The Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum and
the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt
National Historic Site
present James M. Bradley,
author of MARTIN VAN BUREN:
AMERICA'S FIRST POLITICIAN
in conversation with
presidential historian and
New York Times bestselling
author Alexis Coe
Wednesday, December 11, 2024 at 6PM
In-person: Wallace Center at the
FDR Presidential Library and Home
Online: Streamed live
to the official FDR Library
YouTube and Facebook accounts
HYDE PARK, NY -- The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site present a conversation and book signing with James M. Bradley, author of MARTIN VAN BUREN: AMERICA'S FIRST POLITICIAN -- in conversation with presidential historian and New York Times bestselling author Alexis Coe -- at 6:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, December 11, 2024. The event will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home and streamed live to the official FDR Presidential Library YouTube and Facebook accounts. This is a free public event, but registration is required to attend in-person. CLICK HERE to register.
Synopsis:
Martin Van Buren was one of the most remarkable politicians not only of his time but in American presidential history. The principal architect of the party system and one of the founders of the Democratic Party, he came to dominate New York -- then the most influential state in the Union -- and was instrumental in electing Andrew Jackson president. Van Buren's skills as a political strategist were unparalleled (he was known as the "Little Magician"), winning him a series of high-profile offices: US senator, New York's governor, US secretary of state, US vice president, and finally the White House. In his rise to power, Van Buren sought consensus and conciliation, bending to the wishes of slave interests and complicit in the dispossession of America's Indigenous population -- two of the darkest chapters in American history.
MARTIN VAN BUREN: AMERICA'S FIRST POLITICIAN -- the first full-scale portrait in four decades -- charts his ascent from a tavern in the Hudson Valley to the presidency, concluding with his late-career involvement in an antislavery movement. Offering vivid profiles of the day's leading figures (Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, DeWitt Clinton, James K. Polk), James Bradley's book depicts the struggle for power in the tumultuous decades leading up to the Civil War.
James M. Bradley is co-editor of the Martin Van Buren Papers, based at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. He is an Adjunct Instructor in the public history program at State University of New York at Albany and was the Senior Project Editor of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK CITY, published by Yale University Press.
Alexis Coe is a presidential historian and New York Times bestselling author of YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST: A BIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE OF WASHINGTON. She frequently appears on CNN, MSNBC, CBS, History, PBS, and has been featured in and published by most major publications, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Coe is a senior fellow at New America. She lives outside of New York City with her young daughter.
Please contact Cliff Laube at (845) 486-7745 with questions about the event.
