Description: Senator Thomas Hart Benton was a towering figure in Missouri politics. Elected in 1821, he was their first senator and served in Washington, DC, for more than thirty years. Like Andrew Jackson, with whom he had a long and complicated relationship, Benton came out of the developing western section of the young American Republic. The foremost...
Review Quotes: "By asking and convincingly answering big questions about antebellum America, Mueller has crafted an exceptional work of history. At once analytical and elegantly written, Senator Benton and the People combines the best of older and newer approaches to history--one that takes seriously the crucial importance of race while never losing sight of the essential importance of political power."
--The Journal of Southern History
"Academic libraries should acquire this fascinating study of how one man faced the conflict between sectional and national interests and chose the latter. . . . Recommended."
--D. Butts, CHOICE
"Mueller's account of Benton's career is lucid, and by presenting the man and politician 'warts and all, ' it enables students of this period to better evaluate his legacy."
--Missouri Historical Review
"I have read with much interest Ken Mueller's political biography of Thomas Hart Benton. Mueller has provided a number of persuasive correctives to the extant biographies of Benton. He has also made a number of interesting, original contributions of his own. Benton was one colorful guy--irritating and infuriating to some but larger than life to others (including himself). An updated and comprehensive treatment of Benton's politics is overdue."
--Michael A. Morrison, author of Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny