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Summary
Summary
The extraordinary story of Andrew Jackson--the colorful, dynamic, and forceful president who ushered in the Age of Democracy and set a still young America on its path to greatness--told by the bestselling author of The First American .
The most famous American of his time, Andrew Jackson is a seminal figure in American history. The first "common man" to rise to the presidency, Jackson embodied the spirit and the vision of the emerging American nation; the term "Jacksonian democracy" is embedded in our national lexicon.
With the sweep, passion, and attention to detail that made The First American a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a national bestseller, historian H.W. Brands shapes a historical narrative that's as fast-paced and compelling as the best fiction. He follows Andrew Jackson from his days as rebellious youth, risking execution to free the Carolinas of the British during the Revolutionary War, to his years as a young lawyer and congressman from the newly settled frontier state of Tennessee. As general of the Tennessee militia, he put down a massive Indian uprising in the South, securing the safety of American settlers, and his famous rout of the British at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 made him a national hero.
But it is Jackson's contributions as president, however, that won him a place in the pantheon of America's greatest leaders. A man of the people, without formal education or the family lineage of the Founding Fathers, he sought as president to make the country a genuine democracy, governed by and for the people. Jackson, although respectful of states' rights, devoted himself to the preservation of the Union, whose future in that age was still very much in question. When South Carolina, his home state, threatened to secede over the issue of slavery, Jackson promised to march down with 100,000 federal soldiers should it dare.
In the bestselling tradition of Founding Brothers and His Excellency by Joseph Ellis and of John Adams by David McCullough, Andrew Jackson is the first single-volume, full-length biography of Jackson in decades. This magisterial portrait of one of our greatest leaders promises to reshape our understanding of both the man and his era and is sure to be greeted with enthusiasm and acclaim.
Author Notes
H.W. Brands was born Henry William Brands in Oregon. He graduated from Stanford University in 1975 with a B.A. in history, and from Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon. He went on to earn his graduate degree in mathematics and history in Oregon and Texas. He taught at Vanderbilt University and Texas A&M University before he joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin. He acquired the title of Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History at the U of Texas. He specializes in American History and politics, with books including Traitor to His Class, Andrew Jackson, The Age of Gold, the First American, and TR. Several of his books have been best sellers, including one recently published, The General vs. the President. Two of them - Traitor to His Class and The First American were finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He lectures often on historical and current events and he can be seen and heard on national television and radio programs.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Historian Brands, author of the bestselling The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, now turns to Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), illuminating both the mettle of a fascinating leader and the crucible in which American democracy was forged. A military hero during the War of 1812 and winner of the popular presidential vote in 1824 (he lost the election in Congress), Jackson won the office handily in 1828. Brands argues that the populist Jackson changed the very nature of the presidency, vetoing more bills than all six of his predecessors combined; thwarting the bank of the United States; and in a dramatic test of wills, preparing for civil war when South Carolina threatened to secede over tariffs. He died at the age of 78, just days after learning that Texas would join the union. Although Brands lacks the narrative flair of David McCullough, his effort is intensely engaging. He meticulously renders Jackson's life, his ugly massacres of Indians as well as his triumphs, with unflinching detail. He also conveys the vagaries of war, life on the frontier, the perilous state of the union and the brass-knuckles politics of the day. The result is a bracing, human portrait of both a remarkable man and of American democracy as it was transformed from a "government of the people" into a "government by the people." Agent, Jim Hornfischer. (On sale Oct. 18) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Industrial-strength historian Brands (Lone Star Nation, 2004, etc.), prolific in the Ambrose-McCullough vein, turns his attention to oft-overlooked Old Hickory. Andrew Jackson still gets more press than contemporaries such as John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren, but the hero of the early Indian wars and the Battle of New Orleans hasn't had a good full-scale biography since Robert Remini's three-volume life, published from 1977 to 1984. Brands's biography is more action-packed than bookish, suiting its subject. He places Jackson's family in the context of the great trans-Appalachian migration of the Scots-Irish, a people known for independence and scrappiness (see James Webb's Born Fighting, 2004); Jackson himself, Brands writes, was a pre-teen champion of the Revolution, his head filled with "an abiding hostility to all things British," an attitude he would have