic Party". But this biography of Henry Clay is, to me, his masterpiece! It's more than just a history of Henry Clay's life...it is an encyclopedia of all the major events in American History from 1800 to 1850. Clay was by far the most important figure of the 1st half of the 19th Century. There is not one event or issue that Henry Clay did not affect...either in his opposition to or support for. Remini lays Clay's life bare. All his faults (and there were many!) and all his strengths. Remini's Jackson came off as a very mean spirited and unsympathetic figure. Remini's Clay came off as very mean spirited, but extremely likeable. Remini's reference to Clay as the "Statesman for the Union" is a very fitting moniker.
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Summary: Stellar Effort by Remini, Again
Review: Remini's biography is an outstanding effort by Robert V. Remini again. His biographies of Clay, Jackson and Webster are detailed, balanced, well written and researched.
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Summary: A view into the Age of Jackson through the life of H. Clay
Review: Remini's book on Henry Clay is an excellent look at American life from the end of the Jeffersonian era into the time of Lincoln. An engaging biography, Remini does an excellent job of weaving straitforward history with anecdotes and personality sketches. As the consummate Jacksonian, Henry Clay's life provides the perfect backdrop for learning about this time period and all of its nuances.
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Summary: Well Written
Review: Remini's study of Henry Clay is outstanding! This is a big book and full of insight. Clay comes out as a very important figure in the life of the nation. It most likely would have looked a whole lot different without him. Clay was indeed a great statesman and seriously interested in holding this nation together during some very turbulent times. He had his own personal faults, but you have to admire the man.
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Summary: The most important failed politician in US history
Review: Robert Remini is far better known as the biographer of Henry Clay's great enemy, Andrew Jackson. But in turning to a biography of Henry Clay, who lost every presidential race he entered, Remini has found a subject just as worthy of attention. Both Clay and Jackson belonged to the generation of American leaders who succeeded those Founding Fathers; like their contemporaries Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren and John C. Calhoun, they charted the course of the United States from its roots as a rather elitist republic into a more democratized republic. Benefiting from the expansion in the franchise following the War of 1812, all five of these men vied for the Presidency at one time or another, and all five were involved in the greatest debates of the antebellum world: slavery, abolition, the formation of the second party system of the Whigs and the Democrats, the expansion westward, and the attempts to steer a course away from civil war. In order to understand Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, one needs to know the life of his great hero, Henry Clay. There is simply no substitute for this book, and Remini tells his story with gusto and intelligence. I knew from the first page that it would be fascinating, as Remini tells the deathbed story of Andrew Jackson. Someone asked Jackson if he had left anything undone. Jackson supposedly replied, "Yes. I didn't shoot Henry Clay, and I didn't hang John C. Calhoun." A great story, about an era when politicians were also statesmen.
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Summary: The most important failed politician in US history
Review: Robert Remini is far better known as the biographer of Henry Clay's great enemy, Andrew Jackson. But in turning to a biography of Henry Clay, who lost every presidential race he entered, Remini has found a subject just as worthy of attention. Both Clay and Jackson belonged to the generation of American leaders who succeeded those Founding Fathers; like their contemporaries Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren and John C. Calhoun, they charted the course of the United States from its roots as a rather elitist republic into a more democratized republic. Benefiting from the expansion in the franchise following the War of 1812, all five of these men vied for the Presidency at one time or another, and all five were involved in the greatest debates of the antebellum world: slavery, abolition, the formation of the second party system of the Whigs and the Democrats, the expansion westward, and the attempts to steer a course away from civil war. In order to understand Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, one needs to know the life of his great hero, Henry Clay. There is simply no substitute for this book, and Remini tells his story with gusto and intelligence. I knew from the first page that it would be fascinating, as Remini tells the deathbed story of Andrew Jackson. Someone asked Jackson if he had left anything undone. Jackson supposedly replied, "Yes. I didn't shoot Henry Clay, and I didn't hang John C. Calhoun." A great story, about an era when politicians were also statesmen.
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Summary: The Definitive Bio of Henry Clay
Review: Simply the best biography of an American political figure I've ever read. Remini, the preeminent Jacksonain scholar today, combines first-rate historical research with wonderful anecdotes that flow seamlessly in and out of the larger historical context of the Antebellum era. Not merely a terrific, well written biography of one figure, Remini's work also draws the larger issues of Clay's era into sharp focus: from the early American republic and the nationalistic fervor that followed the War of 1812, through the Bank War of the Jackson administration, to the crisis over slavery and sectionalism. Remini's mastery of the issues of the Jacksonian era and the political titans that populated that exciting time in America's history makes for wonderful reading. Although I disagree with some of Remini's interpretations, his biography of Henry Clay should be considered the definitive work on the subject for decades to come. I only hope Remini continues to produce fine biographies like this one of Clay, and his other fine works on Jackson and Daniel Webster.
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