JAMES K. POLK AND THE EXPANSIONIST IMPULSE This biography explores the controversies, triumphs, and failures of the presidency of James K. Polk.  In this book, Sam W. Haynes places Polk's expansionist agenda in both political and social contexts and examines the nature and origins of the expansionist impulse.  For anyone interested in American history, Jacksonian America, or the Presidency of James K. Polk.