Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants

Brands (history, Univ. of Texas at Austin; The General vs. the President), whose previous works on Benjamin Franklin (The First American) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (Traitor to His Class) were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, brings his gift of nonfiction storytelling to a period less trod, the era after the American Revolution and before the Civil War. Brands illuminates the major issues and contests of the first half of the 19th century through the lens of three important figures: Henry Clay, John Calhoun, and Daniel Webster. Readers will gain an appreciation for the difficulties encountered by this second generation of American leaders, tasked with implementing and interpreting the new Constitution. Through the lives of the three at the center of this work, Brands reveals the growing sectionalism stewing between North and South, East and West, including Clay's attempt to find compromise between slave and free states, a near disaster in the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson's rise, and the descent toward civil war. Well sourced, with solid references to primary documents.