Review: The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness

In 1800, the writer Mason (sometimes also called Parson) Weems published the highly influential A History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General George Washington.  Weems’ biography of our first president was one of the first biographies of an American hero to follow the venerable tradition of “hagiography.”  In its literal sense, the term hagiography refers simply to telling the life stories of Christian saints.  In a more extended, secular sense, however, hagiography refers to writing idealized biographies of any historical figure.  In these biographies, the subject’s virtues are emphasized to the near or total exclusion of their vices.  In short, the subject of a “hagiographical” biography comes across like a near-perfect saint or even a demigod.

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger is at least as much hagiography as it is biography.  Unger writes in a clear and concise style that keeps the reader engaged, but his constant over-the-top praise of Monroe will grate on the reader, especially one well-versed in early U. S. history.  Unger does not merely overpraise Monroe, however; he goes a step further by often belittling other key American figures to make Monroe look good by comparison.  Three examples of this will suffice.

First, in the introduction, Unger provocatively calls John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison “mere caretaker presidents.”  Perhaps I do not understand what a “caretaker president” is, but I would think it is a president who attempts to merely carry on the policies of his predecessor(s), showing little initiative of his own.  I completely fail to understand how this description could apply to Adams, Jefferson, or Madison.  Monroe, Unger further claims, “took office determined to lead the nation to greatness…” (here he implies that other than George Washington, no president had).  Is that not what his three predecessors also wanted to do?

Second, Unger states that James Madison was “barely five feet tall”, in contrast to the six-foot-tall Monroe. Nearly every other source that I have read describes James Madison as taller than five feet tall, usually 5’ 4.”  Here Unger seems to be literally shrinking Madison in order to make Monroe seem much more impressive than his predecessor. 

Third, Unger claims that Monroe’s Secretary of State John Quincy Adams had absolutely nothing to do with writing the Monroe Doctrine.  It would be bad enough if this merely contradicted the views of most historians (which is true).  However, in his own biography of John Quincy Adams, Unger writes that Adams indeed played a major role in the crafting of the Doctrine.  In other words, Unger does not merely disagree with the majority of historians…he also seems to disagree with himself!

To be sure, Unger has done a service by presenting a generally compelling portrait of a mostly-forgotten yet key figure in early American history.  It seems certain that the overwhelming majority of Americans know absolutely nothing about Monroe, and the few who do probably do not know much beyond the fact that he published the Monroe Doctrine.  Unger fleshes out this forgotten man well, pointing out his service as a soldier in the Revolutionary War, as a governor, a senator, a talented diplomat, a Secretary of State (and, briefly, of War), and as a popular president.  But, to paraphrase Shakespeare, Unger doth praise too much.

The Last Founding Father is an acceptable introduction to James Monroe, as long as the reader is willing to set aside some of Unger’s excessive praise of Monroe and his denigration of other presidents.  If, however, a potential reader desires a more neutral and in-depth biography of Monroe, he or she will have to look elsewhere.

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