Book Review

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Book Review | The Journal of American History, 86.1 | The History Cooperative

Defiant Peacemaker: Nicholas Trist in the Mexican War. By Wallace Ohrt. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. xii, 190 pp. isbn 0-89096-778-4.)

Seeking mainly to explain Nicholas P. Trist's conduct during the Mexican War, Wallace Ohrt writes a psychobiographical study that allows him to describe a character with both positive qualities and defects, thus bringing his subject closer to the reader. Thanks to his careful review of Trist's letters to his family and friends, the author can follow Trist's personal history step by step from birth to death, from many sides: his studies, his different occupations, and his relationships with those who were closest to him. 1

In this biography, the bonds our character established with great men from United States history are of particular importance: for example, with Thomas Jefferson, a role model to whom he was devoted, as well as with Andrew Jackson, for whom he worked as a private secretary and felt a deep affection. His bond with the former was so definite that it marked Trist's political development, turning him into a sort of Don Quixote, defender of old-fashioned principles such as "honor, justice, duty, civility and responsibility." Only through this is it possible to explain his disobedience to the Polk administration. . . .

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