Harlow Giles Unger Quote

Elected fifth president of the United States, Monroe transformed a fragile little nation - a savage wilderness, as Edmund Burke put it - into a glorious empire. Although George Washington had won the nation's independence, he bequeathed a relatively small country, rent by political factions, beset by foreign enemies, populated by a largely unskilled, unpropertied people, and ruled by oligarchs who controlled most of the nation's land and wealth. Washington's three successors - John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison - were mere caretaker presidents who left the nation bankrupt, its people deeply divided, its borders under attack, its capital city in ashes.

Harlow Giles Unger

Elected fifth president of the United States, Monroe transformed a fragile little nation - a savage wilderness, as Edmund Burke put it - into a glorious empire. Although George Washington had won the nation's independence, he bequeathed a relatively small country, rent by political factions, beset by foreign enemies, populated by a largely unskilled, unpropertied people, and ruled by oligarchs who controlled most of the nation's land and wealth. Washington's three successors - John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison - were mere caretaker presidents who left the nation bankrupt, its people deeply divided, its borders under attack, its capital city in ashes.

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About Harlow Giles Unger

Harlow Giles Unger (; born August 3, 1931) is an American author and historian, as well as a journalist, broadcaster, and educator. He is the author of many books, including the three-volume Encyclopedia of American Education.