many chances to exercise in the border wars with the British-backed Shawnee and Creek nations and in the War of 1812. Though a military hero, Jackson had a checkered reputation, so that an elderly woman from his home village, on learning that he was running for president, said, "When he was here he was such a rake that my husband would not bring him into the house. . . . If Andrew Jackson can be president, anyone can!" Her compatriots disagreed, and Jackson handily won the popular vote against Adams in 1824, only to have the House of Representatives hand Adams the office. The subsequent outcry forced electoral reform, and Jackson again won by a large margin in 1828. His two terms were marked by controversy, but Jackson remained consistent to his small-d democratic values, opposing a national bank as monopolistic and unconstitutional and thwarting an early effort by his native South Carolina to secede from the Union. Brands illuminates the life of an American original while shedding light on such matters as the conquest of Texas and the origins of the Civil War. A pleasure for history buffs. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
We appear to be in the midst of a significant publishing trend in presidential biographies. This one, by a history professor and popular historian, will earn respect as a major contribution to not only the trend but also the permanent estimation of the life of the seventh president. Part of the immediate post-Founding Fathers generation of governmental figures, representing another stellar era populated by John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson came to the political fore as a westerner with humble origins but also with a distinguished (yet controversial) military background that made him the most popular man in the country. It is as a man of the people, the hero and defender of common folks over the moneyed classes, that Brands presents Jackson; this complete and completely enveloping biography indelibly establishes Jackson's abiding sense of duty in serving democracy. A distinguished treatment certain to be the most authoritative and comprehensive account for some time. --Brad Hooper Copyright 2005 Booklist
Choice Review
In this well-written, sympathetic biography, which highlights many aspects of Andrew Jackson's personal life and public career, Brands (Univ. of Texas, Austin) supports the common views of Jackson as the most colorful and controversial political figure in the antebellum US. The author contends that Jackson can only be understood if one recognizes the underpinnings that sustained him throughout his career. Unfortunately, Brands's emphasis on Jackson's pre-presidential years results in a less than adequate discussion of several important national issues. In particular, Brands's discussion of Jackson's program to move the eastern Indians to lands west of the Mississippi offers no substantive discussion of the guile, craft, and force exercised in carrying out that program. Brands omits discussion of the president's desire to censor antislavery publications that he labeled incendiary, nor does he mention the sack of several post offices by antiabolitionists. Hopefully, this book will engender a much-needed discussion of Andrew Jackson and Jacksonian Democracy. It should be read in conjunction with Michael Rogin's Fathers and Children (1975), Edward Pessen's Jacksonian America (1969), and Russell B. Nye's Fettered Freedom (1949). ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Public, general, and undergraduate libraries. L. B. Gimelli emeritus, Eastern Michigan University
Library Journal Review
In recent years, plenty of biographies have taken a new look at Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, and more. Now, says the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The First American, it's Andrew Jackson's turn. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Prologue | p. vii |
| Map: Jackson's Battlefields | p. xii |
| Child of the Revolution (1767-1805) | |
| 1 The Prize | p. 3 |
| 2 I Could Have Shot Him | p. 19 |
| 3 Alone | p. 29 |
| 4 Away West | p. 42 |
| 5 Shadowed Love | p. 56 |
| 6 Republicans and Revolutionaries | p. 66 |
| 7 Fighting Words | p. 83 |
| 8 Rendering Judgment | p. 96 |
| Son of the West (1805-1814) | |
| 9 Conspiracy | p. 113 |
| 10 Affair of Honor | p. 129 |
| 11 All Must Feel the Injuries | p. 139 |
| 12 Master and Slaves | p. 147 |
| 13 Nor Infamy upon Us | p. 154 |
| 14 Native Genius | p. 164 |
| 15 Old Hickory | p. 174 |
| 16 Sharp Knife | p. 188 |
| 17 The River of Blood | p. 205 |
| American Hero (1814-1821) | |
| 18 Peace Giver | p. 225 |
| 19 The Spanish Front | p. 236 |
| 20 Pirates and Patriots | p. 249 |
| 21 Day of Deliverance | p. 263 |
| 22 The Second Washington | p. 284 |
| 23 East by Southwest | p. 300 |
| 24 Party and Politics | p. 312 |
| 25 Judge and Executioner | p. 322 |
| 26 The Eye of the Storm | p. 332 |
| 27 Conquistador | p. 342 |
| The People's President (1821-1837) | |
| 28 Cincinnatus | p. 363 |
| 29 The Death Rattle of the Old Regime | p. 376 |
| 30 Democracy Triumphant | p. 389 |
| 31 Democracy Rampant | p. 406 |
| 32 Spoils of Victory | p. 414 |
| 33 Tools of Wickedness | p. 421 |
| 34 Jacksonian Theory | p. 431 |
| 35 False Colors | p. 439 |
| 36 Attack and Counterattack | p. 455 |
| 37 Or Die with the Union | p. 472 |
| 38 Justice Marshall for the Defense | p. 483 |
| 39 Wealth versus Commonwealth | p. 494 |
| 40 An Old Friend and a New Frontier | p. 506 |
| Patriarch of Democracy (1837-1845) | |
| 41 The Home Front | p. 529 |
| 42 To the Ramparts Once More | p. 541 |
| 43 The Soul of the Republic | p. 553 |
| Sources | p. 561 |
| Annotated Bibliography | p. 597 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 608 |
| Index | p. 609 |