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

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a Democrat nor a Republican. A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Fillmore was elected vice president in 1848, and succeeded to the presidency when Zachary Taylor died in 1850. Fillmore was instrumental in passing the Compromise of 1850, which led to a brief truce in the battle over the expansion of slavery.

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 works

Cohen, J. (2019). Chapter 2: Over By Dead Body. In Accidental presidents: Eight men who changed America. Simon & Schuster. Finkelman, P. (2011). Millard Fillmore. Times Books. Grayson, B. L. (1981). The unknown president: The administration of President Millard Fillmore. University Press of America. Rayback, R. J. (1959). Millard Fillmore: Biography of a president. Henry Stewart. Scarry, R. J. (2001). Millard Fillmore. McFarland. Smith, E. B. (1988). The presidencies of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore. University Press of Kansas.

Background and context

The below items contain significant information about Millard Fillmore or significant background and context for his life and presidency. Political

Benson, L. (1961). The concept of Jacksonian democracy: New York as a test case. Princeton University Press. Freehling, W. W. (1990). The road to disunion: Vol. 1. Secessionists at bay, 1776–1854. Oxford University Press. Hamilton, H. (1954). Democratic Senate leadership and the Compromise of 1850. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 41(3), 403. Holt, M. F. (1978). The political crisis of the 1850s. Wiley. Holt, M. F. (1999). The rise and fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian politics and the onset of the Civil War. Oxford University Press. Holt, M. F. (1992). Political parties and American political development from the age of Jackson to the age of Lincoln. Louisiana State University Press. Howe, D. W. (1979). The political culture of the American Whigs. University of Chicago Press. Howe, D. W. (2007). What hath God wrought: The transformation of America, 1815–1848. Oxford University Press. Kutolowski, K. S. (1984). Antimasonry reexamined: Social bases of the grass-roots party. The Journal of American History, 71(2), 269. Levine, B. (2001). Conservatism, nativism, and slavery: Thomas R. Whitney and the origins of the Know-Nothing Party. The Journal of American History, 88(2), 455. Potter, D. M. (1976). The impending crisis, 1848–1861 (D. E. Fehrenbacher, Ed.). Harper and Row. Rupp, R. O. (1988). Parties and the public good: Political antimasonry in New York reconsidered. Journal of the Early Republic, 8(3), 253. Silbey, J. H. (1991). The American political nation, 1838–1893. Stanford University Press. Varon, E. R. (2008). Disunion! The coming of the American Civil War, 1789–1859. University of North Carolina Press. Vaughn, W. P. (1983). The Antimasonic Party in the United States, 1826–1843. University Press of Kentucky. Watson, H. L. (1997). Humbug? Bah! Altschuler and Blumin and the riddle of the antebellum electorate. The Journal of American History, 84(3), 886. Wilentz, S. (2005). The rise of American democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. W. W. Norton.

Slavery Anbinder, T. (1992). Nativism and slavery: The northern Know Nothings and the politics of the 1850s. Oxford University Press. Campbell, S. W. (1970). The slave catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850–1860. University of North Carolina Press. Grodzins, D. (2010). "Slave law" versus "lynch law" in Boston: Benjamin Robbins Curtis, Theodore Parker, and the fugitive slave crisis, 1850–1855. Massachusetts Historical Review, 12, 1. Middleton, S. (1987). The fugitive slave crisis in Cincinnati, 1850–1860: Resistance, enforcement, and Black refugees. The Journal of Negro History, 72(1–2), 20–32.

The Great Debate and the Compromise of 1850 Bordewich, F. M. (2012). America's great debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the compromise that preserved the Union. Simon & Schuster. Campbell, S. W. (1970). The slave catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850–1860. University of North Carolina Press. Grodzins, D. (2010). "Slave law" versus "lynch law" in Boston: Benjamin Robbins Curtis, Theodore Parker, and the fugitive slave crisis, 1850–1855. Massachusetts Historical Review, 12, 1. Hamilton, H. (1954). Democratic Senate leadership and the Compromise of 1850. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 41(3), 403. Hamilton, H. (1957). 'The cave of the winds' and the Compromise of 1850. The Journal of Southern History, 23(3), 331. Hamilton, H. (1964). Prologue to conflict: The crisis and compromise of 1850. University of Kentucky Press. Hodder, F. H. (1936). The authorship of the Compromise of 1850. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 22(4), 525. Maizlish, S. E. (2018). A strife of tongues: The Compromise of 1850 and the ideological foundations of the American Civil War. University of Virginia Press. Middleton, S. (1987). The fugitive slave crisis in Cincinnati, 1850–1860: Resistance, enforcement, and Black refugees. The Journal of Negro History, 72(1–2), 20–32. Russel, R. R. (1956). What was the Compromise of 1850?. The Journal of Southern History, 22(3), 292. Stephenson, N. W. (1935). California and the Compromise of 1850. Pacific Historical Review, 4(2), 114–122. Waugh, J. C. (2003). On the brink of Civil War: The Compromise of 1850 and how it changed the course of American history. Scholarly Resources.

