63 pages 2 hours read

Hampton Sides

Blood and Thunder

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Book 1, Chapters 6-10

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 1

Book 1, Chapter 6 Summary: “Who Is James K. Polk?”

Chapter 6 introduces the figures and cultural forces behind the Mexican-American War, western expansion, and the concept of Manifest Destiny. The war with Mexico was started on thin pretense by President James K. Polk, who wanted above all to expand the borders of the U.S. from coast to coast. With the European imperial powers squabbling over the Americas, Polk argued that the U.S. had an opportunity to acquire as much territory as possible. He sent Zachary Taylor to disputed territory in Texas to provoke an attack; Taylor succeeded, launching the Mexican-American War.

A sickly and misanthropic man, Polk promised to limit his presidency to one term, a promise he kept. “Despite his insufferable personality,” Sides writes, “[Polk] was possibly the most effective president in American history—and likely the least corrupt” (79-80). Polk’s agenda championed a broader cultural movement at the time: American exceptionalism, an “almost religious assurance” in the superiority of the American way and the inevitability of America’s expansion to the Pacific. A New York editor named John O’Sullivan coined the phrase most often associated with this viewpoint: Manifest Destiny. Its proponents, like the Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, “believed in the ruddy rightness of American power and American ideals and, especially, American commerce” (86).

Related Titles

By Hampton Sides

Study Guide

logo

Ghost Soldiers

Hampton Sides

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

Hampton Sides

Plot Summary

logo

Hellhound on His Trail

Hampton Sides

Hellhound on His Trail

Hampton Sides

Plot Summary

logo

In the Kingdom of Ice

Hampton Sides

In the Kingdom of Ice

Hampton Sides

Study Guide

logo

The Wide Wide Sea

Hampton Sides

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook

Hampton Sides