Widmer wrote a biography of Martin Van Buren: "I was attracted to the idea of trying to make an obscure president a little bit less obscure. I think I succeeded in that very small goal.

Martin Van Buren was born on Dec. 5, 1782, the same day King George III announced hostilities with the United States were over and five days after the preliminary articles of the Treaty of Paris ...

But a new biography, Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician, by James M. Bradley sheds new light on the obscure politician perhaps best remembered today for a running joke from a 1997 ...

Martin Van Buren in 1860. ... America’s First Politician, a lively and illuminating new biography of our eighth president—the first to be born a U.S. citizen.

As president, however, Van Buren maintained Jacksonian policies that magnified an economic downturn, leading to the Panic of 1837. "Martin Van Ruin" was not re-elected... Died: July 24, 1862, in ...

In 1987, a few months before officially declaring his candidacy, he said at a fundraiser, “The Martin Van Buren myth is going to fall in 1988.” He also said he would run on the accomplishments ...

But a new biography, Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician, by James M. Bradley sheds new light on the obscure politician perhaps best remembered today for a running joke from a 1997 ...

As president, however, Van Buren maintained Jacksonian policies that magnified an economic downturn, leading to the Panic of 1837. "Martin Van Ruin" was not re-elected... Died: July 24, 1862, in ...