Old Tippecanoe

Overall, Freeman Cleave’s biography of William Henry Harrison is fine, but not great. It informs and educates but does not fully satisfy (much less thrill) the curious reader. And in the end Harrison remains almost as much an enigma as ever. This biography provides insight into his background and his path to the presidency, but too little about him personally to allow the reader to develop a sense of familiarity with Harrison, to understand his core, or to hypothesize where a longer Harrison presidency might have taken the country. “Old Tippecanoe” is a useful biography of William Henry Harrison, and surprisingly readable for a book twice my age, but left me feeling less satisfied than I had hoped.