Mark R. Cheathem

Mark Renfred Cheathem (born July 29, 1973) is an American historian and editor of the presidential papers of Martin Van Buren. The papers consist of 13,000 documents of Van Buren's life and presidential administration; the papers project is a joint initiative of Cumberland University, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Tennessee General Assembly, and the University of Virginia. Cheathem is a professor of history at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. His writing focuses on 19th-century American political history. His 2013 Andrew Jackson, Southerner draws on his observation that most extant Andrew Jackson biographies failed to examine the importance of Southern plantation culture in influencing his life choices and worldview. His 2018 book The Coming of Democracy was awarded a Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society book award. The election of 1844 book argues that James K. Polk's narrow victory accelerated the coming of the American Civil War.

Cheathem did undergrad at Cumberland, a master's degree at Middle Tennessee State University, and earned his Ph.D. at Mississippi State University. His thesis at MSU became the biography of Andrew Jackson Donelson.

Works

• Cheathem, Mark Renfred (2007). Old Hickory's nephew: the political and private struggles of Andrew Jackson Donelson. Southern biography series. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-3238-8.
• Cheathem, Mark Renfred, ed. (2008). Jacksonian and antebellum age: people and perspectives. Perspectives in American social history. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-017-9.
• Ballard, Michael B.; Cheathem, Mark Renfred; Marszalek, John F.; Houston, Russ, eds. (2013). Of times and race: essays inspired by John F. Marszalek. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-61703-639-2.
• Cheathem, Mark R. (2013). Andrew Jackson, Southerner. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-5099-3. LCCN 2012049695. OCLC 858995561. Project MUSE book 26506.
• Cheathem, Mark Renfred (2015). Andrew Jackson and the rise of the Democrats: a reference guide. Guides to historic events in America. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, LLC, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC. ISBN 978-1-61069-406-3.
• Cheathem, Mark Renfred; Corps, Terry (2017). Historical dictionary of the Jacksonian era and Manifest Destiny (2nd ed.). Lanham: Rowan & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-7320-7.
• Cheathem, Mark Renfred (2018). The coming of democracy: presidential campaigning in the age of Jackson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-2597-9.
• Cheathem, Mark R. (2022). "'It Has Caused Me Considerable Embarrassment and Not a Little Pain': The Ruptured Relationship of Martin Van Buren and James K. Polk". In Cohen, Michael David (ed.). James K. Polk and His Time: Essays at the Conclusion of the Polk Project. University of Tennessee Press. pp. 111–134. doi:10.2307/jj.26248852. ISBN 978-1-62190-660-5.
• Cheathem, Mark Renfred (2024). Who is James K. Polk? the presidential election of 1844. American presidential elections. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-3574-0.

References

External links

• Cheathem, Mark R. (May 31, 2016). "Careful judging faces on money". The Tennessean. pp. A9. Retrieved September 27, 2026.