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Henry Clay Statesman for the Union Robert Vincent Remini 9780393030044 Books

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Henry Clay Statesman for the Union Robert Vincent Remini 9780393030044 Books

"Henry Clay; Statesman for the Union" by Robert Remini

Eminent historian Robert Remini is most associated with biographical work about Andrew Jackson and, since Jackson and Clay were tremendous enemies, Remini's undertaking of a major (800 pages) biography about Clay raised more than a few academic eyebrows. But it actually made good sense because, in researching Jackson's life, Remini couldn't help but research and learn Clay simply because he was Jackson's chief antagonist.
Remini being himself, does an excellent portrayal of Clay, the man, as well as of Clay in his several public roles. The quality of that work alone makes for interesting reading.
But regardless of the homage some factions and far too many historians have paid Clay, Clay was, in a nutshell, a pretty contemptible fellow. He was a pompous popinjay, back-stabbing and crooked whenever convenient, rude and arrogant to the point of warranting a good thrashing about once a week, among the least deserving of his public favor of any public figure in his times, vainglorious to the Nth, a lousy husband and a worse parent. He was one of the premier forerunners of, and models for, the filthiest of filthy politicians of today.
But he was also living in the epicenter of the tremendously volatile political and social issues of our nation's "youth". Rightly or wrongly, for good or evil, respectable or not, Clay was one of the strongest guiding influences in our first decades up on our national feet and free of Great Britain. This book's best service to the reader is not in presenting the unworthy and highly over-esteemed Mr. Clay to them but rather in presenting the reader with a portrait of the times, the questions and the forces that forged the national government and its' relation to our citizens. In short, the Times were fascinating but the worshipers of Clay were bowing to a bum.


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Henry Clay Statesman for the Union Robert Vincent Remini 9780393030044 Books Reviews

Remini's biography of Henry Clay gives readers in our era of strong executive government a well-detailed glimpse of life in the Capitol in an era of domineering legislators. The point is relevant in this time of Congressional obeisance to the presidency, and can make us wonder about the value of the trade-off between a strong president in our complex and fast-moving age versus the deliberative (generally) input that the stars of the Congress carried out in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Clay is portrayed as a brilliant man, able (in the best sense) to manipulate his fellow politicos to move forward with the "American Plan" of a strong national government that aimed to build the infrastructure and industry of modern times. Strikingly, in our century the executive played the role of advocate of centralized power, while in Clay's era, the executives tended to oppose the centralization of power. As it turns out, Clay's view eventually won the battle, but at the cost of diminished legislative involvement in policy development.

Clay comes across as flawed by a too-powerful ego and hunger for the presidency, an office he seemingly should have held, but never did despite the many campaigns he ran.

Remini has brought fairly thorough research of the prolific correspondence of the day into his book repeatedly, and the reader benefits from the advantage of the first-hand language. At the point in his career when he wrote this Clay biography, Remini's style is less elegant than Caro's or McCullough's.

The book gives a wonderful survey of the many colorful figures of the era Webster, Calhoun, Jackson, et al, and explains the accidents and machinations that brought us such marginal figures as Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.

For history buffs who want to understand the personal rivalries as well as the broad historical trends that led the nation towards the eventual catastrophe of the Civil War, this book is a wonderful way to round out their understanding.
The title of this review says it all. Robert V. Remini's bio is a detailed - sometimes too much so - recounting of one of the most fascinating politicians in American history. Although a Jacksonian scholar, Remini does a credible job in his bio of Andrew Jackson's political and personal enemy and Abraham Lincoln's idol, Henry Clay. Remini is a scholar who writes like a popular writer - that is a good thing - and captures Clay's persona and ambition dead on. This is nearly a five-star book, its one negative being that it is overly long at more than 700 pages of relatively small print. Judicious editing could have cut at least 50 pages without skipping one event. Removal of the insignificant and redundant could have severed another 25 and perhaps more. Its length notwithstanding, the book is highly recommended.
This is an incredible book! I had known that Clay was a famous orator and a native of Lexington, the same home town as Mary Lincoln. I had also heard of the "American System", but I didn't know most of the other facts in this most informative book.

Clay, Webster and Calhoun were all contemporaries, and their lives become clear thanks to Remini's great ability to know and to write, and it's all about the Jacksonian era, to boot.

Clay was a great speaker, a great American and a great politician, though not a particularly good parent. His opposition to both slavery and abolitionism was interesting. He was a hero to Abraham Lincoln, who also opposed our pursuing the Mexican American War.

Although Clay's passion for Union was his greatest aim, one of his sons fought for the Confederacy, and moved to Canada after the war.

For anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of American history, this book is a must.
"Henry Clay; Statesman for the Union" by Robert Remini

Eminent historian Robert Remini is most associated with biographical work about Andrew Jackson and, since Jackson and Clay were tremendous enemies, Remini's undertaking of a major (800 pages) biography about Clay raised more than a few academic eyebrows. But it actually made good sense because, in researching Jackson's life, Remini couldn't help but research and learn Clay simply because he was Jackson's chief antagonist.
Remini being himself, does an excellent portrayal of Clay, the man, as well as of Clay in his several public roles. The quality of that work alone makes for interesting reading.
But regardless of the homage some factions and far too many historians have paid Clay, Clay was, in a nutshell, a pretty contemptible fellow. He was a pompous popinjay, back-stabbing and crooked whenever convenient, rude and arrogant to the point of warranting a good thrashing about once a week, among the least deserving of his public favor of any public figure in his times, vainglorious to the Nth, a lousy husband and a worse parent. He was one of the premier forerunners of, and models for, the filthiest of filthy politicians of today.
But he was also living in the epicenter of the tremendously volatile political and social issues of our nation's "youth". Rightly or wrongly, for good or evil, respectable or not, Clay was one of the strongest guiding influences in our first decades up on our national feet and free of Great Britain. This book's best service to the reader is not in presenting the unworthy and highly over-esteemed Mr. Clay to them but rather in presenting the reader with a portrait of the times, the questions and the forces that forged the national government and its' relation to our citizens. In short, the Times were fascinating but the worshipers of Clay were bowing to a bum.