The second volume of Presidential Chronicles tells the life stories of the following five American Presidents who emerged to power in the first half of the 19th Century:
John Quincy Adams
Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
Fisher explores the nation's initial expansion, bringing forward the democratic ideals of greater access to the ballot and a more direct say in the selection of their national leader. Those leaders represented different political parties and ideologies, as well as widely divergent backgrounds and personalities. Democracy Expands explores the early political battles over the proper role of the U.S. Federal government, the national impact of western expansion, and the tense oppositional clashes that emerged between the executive and legislative branches of government. Andrew Jackson may have dominated this era with his outsized personality, military exploits, and strong-willed vision of the nation's presidency, but all of the stories in Volume II of Presidential Chronicles add to the rendering of this expansive period in American history, including the elevation of the nation's first Vice President into the executive chair, and a whole new method of campaigning for national office.