Season 5

This season's subject is Elizabeth Kortright Monroe, wife of our fifth president, James Monroe.

Unfortunately, there are no biographies of Elizabeth Monroe. I know! WTF? So I read three biographies of James Monroe to glean what I could about her from there. I also used her Wikipedia page, and the pages for her father and children, to the extent they exist.

Here are the three books I read:

James Monroe: A Life, by Tim McGrath

This was my most trusted source for season 5. Not only was Tim McGrath thorough, but he had fewer discrepancies and inconsistencies than Harlow Giles Unger. In any situation where they contradicted each other, I was inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to McGrath. This is a solid biography of James Monroe, with a decent amount of information about Elizabeth.

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness, by Harlow Giles Unger

I enjoyed the book, but I was pretty frustrated with the inconsistencies. None of them registered as I was reading and taking notes, but later on when I started actually writing and was trying to double-check facts and dates, I realized just how many errors are in this book. If you only ever read one James Monroe book, I'd go with McGrath's.

James Monroe: The American Presidents Series: The Fifth President, 1817-1825, by Gary Hart

Yes, the author is that Gary Hart, former senator from Colorado who ran for president in 1984 and 1988. When I first saw the author's name I thought it was a coincidence, but then I read the dust jacket author bio and realized it was the same guy. I didn't actually quote this book in the podcast because there was no information contained here that wasn't contained in one of the other two books I read. It's part of a series on some selected presidents, and each book is meant to be a concise biography of their life, so the book was fairly short, as far as biographies go. If you're looking for a quick read, this is for you.