The title of this book about the U.S-Mexican War (1846-47) gives away the author's bias. It is lifted from a statement Ulysses S. Grant made in 1867, 20 years after the war ended.
She says that Bancroft was "shocked" by Polk's objectives, although this is unlikely.
She tells that story by following the careers and moves of Polk, Henry Clay (his Whig rival for the presidency in 1844), Abraham Lincoln, John J. Hardin (Lincoln's predecessor in Congress, who died a hero's death in the Mexican War) and Nicholas Trist (a ranking State Department official).
