Unger’s bracing, readable text is a remedy. The longer answer is that American history is so badly taught these days that it seems surprising that anyone remembers Washington, much less Millard Fillmore. So why is he not better known? The short answer is that he didn’t trumpet his own accomplishments. On top of that, his father was the nation’s second president. He ate with Charles Dickens, ended the War of 1812, shaped the ever-so-slightly misnamed Monroe Doctrine, taught at Harvard, and was one of the most prominent abolitionist leaders in the years preceding the Civil War. John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), writes Unger ( American Tempest: How the Boston Tea Party Sparked a Revolution, 2011, etc.), bridged the years between George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. A neglected president receives his due as a statesman and practical politician.
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