This is a select bibliography of academic level books and journal articles, published mainly after World War II, about the history of James K. Polk and his historical context.

James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. A protégé of Andrew Jackson and a member of the Democratic Party during the Second Party System, he was an advocate of American expansionism and Jacksonian democracy. The Republic of Texas joined the Union in his first year in office, one of the causes that soon led the U.S. into the Mexican–American War. The settlement of the war expanded United States territory to the Pacific Ocean including Alta California. During his term, the dispute over the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom was resolved in the Oregon Treaty, creating the present U.S.-Canadian boundary.

Works listed here are cited in the notes or bibliographies of scholarly sources. Each is published by an academic or major press, written by a recognized expert, or substantially reviewed in scholarly journals; borderline cases are omitted. A selection of primary sources are included. Many of the books below carry their own bibliographies; see the Further reading section for other bibliographies, and the External links section for historical sites, academic sites, and museums.

Citations follow APA style. Book have citations to academic journal or mainstream published reviews when available. For books only partly about the subject, relevant chapter or section titles are provided when useful and available. Translators of the original-language edition are included when possible. In cases where a title or name has appeared with more than one English spelling, the most recent published form is used and a footnote documents any earlier title under which the work appeared.

General surveys Bergeron, P. H. (1987). The presidency of James K. Polk. University Press of Kansas. Borneman, W. R. (2008). Polk: The man who transformed the presidency and America. Random House. Byrnes, M. E. (2001). James K. Polk: A biographical companion. ABC-CLIO. Chaffin, T. (2014). Met his every goal? James K. Polk and the legends of manifest destiny. University of Tennessee Press. Haynes, S. W. (1997). James K. Polk and the expansionist impulse. Longman. Jenkins, J. S. (1850). The life of James Knox Polk, late president of the United States. James M. Alden. Leonard, T. M. (2001). James K. Polk: A clear and unquestionable destiny. SR Books. McCormac, E. I. (1922). James K. Polk: A political biography. University of California Press. Merry, R. W. (2009). A country of vast designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the conquest of the American continent. Simon & Schuster. Rawley, J. A. (2000). Polk, James Knox (1795–1849), eleventh president of the United States. In American national biography online. Oxford University Press. Seigenthaler, J. (2004). James K. Polk. Times Books. Sellers, C. G., Jr. (1957). James K. Polk, Jacksonian, 1795–1843. Princeton University Press. Sellers, C. G., Jr. (1966). James K. Polk, continentalist, 1843–1846. Princeton University Press.

Private life and family

Bergeron, P. H. (1967). My brother's keeper: William H. Polk goes to school. North Carolina Historical Review, 44(2), 188–204. Bumgarner, J. R. (1997). Sarah Childress Polk: A biography of the remarkable first lady. McFarland. Cohen, M. D. (2013). James K. Polk and the mystery of Amor Patriæ. New England Quarterly, 86(2), 266–292. Goodpasture, A. V. (1921). The boyhood of President Polk. Tennessee Historical Magazine, 7(1), 36–50. Greenberg, A. S. (2019). Lady first: The world of First Lady Sarah Polk. Alfred A. Knopf. Horn, S. F. (1945). Young James K. Polk's credentials. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 4(4), 339–340. Ikard, R. W. (1984). Surgical operation on James K. Polk by Ephraim McDowell or the search for Polk's gallstone. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 43(2), 121–131. Palmer-Mehta, V. (2016). Sarah Polk: Ideas of her own. In K. A. S. Sibley (Ed.), A companion to first ladies (pp. 159–175). Wiley Blackwell. Polk, W. R. (2000). Polk's folly: An American family history. Doubleday. Rumsch, B. (2016). James K. Polk. ABDO. Sellers, C. G. (1952). Jim Polk goes to Chapel Hill. North Carolina Historical Review, 29(2), 189–203. Sellers, C. G. (1953). Colonel Ezekiel Polk: Pioneer and patriarch. William and Mary Quarterly, 10(1), 80–98. Weaver, H., & Eidson, W. G. (1965). The James K. Polk home. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 24(1), 3–19. West, E. I. (1967). Religion in the life of James K. Polk. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 26(4), 357–371.

Political life Bergeron, P. H. (1982). James K. Polk and the Jacksonian press in Tennessee. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 41(3), 257–277. Moore, P. (1951). James K. Polk: Tennessee politician. Journal of Southern History, 17(4), 493–516. Pukl, J. M., Jr. (1980). James K. Polk's early congressional campaigns of 1825 and 1827. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 39(4), 440–458. Pukl, J. M., Jr. (1981). James K. Polk's congressional campaigns, 1829–1833. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 40(4), 348–365. Pukl, J. M., Jr. (1982). James K. Polk's congressional campaigns of 1835 and 1837. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 41(2), 105–123. Watson, E. L. (1964). James Walker of Columbia, Polk's critic and compatriot. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 23(1), 24–37. Williams, F. B., Jr. (1965). Samuel Hervey Laughlin, Polk's political handyman. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 24(4), 356–392.

The election of 1844

Cheathem, M. R. (2023). Who is James K. Polk? The presidential election of 1844. University Press of Kansas. Eisenhower, J. S. D. (1994). The election of James K. Polk, 1844. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 53(2), 74–87. Pecquet, G. M., & Thies, C. F. (2006). Texas treasury notes and the election of 1844. Independent Review, 11(2), 237–260. Persinger, C. E. (1914). The "bargain of 1844" as the origin of the Wilmot Proviso. Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, 15(3), 137–146. Rayback, J. G. (1955). Martin Van Buren's break with James K. Polk: The record. New York History, 36(1), 51–62. Theisen, L. S. (1971). James K. Polk, not so dark a horse. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 30(4), 383–401. Volpe, V. L. (1991). The Liberty Party and Polk's election, 1844. The Historian, 53(4), 691–710.

