Tennessee gave the United States three presidents – Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson. To produce this illuminating account of their lives from their own points of view, Professor Williams has drawn on letters, biographies, and monographs. Although their family backgrounds and levels of education differed, each of the three men developed an interest in politics early in his career and realized his greatest political success during the presidency. Although none of the three considered himself a reformer, each man made decisions that had lasting effects on the country. In Tennessee’s Presidents, Frank B. Williams, Jr., portrays Jackson, Polk, and Johnson as men influenced by their environments, the issues of the day, and the public they served.

Frank B. Williams, Jr., is professor emeritus of history, east Tennessee State University, won that institution’s Distinguished Faculty Award in 1977. The author of numerous articles, he was the recipient of the 1955 McClung Award for the best article in Publications of the East Tennessee Historical Society.