PINEVILLE—Though time may have obscured James K. Polk’s accomplishments as president, historian Walter Borneman gives him a new lease on life in his book “Polk: The Man who Transformed the Presidency and America,” which the writer will discuss Thursday, April 10 at President James K. Polk State Historic Site, the former Polk family farm in Pineville. From 7-8 p.m., Borneman will trace the 11th president’s life and career, emphasizing how he became a decisive statesman whose near doubling of America’s boundaries and broadening of executive powers redefined the country, as well as its highest office. Afterwards, the author will sign copies of “Polk”. This public program is free though pre-registration is required by April 1. It is a N.C. Department of Cultural Resources “Telling Our Stories” event.Borneman has previously written several books on such historical topics as the French and Indian War. His newest work is a frank biography of James K. Polk, focusing on the meaning of presidential accomplishment and resolve. The author of numerous articles about mountains, railroads and the American West, Borneman has written five other books, among them “Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land” (HarperCollins, 2003) and “1812: The War that Forged a Nation” (HarperCollins, 2004).
He holds a law degree from the University of Denver and a master’s degree in American history. Currently, Borneman is president of the Walter V. and Idun Y. Berry Foundation, which funds post-doctoral fellowships in children’s health at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Ca. He is co-author of “A Climbing Guide to Colorado’s Fourteeners”, which was first published in 1978 and has remained in-print for the past 25 years. The writer served as the first chairman of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, a partnership formed in 1994 to protect and preserve the natural integrity of Colorado’s 54 14,000+ foot mountains.
In “Polk” (Random House Publishers), Borneman gives us the first complete and authoritative biography of a president whose accomplishments far outshone his image. Though Polk was president only from 1845 to 1849, he is rightly recognized as the last strong pre-Civil War chief executive. The North Carolina native’s pledge to serve a single term, which many thought would immediately make him a lame-duck, enabled Polk to rise above electoral politics and outflank his adversaries.
In tracing James K. Polk’s life and career–his early childhood in a prominent Mecklenburg County frontier family, swift rise in politics and storied turn in the House of Representatives, his career’s dramatic plunge early in the post-Jacksonian period and his political rebirth prior to the 1844 campaign season–Borneman shows that Polk was neither a dark horse nor an accidental president. This canny UNC graduate plotted and crafted a formidable agenda. He fought for and won tariff reductions, reestablished an independent Treasury, bluffed Great Britain out of the lion’s share of Oregon, wrested California and much of the southwest from Mexico and most notably, brought Texas into the Union. These successes are even more impressive given the adversarial political environment of the time.
Proving the truth of the adage “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” especially in terms of presidential politics, Borneman’s biography of Polk also features engrossing blow-by-blow tales of punishing campaigns, audacious third-party spoilers, and the often comical lengths political fixers will go to reach a fickle electorate.
James Knox Polk, the eleventh president of the United States, was born in Mecklenburg County near present day Pineville on Nov. 2, 1795. For 11 years, he lived with his family on this farm before moving to Tennessee in 1806. The state historic site’s mission is to preserve and interpret the birthplace and history of Polk. It is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. It is located approximately 1 ½ miles south of Pineville off exit 65-B, I-485, at 12031 Lancaster Highway in Pineville, N.C. For more information, contact Scott Warren (704) 889-7145 or visit http://www.nchistorisites.org/polk/polk.htm
Administered by the Division of State Historic Sites, President James K. Polk State Historic Site is part of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history, and culture. Join the Cultural Resources 2008 theme observance of “Telling Our Stories”. For more information, visit http://www.ncculture.com/.