Reviews for The life and times of Henry Clay

The average rating for The life and times of Henry Clay based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-12-06 00:00:00 Rodrigo Sanchez Have you ever discovered a crystalline rock and picked it up to have a closer look? You might examine one side, flip it around and over and upside down to examine the other side, hold it up to the sun at various angles to see how the rays hit it in different ways and affect the way it looks every which way you turn it. That's what this book is like. In what is ostensibly a look at James Madison's retirement years and legacy, McCoy leaves no stone unturned (to extend the metaphor). A point is made, followed by 47 pieces of evidence in support of that point, largely from Madison's own writings and from those of his contemporaries and later historians. While the focus is on Madison's later years, the book often reflects back on his earlier political career. And the book's chapters are organized thematically rather than chronologically, so altogether, the timeline ultimately covers Madison's entire life, and beyond. The middle sections are heavy on constitutional and political theory, while the opening and closing chapters, which examine Madison's presidential legacy and his views on slavery, are strongest, such as it is. But McCoy never seems to make compelling arguments, preferring instead to hold the rock up to the light and simply describe each and every viewpoint dispassionately. In the opening chapter, for example, we are told that "convention has it" and "scholars generally agree" that Madison was a brilliant political thinker but a failed president, as McCoy lays out a pretty convincing argument to this effect. But then he goes on to cite others who say Madison's presidency wasn't actually so bad. Is McCoy just presenting all sides and letting you decide for yourself? Or is he making such a weak case in support of his own conclusions that you can't even tell what his conclusions are? The book is nothing if not thorough. And clearly a tremendous amount of research and thought went into it. I had hoped that this would be a Joseph Ellis-style character study, but it's generally too scholarly to be readable or particularly enjoyable. There's no real attempt to tell a story or create a compelling narrative - the ending is so random and abrupt that I had to check to make sure pages weren't missing from my copy. Madison has been the subject of a flurry of great books in recent years. So this book, which is more than three decades old now, has probably served its purpose as a research guide for the authors of the more recent works. Anyone but the most ardent Madison scholar would probably do well to check out one of those books instead.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-03-25 00:00:00 Robert Hartwood This is a book written by an academic for other academics. It's not accessible to a lay audience. It's written with language, and in a style, that makes you want to put it down for something else. It focuses on Madison's retirement years, which may be interesting to Madison scholars, but arguably are much less so to the rest of us. I understand that it may be THE source for Madison's views on slavery, but beyond that it did not offer much.