Franklin Pierce, New Hampshire’s Favorite Son, by Peter A. Wallner.

The most recent biography of Franklin Pierce was published nearly seventy-five years ago. Yet the nation’s least known president is also one of the most charming, charismatic, and interesting men to ever hold the nation’s highest office. Described by his best friend Nathaniel Hawthorne as “deep, deep, deep,” with “most of the chief elements of a great ruler,” Pierce is also the greatest trial lawyer in New Hampshire history. A master politician at the state level, Pierce ruled over the most consistently successful state Democratic Party in the Northeast, before he and his supporters devised and executed the plan to capture the national party’s presidential nomination in 1852.

The first of two volumes on the life of Franklin Pierce, Wallner’s thoroughly researched, engagingly written account of Pierce’s rise to national prominence will surprise readers with accounts of the many triumphs and tragedies of Pierce’s life leading up to his presidency.

About the Author
Peter A. Wallner earned a B.A. from Waynesburg College (PA) and MA and PhD in U.S. history from The Pennsylvania State University. For thirty years he taught history and was a school administrator in Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania before moving to Concord, New Hampshire to research the life of Franklin Pierce. He continues to work for the New Hampshire Historical Society and teach as adjunct instructor at the New Hampshire Community Technical College at Nashua, and at Franklin Pierce College, Concord.

$32.95 ($29.95 plus $3.00 postage and handling). Hardback.
$21.95 ($18.95 plus $3.00 postage and handling). Paperback.

Franklin Pierce, Martyr for the Union, by Peter A. Wallner

This 500-page second volume of the presidential biography examines his life during and after the White House — and it throws everything we know about the Pierce administration out the window. Franklin Pierce is uniformly ranked among the nation’s worst presidents, but Wallner shows Pierce as an honest, dedicated president doing his best to avoid a civil war, and honoring the law of the nation, even at the cost of his political career.

Pierce’s low rating is often based solely on his advocacy of the explosive Kansas-Nebraska Act which ripped a national debate on slavery that had been calmed by the Compromise of 1850. By repealing the Missouri Compromise, the Act touched off violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers that led to “Bleeding” Kansas. The resulting turmoil over slavery brought about the end of the Whig Party, the formation of the Republican Party and, ultimately, the Civil War.

Wallner concludes that the life of Franklin Pierce is relevant today as he confronted many issues that still resonate including proposed restrictions on open immigration, the imposition of religious agendas into the political process, threats to individual liberties and the Bill of Rights, and the unchecked growth of presidential power particularly in time of war.

$35.45 ($31.95 plus $3.50 postage and handling). Hardback.
$27.00 ($24.00 plus $3.00 postage and handling). Paperback.