Bosom Friends

The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King

By: Thomas J. Balcerski

Narrated by: Rick Adamson

In Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King, Thomas J. Balcerski explores the lives of these two politicians and discovers one of the most significant collaborations in American political history. He traces the parallels in the men's personal and professional lives before elected office, including their failed romantic courtships and the stories they told about them.

Unlikely companions from the start, they lived together as congressional messmates in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse and became close confidantes. Around the nation's capital, the men were mocked for their effeminacy and perhaps their sexuality, and they were likened to Siamese twins.

Over time, their intimate friendship blossomed into a significant cross-sectional political partnership. Balcerski examines Buchanan's and King's contributions to the Jacksonian political agenda, manifest destiny, and the increasingly divisive debates over slavery, while contesting interpretations that the men lacked political principles and deserved blame for the breakdown of the union.

He closely narrates each man's rise to national prominence, as William Rufus King was elected vice president in 1852 and James Buchanan the nation's 15th president in 1856, despite the political gossip that circulated about them.

©2019 Oxford University Press (P)2020 Tantor

Nuanced in outlook but supported by detailed references to the available primary sources.

The narrator's presentation made listening easy and the material readily understandable. I highly recommend this audiobook

Expanded college essay

This book feels like a 5 page college essay stretched to create a book. If your interest is historic events or even the personalities that formed them this book offers little insight and takes forever to do it.