Martin van buren biography book

There are numerous books on Martin Van Buren, and it comes with good reason, beyond serving as America’s eighth President (1837-1841), he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, both under President Andrew Jackson.

“Those who have wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs; but always by exciting the multitude,” he acknowledged.

“The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only secondary results, the second is the resort of genius and transforms the universe.”

In order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of America’s most consequential figures to the height of political power, we’ve compiled a list of the 5 best books on Martin Van Buren.

Martin Van Buren by Ted Widmer

The first “professional politician” to become president, the slick and dandyish Martin Van Buren was to all appearances the opposite of his predecessor, the