James K. Polk, Vol 1. Jacksonian 1795-1843

Princeton Legacy Library

By: Charles Grier Sellers

Narrated by: Tim Welch

This full account is of Polk's important pre-presidential career. Since Polk was immersed in so many of the major political developments of his day - the rise of popular democracy, the conflicts over the national bank, and other crucial issues of Jackson’s administrations, and after 1835 the fateful emergence of sectional animosities-his biography is also a history of his generation’s political experience. Professor Sellers has combined the elements with a sure hand, bringing out Polk’s character-his ambition, his determination, his faith in the electorate-and the nature of his friends, his enemies, and the times in which he moved. One feature of the work is the light it throws on the relation between national politics and those in Tennessee.

©2016 Charles Sellers (P)2019 Charles Sellers

The delivery is unlistenable!

I have never heard a more clueless reading, every line is given the same weight of accent and cadence as the last whatever the text is attempting to communicate. An A. I. Speech engine, how ever antique, is far more apt to hit the right note than this narrator.

Good book, poor narration.

Very detailed book, if you can tolerate the horrible narration. It sounds if the narrator was in a hurry, and reads with no interest and runs sentence after sentence together.

Editing needs some work

This is fine as a biography of the first half of James Polk’s political career. Problem is with the audiobook editing. There were more times than I could count that the reader repeated a word, phrase, or even an entire sentence. At least once, an entire paragraph was repeated. At times it was bad enough that it would temporarily confuse the content of the book. These things should be reviewed and edited. Honestly the most poorly edited audiobook I’ve ever listened to.

Excellent Narration with good insight on Polk

The James K. Polk audio book provides excellent narration with accurate data on James K. Polk and his Jacksonian views. Polk, as we know it, was a member in his time of the Democratic party; and was a protege to Andrew Jackson himself. This book is a good listen for anyone trying to understand more about Polk and his time in the political realm. Polk was a goal setter and arguably can be put in the category of meeting all his goals with regards to foreign policy, and domestic goals. Highly recommend this book.

For the History Reader, not the Casual Reader.

Like many books on United States Presidents there is a large quantity of this book that is almost too much information for the average reader. James K. Polk is a boring man, his road to the White House is a story that is 95% road and 5% White House. He was elected under the promise of a single term, and his main reason for election was he was the best of the worst choices. He is best known for keeping his campaign promises and being connected to Andrew Jackson as they were both Tennessee men. The first volume is a collection of what made the man James K. Polk. Like many presidents of this era leading to Lincoln, he is a man who just happened to be right place, right time.

I did enjoy the first volume overall as a reader of historical books, but if you do not want a detailed account of our 11th president, then find something that summarizes his life. Hope this helps!