"David Heidler and Jeanne Heidler‘s biography of the Kentucky statesman has changed my perception of Clay. . . . Their presentation of Clay is sympathetic, yet honest about his shortcomings as a politician, husband, and father. I’ve never figured out how co-authors juggle the responsibilities of collaboration and unifying their writing, but the Heidlers pull it off." -- Mark R. Cheathem, Jacksonian American: Society, Personality and Politics, August 22, 2011
"The Heidlers’ fascinating account of Clay’s life . . . reveals him as a truly national figure admired for his ability to craft national compromises by finding common good among bitterly competing interests." -- Bob Gibson, Executive Director of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, The Daily Progress, August 21, 2011
"The Heidlers have done a magnificent job, and the writing itself is quite a treat, with eloquent sentences and quotations." -- Cmdr. Youssef Aboul-Enein, The Waterline, Naval District on dcmilitary.com, October 28, 2010
"An enormously engaging picture of this man and his era" -- Heather Cox Richardson, Washington Post Bookworld, September 12, 2010.
"A husband and wife team who write with one voice and contagious enthusiasm" -- Richard Norton Smith, The National Interest, August 24, 2010
"After reading Henry Clay: The Essential American, you come away knowing Clay the man." -- William L. Wunder. Read the review at suite101.com, July 1, 2010
Larry Co, "Beach Reading," The Florida Weekly
Erik Chaput, ""Chronicling the Life of Henry Clay" The Providence Journal, June 13, 2010
John Sledge, "Southern Bound: Henry Clay Gets 'Essential' Biography," Mobile Press-Register, May 23, 2010.
Henry Clay - Library Journal (starred review)
David S. Heidler (formerly history, Colorado St. Univ., Pueblo) and Jeanne Heidler (history, United States Air Force Academy), coauthors of several books (e.g., The War of 1812), give Henry Clay his due in the first full-bodied biography of this "essential American" in over half a century. As they ably show, Clay was a larger-than-life figure-shaping key sectional compromises; forging the "American System" of government-sponsored banking, infrastructure construction, and tariffs; forming and leading the Whig Party; negotiating treaties with the British; and standing as the beau ideal for many Americans, including Abraham Lincoln. Clay also was "a basket of contradictions"-at once arrogant and affable, a gambler and a workhorse, and a powerful politician who never understood how mass political parties and the cult of personality counted more than policy in winning elections. The Heidlers make a signal contribution in deciphering the inner workings of Congress and showing how patronage, personal relations, and public performance affected political interests and identities. VERDICT Anyone wanting to understand political, economic, and social life in the early republic will appreciate the Heidlers' command of sources and balanced treatment of a man too long in the shadow of Andrew Jackson and very much a metaphor for his era. Highly recommended.-- Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Henry Clay - Kirkus
A comprehensive biography of Lincoln's political idol, the man said to have declared, "I had rather be right than be President."The breathtaking scope of Henry Clay's career on the national stage surely accounts for the unique distinction accorded him at death (1777-1852). The first American to lie in state in the Capitol's Rotunda, the Kentuckian transformed the House Speakership into a powerful office. As a diplomat, he helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, later served as John Quincy Adams's Secretary of State, and was part of the Great Triumvirate that included Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun. A constantly defeated presidential candidate, Clay's adherence to staid tradition and a middle course proved no match for irresistible national impulses arising in the Age of Jackson. David and Jeanne Heidler (History/Colorado State Univ.-Pueblo and History/United States Air Force Academy; Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Early America, 2007, etc.) cover these political high watermarks in illuminating detail, but the beauty and strength of this biography is the full-blooded portrait of the man that accounts for the devotion Clay inspired and the hatreds he aroused. "Prince Hal" to his admirers and "the Judas of the West" (for his alleged part in the "Corrupt Bargain" that gave Adams the presidency) to his detractors, Clay was a powerful orator and convivial raconteur. Notwithstanding frequent, debilitating illnesses, he traveled widely, maneuvered constantly, survived two duels, fathered 11 children and bred racehorses and innovative crops on his slave-operated estate. The authors carefully examine Clay's tortured slavery straddle-he often publicly declared theinstitution's immorality-placing his views in context, but forthrightly acknowledging the Great Compromiser's poignant inability to resolve the internal inconsistencies of his own position, attributing the failure to "a fundamental flaw in an otherwise good and decent man."A distinguished addition to the recent run of outstanding antebellum histories and biographies.
Henry Clay - the Washington Times, April 30, 2010
Old Hickory's War - CMS James Clifford
The concept of civilian authority over the military is a revered bedrock belief of America and our Constitution. No military officer may proceed without the expressed consent and under the orders of competent civilian direction derived from the President of the United States. This has been true since the earliest days of our nation. That being the case, one might find it incredible for a general officer to invade sovereign territory, occupy installations and cities, expel the duly appointed civilian authority, make war on inhabitants, and execute citizens of a third nation, all without the express authority of the President. However, that is exactly what MG Andrew Jackson did in what has become known as the First Seminole War in 1818. Old Hickory's War is the story of these events. - [read more]
Old Hickory's War - Journal of American History
David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler are less interested in the sources of Jackson's behavior than in its effect on other people and the course of United States history. The point of Old Hickory’s War is to demonstrate the continuity between the Creek War of 1813–1814 and the First Seminole War of 1818 and the centrality of Jackson’s will to each. - [read more]
Old Hickory's War - Review from Publishers Weekly
The author uses the defeat of the Creek and Seminole Indians and the U.S. acquisition of Spanish Florida between 1814 and 1819 as a case study in the origins of Manifest Destiny. The central figure here is General Andrew Jackson whose personal ambition and imperial vision raised local hostilities to the level of national issues. - [read more]
Encyclopedia of the American Civil War - Booklist
After more than 100 years, the Civil War still attracts more public interest than any other event in U.S. history. This fact is reflected in the inordinate number of books, well over 50,000, written about the conflict. ABC-CLIO has published the most comprehensive reference work - [read more]
The Encyclopedia of the American Civil War - Booknews
This five-volume encyclopedia covers every subject and significant person connected with the causes, course, and consequences of the Civil War.- [read more]
Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 - Library Journal
The Heidlers (Old Hickory's War: Andrew Jackson and the Quest for Empire, Stackpole, 1996) have edited an excellent reference work on the major event of the early national period, the War of 1812. - [read more]
Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 – Alabama Review
The War of 1812 was a complicated affair. Its origins lay in the byzantine world of European diplomacy, its military campaigns resulted in more frustrating draws than astounding victories, and its end resolved none of its causes. Nevertheless, the war was important because it demonstrated the need for a strong federal government, it stirred a great upswell in nationalism, and it helped spark the economic explosion that historians have come to call the market revolution. Despite the war's importance, however, it has fallen by the wayside in American historiography. Historians often view it as either the end of the New Republic or the beginning of the Age of Jackson. David and Jeanne Heidler's important book, Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 lets the war stand alone in all of its complexities.- [read more]
The War of 1812 - Booklist
Here is one of the first titles in Greenwood Guides to Historic Events, 1500-1900, a companion to Greenwood Guides to Historic Events of the Twentieth Century. The series is designed "to serve as resources for student research and to provide clearly written interpretations of topics central to the secondary school and lower-level undergraduate history curriculum." - [read more and see additional reviews]
The Mexican War - H-Net Book Review
A Mexican War Gem. The Mexican War is a well-researched and clearly written introduction to the war between Mexico and its sister republic, the United States - [read more]