Henry Clay

In a critical and little-known chapter of early American history, author Harlow Giles Unger tells how Henry Clay, the only freshman congressman ever elected Speaker of the House, established the Speaker as the most powerful elected official after the President. During fifty years in public service--as congressman, senator, secretary of state, and four-time presidential candidate--Clay constantly battled to save the Union, summoning uncanny negotiating skills to force bitter foes from North and South to compromise on slavery and forego the dissolution of the infant American republic. Explosive, revealing, and richly illustrated, Henry Clay is the story of one of the most courageous--and powerful--political leaders in American History.