Japan and Matthew Perry

Hones, S. (2006). History, distance and text: Narratives of the 1853–1854 Perry expedition to Japan. Journal of Historical Geography, 32(3), 563–578. Keith, J. A. (2011). Civilization, race, and the Japan expedition's cultural diplomacy, 1853–1854. Diplomatic History, 35(2), 179–202. Wiley, P. B. (with Korogi, I.). (1990). Yankees in the land of the gods: Commodore Perry and the opening of Japan. Viking.

California Stanley, G. (1974). Racism and the early Republican Party: The 1856 presidential election in California. Pacific Historical Review, 43(2), 171–187. Stephenson, N. W. (1935). California and the Compromise of 1850. Pacific Historical Review, 4(2), 114–122.

Gold Rush

Kanazawa, M. (2015). Golden rules: The origins of California water law in the Gold Rush. University of Chicago Press. Lapp, R. M. (1977). Blacks in Gold Rush California. Yale University Press. Madley, B. (2016). An American genocide: The United States and the California Indian catastrophe, 1846–1873. Yale University Press. McDowell, A. G. (2022). We the miners: Self-government in the California Gold Rush. Harvard University Press. McGuinness, A. (2008). Path of empire: Panama and the California Gold Rush. Cornell University Press. Monaghan, J. (1973). Chile, Peru, and the California Gold Rush of 1849. University of California Press. Mountford, B., & Tuffnell, S. (Eds.). (2018). A global history of gold rushes. University of California Press. Roberts, B. (2000). American alchemy: The California Gold Rush and middle-class culture. University of North Carolina Press. Rohrbough, M. J. (1997). Days of gold: The California Gold Rush and the American nation. University of California Press. Rohrbough, M. J. (2013). Rush to gold: The French and the California Gold Rush, 1848–1854. Yale University Press. Smith, S. L. (2013). Freedom's frontier: California and the struggle over unfree labor, emancipation, and Reconstruction. University of North Carolina Press.

Admission of California

Mexican American War

Miscellaneous Bell, J. F. (2015). Poetry's place in the crisis and compromise of 1850. The Journal of the Civil War Era, 5(3), 399–421. Gienapp, W. E. (1987). The origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856. Oxford University Press. Hinton, W. K. (1980). Millard Fillmore, Utah's friend in the White House. Utah Historical Quarterly, 48(2), 112–128.

Contemporary biographies

Bartlett, I. H. (1993). John C. Calhoun: A biography. W. W. Norton. Bauer, K. J. (1985). Zachary Taylor: Soldier, planter, statesman of the Old Southwest. Louisiana State University Press. Baxter, M. G. (1984). One and inseparable: Daniel Webster and the Union. Harvard University Press. Belohlavek, J. M. (2005). Broken glass: Caleb Cushing and the shattering of the Union. Kent State University Press. Blight, D. W. (2018). Frederick Douglass: Prophet of freedom. Simon & Schuster. Blue, F. J. (1987). Salmon P. Chase: A life in politics. Kent State University Press. Blue, F. J. (2005). No taint of compromise: Crusaders in antislavery politics. Louisiana State University Press. Burlingame, M. (2008). Abraham Lincoln: A life. Johns Hopkins University Press. Chaffin, T. (2014). Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the course of American empire. University of Oklahoma Press. Chambers, W. N. (1956). Old Bullion Benton, senator from the New West: Thomas Hart Benton, 1782–1858. Little, Brown. Cole, D. B. (1984). Martin Van Buren and the American political system. Princeton University Press. Cooper, W. J. (2000). Jefferson Davis, American. Alfred A. Knopf. Davis, W. C. (1991). Jefferson Davis: The man and his hour. HarperCollins. Donald, D. (1960). Charles Sumner and the coming of the Civil War. Alfred A. Knopf. Donald, D. H. (1995). Lincoln. Simon & Schuster. Duberman, M. B. (1961). Charles Francis Adams, 1807–1886. Houghton Mifflin. Elder, R. (2021). Calhoun: American heretic. Basic Books. Faust, D. G. (1982). James Henry Hammond and the Old South: A design for mastery. Louisiana State University Press. Gara, L. (1991). The presidency of Franklin Pierce. University Press of Kansas. Guelzo, A. C. (1999). Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer president. William B. Eerdmans. Haley, J. L. (2002). Sam Houston. University of Oklahoma Press. Hamilton, H. (1951). Zachary Taylor: Soldier in the White House. Bobbs-Merrill. Harrold, S. (1986). Gamaliel Bailey and antislavery union. Kent State University Press. Heidler, D. S., & Heidler, J. T. (2010). Henry Clay: The essential American. Random House. Hunt, H. D. (1969). Hannibal Hamlin of Maine: Lincoln's first vice-president. Syracuse University Press. Johannsen, R. W. (1973). Stephen A. Douglas. Oxford University Press. Johnson, T. D. (1998). Winfield Scott: The quest for military glory. University Press of Kansas. Kirwan, A. D. (1962). John J. Crittenden: The struggle for the Union. University of Kentucky Press. Klein, P. S. (1962). President James Buchanan: A biography. Pennsylvania State University Press. Klunder, W. C. (1996). Lewis Cass and the politics of moderation. Kent State University Press. McFeely, W. S. (1991). Frederick Douglass. W. W. Norton.