William Henry Harrison

The Life and Legacy of the First American President to Die in Office

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Scott Clem

When one is looking quickly over the lives of the Presidents of the United States, it is easy to overlook William Henry Harrison. After all, he only served as the Chief Executive for 30 days, and he spent the majority of those in bed, fighting for his life and eventually losing. However, to ignore Harrison because he served such a short time in the White House is just as foolish as ignoring Patrick Henry or Alexander Hamilton because they were never elected to the nation's highest office. In fact, like Henry, Hamilton, and many others from the early days of the Republic, Harrison served his country in many ways and was one of the most consequential figures both in politics and the military, which makes it all the more unfortunate that much the same way Hamilton is remembered for the duel with Aaron Burr, Harrison is remembered for being the first president to die in office. The manner of Harrison's death, and the length of his inaugural address, have overshadowed the various facets of his life and career. For instance, few people know of his famous family, how he dropped out of medical school to become a soldier, and how he eloped with a young woman and went on to have 10 children with her. Harrison's early political career also remains relatively unknown; few realize that he spent much of his early adulthood in what was then still wilderness, first as a soldier, then as the territorial governor of the Indiana Territory.

©2016 Charles River Editors (P)2017 Charles River Editors

I only paid 4.86 for this audiobook;so overall I thought it was okay

I wish I could find a more extensive treatment of Harrison's life. This one was a pretty basic overview. I realize he was only president doe 30 days, but since I live near Vincennes, IN, from
Which Harrison served as territorial governor, I was hoping to find something more revealing about that time and place.
The narration on this is very odd, but I became used to it. It sounded like those digitized voices the National Weather Service used in the 90s to
Broadcast on the weather radio, except sometimes I could swear I could hear the narrator pause for a drink! Kind of funny really. But, since I didn't pay much for it, I can't complain.

Few Audible Books to choose from

There are only three books available on Audible in which to read about President William Henry Harrison. The first book I read (listened
to) was very thorough but mainly about Harrison as President Jefferson’s Indian Affairs Agent in the early 1810s. I read this short book because it was the only one of the two remaining that discussed Harrison’s entire life. Since I had read the previous book. This book’s very short sketch of Harrison’s life seemed ok. The best part of this book was that it filled in and gave context to how the main arrived in the White House and provided interesting background as to why he died one month into his Presidency.

a history without a conclusion

the author may as well have ended this book with quote and then he died and quote. how about a little quote in conclusion in quote, about what Harrison's Legacy was. seems like he kind of glossed over the campaign, which created so many firsts. narration was hard for me to listen to - robotic, Scott Clem hovers around the bottom of what is vocal cords can handle and so sometimes his syllables cut out all together. sorry for the typos as I'm right it this through speech to text while driving.

short and sweet

Book was short... a lot of the focus was on Harrison's military campaigns. this makes sense since he was only in office for a month! Audible needs to get a book that goes into details! However, this was informative and had information I didnt previously know so...

Great informative Indian battles and history but

Too bad this book didn’t have a better narrator as the historical story was excellent. This short book was narrated so rapidly it was impossible to follow all of the details. I found myself continually going back over a chapter because I missed certain details that I found later to be important. In the end I listened to it a second time before I moved on to my next president

read little to fast

had to slow speed if reading down to follow along and FOUND it kinda dry in story telling

Poor listen even for history text

What was the point of making this an audio book if an internet browser could read this text in a more engaging manner?

Lacking in detail and an automaton reader

For a man whodid so much pre presidency I feel I barely know him, and this was a summary instead of a history

Very little insight into his life

I found it talks more about events surrounding Harrison than him. Doesn’t go much more in-depth than the wikipedia article.

Like many listeners, I found the narration to be dry and too fast.

I did learn specifics about the horrific dealings with the Native Americans... but that’s not what I was hoping to learn about in this book. I was hoping I’d learn more about his personality, family, and lifestyle.

Dry

Very Dry. The presentation sounded like a computer generated voice with so many distracting inflections, I could not focus on the information being presented.

Either buy the printed version or skip this book all together. not worth the credit.