164 Michigan Historical Review Many readers will be familiar with the stereotypes of backward, racially corrupt, and passive Frenchmen that appeared in texts by nationalist writers such as Francis Parkman, George Bancroft, and Lyman Beecher. But while Watts interprets these writers in fresh ways, his great contribution is his discussion of authors who constructed very different images of a French past in their works. Writers such as Henry Marie Brackenridge, Margaret Fuller, and James Hall imagined the French in a positive light, portraying them as classless, communal, egalitarian, inclusive, free, and generous. Their positive images of the French, Watts illustrates, were used "to tell a different American story . . . [and] to remind American readers of a set of values the French had embodied and the Anglos had displaced, values that were more enlightened on subjects such as land, race, gender, religion, and nation" (p. 6). In This Remote Country adds to our understanding of how nineteenth century Americans constructed and debated a national identity, and it is a pleasure to read. Historians might worry that this study of an imagined French past occasionally seems to make assertions about the historical French who, it must be said, were not generally openminded protomulticulturalists practicing an anticapitalist and antihierarchical version of colonialism. As a study of nineteenth-century representations, however, this book is a remarkable contribution. It deserves a wide readership among scholars of nineteenth-century literature and historians. Robert Morrissey University of Tennessee, Knoxville Barry Werth. 31 Days: Gerald Ford, theNixon Pardon, and a Government in Crisis. New York: Anchor, 2007. Pp. 348. Bibliography. Index. Notes. Paper, $15.95. This interesting book chronicles the first thirty-one days of Gerald Ford's presidency, a term of office that lasted only thirty months. Ford took the oath of office at a unique time in the history of the United States. On August 9, 1974, Ford's predecessor, Richard M. Nixon, became the first president to resign. The previous autumn Nixon had nominated and Congress had confirmed the appointment of Ford as vice president, following the resignation of Spiro Agnew. Ford, therefore, became the first American president who had never run for office nationwide. Book Reviews 165 The book's subtitle outlines the major subjects that the author weaves through the narrative from day one to day thirty-one. Werth skillfully shifts from the media image of the new president; to theWhite House where Ford was establishing his own team while simultaneously dealing with his presidential duties; to Nixon's state of mind, health, attitudes, and actions; and finally to depicting the gradual process by which Ford decided to grant a pardon to the former president. On day thirty-one of his presidency, Ford granted Nixon "a full, free, and absolute pardon ... for all offenses" that he "committed or may have committed or taken part inwhile president" (p. 321). Ford's basic political and personal instincts served him well, according to Werth. Most members of the press saw Ford as a refreshing, drastic change from Nixon. For his press secretary Ford chose Jerald ter Horst, who had been a friend since childhood and was also a respected journalist. Ford nominated New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller as his vice president and then relied on him and on Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as his chief policymakers. Werth opines that with Ford's reliance on these two men he "had opted for the strongest possible partners" (p. 113). In a speech before the Veterans of Foreign Wars Ford proposed a limited amnesty for Vietnam draft exiles. In two areas Werth portrays Ford as less than praiseworthy. The first concerns his handling of the ownership and control of the tapes and records of the Nixon presidency. The second was Ford's failure to elicit from Nixon any admission of illegal activities, only his acknowledgment of "mistakes and misjudgments" (p. 322). The Nixon pardon dissipated the widespread popularity Ford had enjoyed during his first thirty days in office. In his subsequent letter of resignation, ter Horst explained he could not "credibly defend" the pardon without a full pardon to "the young men who evaded military service as amatter of conscience" (p. 318) or pardons for former Nixon aides...