The presidency

Bergeron, P. H. (1985). President Polk and economic legislation. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 15(4), 782–795. Bergeron, P. H. (1987). All in the family: President Polk in the White House. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 46(1), 10–20. Bonner, J. C. (1968). Andrew Jackson comments on Polk's cabinet. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 27(3), 287–288. Calabresi, S. G., & Yoo, C. S. (2008). The unitary executive: Presidential power from Washington to Bush. Yale University Press. Campbell, K. K., & Jamieson, K. H. (1990). Deeds done in words: Presidential rhetoric and the genres of governance. University of Chicago Press. Campbell, K. K. (2008). James Knox Polk: The first imperial president? In M. J. Medhurst (Ed.), Before the rhetorical presidency (pp. 83–105). Texas A&M University Press. Curran, D. J. (1997). Polk, politics, and patronage: The rejection of George W. Woodward's nomination to the Supreme Court. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 121(3), 163–199. Currie, D. P., & Kadens, E. E. (2004). President Polk on internal improvements: The undelivered veto. Green Bag 2d, 8, 75–97. Cutler, W. (1995). Jackson, Polk, and Johnson: Defenders of the moral economy. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 54(3), 178–189. Devoti, J. (2006). The patriotic business of seeking office: James K. Polk and the patronage. University Press of America. Graebner, N. A. (1952). James K. Polk: A study in federal patronage. Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 38(4), 613–632. Greenstein, F. I. (2010). The policy-driven leadership of James K. Polk: Making the most of a weak presidency. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 40(4), 725–733. Heidt, S. J. (2016). Presidential power and national violence: James K. Polk's rhetorical transfer of savagery. Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 19(3), 365–396. Learned, H. B. (1924). The sequence of appointments to Polk's original cabinet: A study in chronology, 1844–1845. American Historical Review, 30(1), 76–83. Lee, R. C., Jr. (2002). Justifying empire: Pericles, Polk, and a dilemma of democratic leadership. Polity, 34(4), 503–531. McCoy, C. A. (1960). Polk and the presidency. University of Texas Press. Nau, H. R. (2013). James K. Polk: Manifest destiny. In Conservative internationalism: Armed diplomacy under Jefferson, Polk, Truman, and Reagan (pp. 110–146). Princeton University Press. Rohrs, R. C. (2004). "Public attention for ... essentially private matters": Women seeking assistance from President James K. Polk. Journal of the Early Republic, 24(1), 107–123. Rowe, C. (2020). American society through the prism of the Walker Tariff of 1846. Economic Affairs, 40(2), 180–197. White, L. D. (1954). The Jacksonians: A study in administrative history, 1829–1861. Macmillan. Williams, F. J. (2020). James K. Polk. In K. Gormley (Ed.), The presidents and the Constitution, Volume One: From the Founding Fathers to the Progressive Era (pp. 149–158). New York University Press.

Expansion Texas and Oregon

Barker, E. C. (1946). The annexation of Texas. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 50(1), 49–74. Chaffin, T. (1995). "Sons of Washington": Narciso López, filibustering, and U.S. nationalism, 1848–1851. Journal of the Early Republic, 15(1), 79–108. Haynes, S. W., & Morris, C. (Eds.). (1997). Manifest destiny and empire: American antebellum expansionism. Texas A&M University Press. Judson, K. B. (1919). Polk and Oregon—with a Pakenham letter. Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, 20(3), 301–302. Merk, F. (1963). Manifest destiny and mission in American history: A reinterpretation. Alfred A. Knopf. Merk, F. (1966). The Monroe Doctrine and American expansionism, 1843–1849. Alfred A. Knopf. Miles, E. A. (1957). "Fifty-four forty or fight"—An American political legend. Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 44(2), 291–309. Morrison, M. A. (1990). Westward the curse of empire: Texas annexation and the American Whig Party. Journal of the Early Republic, 10(2), 221–249. Pletcher, D. M. (1973). The diplomacy of annexation: Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican War. University of Missouri Press. Rathbun, L. (2001). The debate over annexing Texas and the emergence of Manifest Destiny. Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 4(3), 459–494. Schroeder, J. H. (1985). Annexation or independence: The Texas issue in American politics, 1836–1845. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 89(2), 137–164. Schuyler, R. L. (1911). Polk and the Oregon compromise of 1846. Political Science Quarterly, 26(3), 443–461. Silbey, J. H. (2005). Storm over Texas: The annexation controversy and the road to Civil War. Oxford University Press. Stenberg, R. R. (1934). President Polk and the annexation of Texas. Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, 14(4), 333–356. Sturdevant, P. E. (2005). Robert John Walker and Texas annexation: A lost champion. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 109(2), 188–202. Volanto, K. J., & Preuss, G. B. (2019). When was the Republic of Texas no more? Revisiting the annexation of Texas. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 123(1), 30–59. Weinberg, A. K. (1935). Manifest destiny: A study of nationalist expansionism in American history. Johns Hopkins Press. Woodworth, S. E. (2010). Manifest destinies: America's westward expansion and the road to the Civil War. Alfred A. Knopf.

The Mexican War

Related Conniff, M. L. (2001). Panama and the United States: The forced alliance (2nd ed.). University of Georgia Press.