James Monroe; The Quest for National Identity

New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1971. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Fair. xi, [1], 706, [2] pages. DJ has some wear, tears, chips and soiling and is price clipped and in a plastic sleeve. Illustrations. Abbreviations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Professor Harry Ammon attended Georgetown University and received his doctorate from the University of Virginia in 1948. Harry came to Carbondale in 1950 to teach in Southern Illinois University's History Department where he was influential in the department securing a Ph.D. program. He served as departmental chair from 1977 until 1983 and retired in 1984. He was a very stylish writer. His majestic book on President James Monroe was first published by the University Press of Virginia in 1971. Although Harry had an encyclopedic knowledge of the early years of the United States, and a vast view of the sweep of history, he wore his scholarship lightly. He received Fulbrights to Austria and Korea. A biography of James Monroe who became the fifth president of the United States in 1816. Ammon recreates his remarkable career, through his service in the revolutionary army, the Confederation Congress, to his exertions in James Madison's cabinet and his subsequent presidency. Derived from comments found on-line: James Monroe was the last of the Revolutionary Presidents. He served the United States during the War of Independence being wounded while scouting for the Battle Trenton, and during Washington's administration served in the US Senate and State Department. He represented the United States in France and Spain as he continued his diplomatic career (assisting in the negotiations regarding the Louisiana Purchase). He was also the Governor of Virginia and during the Madison Administration served as both the Secretary of State and the Secretary of War. With his election to the Presidency, Monroe's political career was complete. Monroe was a very analytical man, who gathered all the information available before making momentous decisions. He regularly held meetings with all of his advisors (Cabinet members) and then would reflect on their viewpoints and analyze the ramifications of the proposed actions. It was also assumed that because of John Quincy Adams' extensive diplomatic experience that Monroe allowed him to set the foreign policy, but it is shown in Adams' diaries that Monroe controlled the foreign policy and the direction of proposed discussions with foreign ministers of the time. One must remember that he too had diplomatic experience and had served 8 years as the Secretary of State. Monroe questioned himself and wrote to Jefferson" Was it not proper for the US to encourage nations seeking their freedom while condemning those seeking to deprive others of their liberty? " Monroe made the conscious decision that it was time for the United States to take a bolder stand on the international front and in 1823 during his annual "State of the Union" address, declared several paragraphs which stated that

1) "the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interest of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as the subjects for future colonization by any European powers." and 2) "We owe therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety."

At the time, it was referred to as the "American System". Now we know it as the Monroe Doctrine. The author makes every effort to inform the reader of the accomplishments of the man as well as show his shortcomings. How ironic, that the last of the Revolutionary Presidents also died on the 4th of July.