Saturday, December 23, 2006

Book notes

Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides
  • Maps in the 1840's assumed the existence of Buenaventura, a river connecting the Great Lakes to the Pacific. Fremont was looking for it.
  • Is James K. Polk the most underrated President of the United States? In a self-limited single 4-year term, he took on the Mexicans and the British and established the western 1/3 of the continental U.S., opening up the Pacific and Asia. Since the criteria for being on Mt. Rushmore (we discovered this summer) is the expansion and preservation of the nation, Polk strikes me as being more deserving to be up there than Roosevelt, despite T.R.'s significant contribution to the enterprise.