A Wicked War

Polk, Clay, Lincoln and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico

By: Amy S. Greenberg

Narrated by: Caroline Shaffer

A Wicked War presents the definitive history of the 1846 war between the United States and Mexico - a conflict that turned America into a continental power. Amy Greenberg describes the battles between American and Mexican armies, but also delineates the political battles between Democrats and Whigs - the former led by the ruthless Polk, the latter by the charismatic Henry Clay and a young representative from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. Greenberg brilliantly recounts this key chapter in the creation of the United States with authority and narrative flair.

©2012 Amy Greenberg. (P)2012 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

“Greenberg’s probing account of this war reveals its drama - and its very modern complexity.”( Publishers Weekly)

Tour de force.

This a special combination of amazing historical narrative with the perfect choice of narrator.

Once again I am outraged at my public miseducation as a child. We lionized a few presidents. I was an adult before I truly discovered Andrew Jackson. I never really bothered with the uninteresting Polk and after Greenberg's work it's clear why. His record hardly supports the jingoism of the fairly tales of childhood pedagogy.

Pulling back the curtain on American History

If you could sum up A Wicked War in three words, what would they be?

Greed, Lies, Racism.

Which character – as performed by Caroline Shaffer – was your favorite?

I do not thing there was a particular character that stood out. Rather she handled a range of different people and accents fairly well. At the beginning I was not sure I liked her handling of accents but as time wore on they seemed to come into their own and were quite enjoyable.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No it is far too long for one sitting.

unnecessarily sarcastic

The manner in which the material is presented was off putting. More than once I contemplated returning the book, however, it was clearly we'll researched so I powered through. The reader puts it over the top with her impressions of southerners and foreigners. Anyone who buys a book like this is not ignorant of our nation's misteps and can do without the embellishments and rhetoric.

Racism leads the U.S. into war again.

1.Concise story about how the need to expand slavery pushed American to take fifty five percent of Mexican land but not all of Mexico because White Americans did not want Latin and Gaelic peoples ruining their Anglo Saxon ideals.

2.The narrator is not doing anything wrong. I just hate that every narrator on audible treats adult books like a parent reading a bedtime story to a toddler using different voices for different characters. It shatters the mental theater when the narrator switches up accents.

The politics of the Mexican war

Greenberg has written a lively political history of the Mexican war and the substantial but disorganized opposition to it. Key players include Henry Clay, James K. Polk, Nicholas Trist, and Abraham Lincoln: all deftly characterized with a few well-chosen anecdotes. The military history is covered in broad strokes - for more detail on that, a better choice would be Martin Dugard's Training Ground. But if you want a clear and vivid picture of the machinations that led to the war and to its ultimate conclusion, this is the book for you.

There are obvious parallels with more recent wars, some of them opposed by many in the US, but Greenberg doesn't hit us over the head with that. Apart from a few somewhat anachronistic references to "embedded journalists," she leaves us to our own conclusions. This is political history, not politicized history.

Caroline Shaffer's narration is equally lively. At first it seemed discordantly "peppy" to me, but as I got used to her style of delivery, I realized her unflagging energy was keeping me drawn to the story. All in all, I really enjoyed it.