PUBLISHED: March 3, 2006
James Monroe: 1817–1825, by Gary Hart. Times Books, October 2005. $20
The author, former U.S. Senator from Colorado and candidate for the Democratic nomination for President, has written a small but serviceable biography of the fifth President. Monroe, whose reputation has long suffered by comparison with those of his fellow Virginians like Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, deserves a better hearing and has received one from Hart. He correctly notes that Monroe had had a reasonably distinguished career in the military, something that set him apart from his immediate three predecessors, and therefore had long taken a broader view—as had Washington—of the federal government’s responsibilities. The War of 1812 made plain to many Americans the shortcomings of strict republican ideology but Monroe was still ahead of most in his party in this “Era of Good Feelings” in calling for greater expenditures on fortifications, a gaze directed more toward westward expansion, and a more realistic view towards policies that smelled distinctly Federalist or (later) Whiggish to some nostrils. Hart also examines deftly and at length the evolving outlook that eventually led to the so-called Monroe Doctrine. Though The American Presidents Series, to which this belongs, is necessarily cursory, this volume represents what will probably be seen as one of the better contributions. Monroe did not need to be lionized and Hart has resisted that temptation, one to which many biographers succumb. He was not a great thinker but his pragmatism seems to have been about what the country at that time needed. He was indeed a more significant figure than posterity has generally acknowledged. This small work may help correct that slight.
—Lou Tanner
