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Pretense of Glory: The Life of General Nathaniel P Banks. By James G. Hollandsworth Jr. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 292. $34.95.)
He did not have a formal education or family connections. He did not have a personal fortune. Yet he became a major politician, serving first in the Massachusetts legislature and then as governor before serving in the U.S. Congress for ten terms. In Congress Nathaniel P. Banks (1816-1884), originally a Democrat, broke with his party over the issue of slavery and its expansion. Notably, he voted against the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, even though Democratic party leaders insisted that all party members vote for the measure as a show of loyalty. Banks did more than bolt the...