greenberg: the president after james k. polk was another wig. it was zachary taylor. have tyler on one side and taylor on the other sit -- other. james k. polk, when he became president he said he would only serve one term. he stuck to that. it was a lasting and the world he wanted, to hand over power to the opposition party. he did hand it over to a war hero and the war that he started. ironically for polk, because of his war, a general became president and that general was zachary taylor who was a whig. brian: the subject of his book -- this book is his wife sarah. what would you say about her? prof. greenberg: there is a lot to say about her, i wrote a pretty long book. brian: she is going to be over at the house for dinner, and he wanted to tell your husband or friends, what would you tell them about her. prof. greenberg: we are not going to serve wine because she does not drink. i would say that she is a charming dinner companion. the conversation is going to be wonderful. she is very well read. we can talk about the latest look. she is going to be a very good li

james k. polk. was very invested in people differing to her, but she was also willing to defer to men. and she also considered herself a lady, so i thought "lady first" was a good title. brian: what would you say about their relationship? prof. greenberg: james and sarah polk had about as close and positive of a relationship as any married couple could have. they were rarely separated. the reason sarah came to washington in the first place when james was a new congressman , and she was just 22 years old, was because they could not stand to be a part. they were newly married. the whole time they were married , they depended on each other far more than anybody else. she was james' closest confidant. he did not have a lot of male friends, but he and sarah were basically inseparable. have a lot ofhe male friends? onf. greenberg: depending who you talk to, there are different answers to that question. my reading of his character and all of his letters and studying his career over the past decade, i think