David and Jeanne Heidler talked about their biography Henry Clay: The Essential American (Random House; May 4, 2010). Henry Clay was speaker of the House and served in the Senate. He unsuccessfully ran for president five times, was a founder of the Whig Party, and he was known as the “Great Compromiser.”
David Heidler works with the Department of History at Colorado State University. Jeanne Heidler is professor of history at the U.S. Air Force Academy. They have written numerous books together including Daily Life in the Early American Republic, Manifest Destiny, Old Hickory’s War, and The War of 1812.