PCN
DONATE CART
Sign InRegister
Politics & Policy History & Culture PA Sports & PIAA State Championships Battle of Gettysburg Pennsylvania's Neighborhood America's 250th in Pennsylvania Civics 101 Weather World
Schedule Shop About Donate Contact
Programs Politics & Policy History & Culture PA Sports & PIAA State Championships Battle of Gettysburg Pennsylvania's Neighborhood America's 250th in Pennsylvania Civics 101 Weather World

Cart

SCHEDULE
08:11 AMLee and His Army from the Seven Days to Gettysburg
09:05 AMGrant and Lee, Masters of War
10:00 AMGeorge Meade at Williamsport
11:00 AMGettysburg Day 2: Company K, 1st Pennsylvania Reserves
11:34 AMGettysburg Day 1: Collapse of the 11th Corps
12:00 PMGettysburg Day 3: McGilvery's Artillery
01:20 PMGettysburg Day 3: Pickett's Charge Aftermath
03:00 PMInternment Camp Life During WWII: Military Oral History Club of Lancaster County

ADVERTISEMENT

PCN app
PCN app
Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook
You are here: Home / Archive PA Books / “Bosom Friends”

“Bosom Friends”

In "Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King," Thomas J. Balcerski explores the lives of these two politicians and discovers one of the most significant collaborations in American political history. He traces the parallels in the men's personal and professional lives before elected office, including their failed romantic courtships and the stories they told about them. Unlikely companions from the start, they lived together as congressional messmates in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse and became close confidantes. Around the nation's capital, the men were mocked for their effeminacy and perhaps their sexuality, and they were likened to Siamese twins. Over time, their intimate friendship blossomed into a significant cross-sectional political partnership. Balcerski examines Buchanan's and King's contributions to the Jacksonian political agenda, manifest destiny, and the increasingly divisive debates over slavery, while contesting interpretations that the men lacked political principles and deserved blame for the breakdown of the union. He closely narrates each man's rise to national prominence, as William Rufus King was elected vice-president in 1852 and James Buchanan the nation's fifteenth president in 1856, despite the political gossip that circulated about them.

Thomas J. Balcerski is an Assistant Professor of History at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Description courtesy of Oxford University Press.

ABOUT PCN
About
History
Our People
Awards
Privacy Policy
Certifications
WATCH PCN
How to Watch
Schedule
Channel Listing
Stream Now
Subscribe
Shop PCN
CONNECT
Careers
Contact Us
FAQ
Request Coverage
Support
Satellite Truck
Production Truck
PROGRAMS
Politics and Policy
History and Culture
Sports
Gettysburg Collection
FOLLOW US
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram

For closed captioning issues, please call 717-730-6000 or email closedcaption@pcntv.com
©2025 Pennsylvania Educational Communications Systems. All rights reserved.