Andrew Jackson: [The American Presidents Series]
Author: Sean Wilentz
The towering figure who remade American politics—the champion of the ordinary citizen and the scourge of entrenched privilege
The Founding Fathers espoused a republican government, but they were distrustful of the common people, having designed a constitutional system that would temper popular passions. But as the revolutionary generation passed from the scene in the 1820s, a new movement, based on the principle of broader democracy, gathered force and united behind Andrew Jackson, the charismatic general who had defeated the British at New Orleans and who embodied the hopes of ordinary Americans. Raising his voice against the artificial inequalities fostered by birth, station, monied power, and political privilege, Jackson brought American politics into a new age.
Sean Wilentz, one of America’s leading historians of the nineteenth century, recounts the fiery career of this larger-than-life figure, a man whose high ideals were matched in equal measure by his failures and moral blind spots, a man who is remembered for the accomplishments of his eight years in office and for the bitter enemies he made. It was in Jackson’s time that the great conflicts of American politics—urban versus rural, federal versus state, free versus slave—crystallized, and Jackson was not shy about taking a vigorous stand. It was under Jackson that modern American politics began, and his legacy continues to inform our debates to the present day.
Publishers Weekly
In the latest installment of the American Presidents series edited by Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Princeton historian Wilentz shows that our complicated seventh president was a central figure in the development of American democracy. Wilentz gives Jackson's early years their due, discussing his storied military accomplishments, especially in routing the British in the War of 1812, and rehearsing the central crises of Jackson's presidential administration-South Carolina's nullification of the protective tariff and his own battle against the Bank of the United States. But Wilentz's most significant interpretations concern Indian policy and slavery. With constitutional and security concerns, Jackson's support for removal of Indians from their lands, says Wilentz, was not "overtly malevolent," but was nonetheless "ruinous" for Indians. Even more strongly, Wilentz condemns the "self-regarding sanctimony of posterity" in judging Jackson insufficiently antislavery; Jackson's main aim, he says, was not to promote slavery, but to keep the divisive issue out of national politics. Wilentz (The Rise of American Democracy) also astutely reads the Eaton affair-a scandal that erupted early in Jackson's presidency, over the wife of one of his cabinet members-as evidence that, then as now, parlor politics and partisan politics often intersected. It is rare that historians manage both Wilentz's deep interpretation and lively narrative. Agent, the Wylie Agency. (Jan. 2) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
In this concise and very readable history of Andrew Jackson's controversial presidency, Wilentz (history, Princeton Univ.; The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln) offers a balanced viewpoint. During his time in office (1829-37), Jackson took a stand on several contentious issues, among them the treatment of native Americans (he supported states' rights in relocating them to the west) and the Bank of the United States (he vetoed its charter). To the author, Jackson's decisions stemmed from his belief in the democratic principle of majority will and in fighting for the lower classes against the privileged. Yes, Jackson was prone to making mistakes owing to honor and pride, but Wilentz believes that he remained true to his ideals. Because of the book's brevity and focus, we miss out on Jackson's charisma (he was the most popular man of his time) and era. For those elements, readers will have to turn to H.W. Brands's Andrew Jackson: His Life & Times or Robert Remini's The Life of Andrew Jackson. Donald B. Cole's The Presidency of Andrew Jackson, provides scholars with more details, but Cole's message does not focus so much on Jackson's own drive for democracy. Wilentz's book is a great first read for students and general readers because of its affordability, new assessments, and writing style. Recommended for public and academic libraries.-Bryan Craig, Ursuline Coll., Pepper Pike, OH Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Old Hickory was a man of actions, not ideas-but a better president than past historians have held. Few politicians these days, even of a demagogic bent, go out of their way to claim descent along Jacksonian lines, and for good reason: The conservatives of Jackson's time reviled him as "an American Caesar who had stirred the blockhead masses, seized power, and installed a new despotism"; the liberals of the day and their intellectual progeny reviled Jackson for his anti-abolitionism and his conduct of genocidal campaigns against southeastern Indian peoples. Wilentz (The Rise of American Democracy, 2005, etc.) allows the inutility of using modern labels to categorize political views of the past, and in all events, Jackson is hard to pin down. Wilentz portrays Jackson as a populist who was fonder of Jeffersonian movement than of Federalist stability, who prized egalitarianism over privilege and who personified what other historians have called the Age of Democratic Revolution, which began with the American and French experiments and ended with 1848. He "dedicated his presidency to vindicating and expanding [the prospect that America could be the world's best hope] by ridding the nation of a recrudescent corrupt privilege that he believed was killing it," and he was particularly committed to defeating the entrenched wealthy in their own temples-namely, the new banks. Jacksonian monetary policy, always a confusing topic, is rendered fairly lucidly here, though Wilentz plays against tough odds when he has to condense the controversies over hard money versus soft and the effects of international debt on the economy of the early republic into only a few paragraphs. In the end, Wilentz does asolid job of explaining the contributions of the Jackson presidency-and notes that, despite Jackson's expansionist reputation, during his eight years in office, "Andrew Jackson did not add an inch of soil to the American dominion."A worthy introduction to the Age of Jackson, now receiving increased attention from historians.
Book about: Competing for Advantage or Brave New War
The Enduring Debate: Classic and Contemporary Readings in American Politics
Author: David T Canon
The most comprehensive reader available for courses in American government, The Enduring Debate, Fourth Edition, balances classic and contemporary selections from a variety of scholarly and popular sources. In addition, each chapter presents at least two readings in debate-style format, encouraging students to read critically and to explore the different sides of an issue.
University of California, Irvine - Mark P. Petracca
The best selection yet of readings necessary for an introduction to American politics and highly appropriate for undergraduates.
Bloomsburg University - Gloria T. Cohen-Dion
This is an excellent book; presenting the issues before the "debate" from several different perspectives is a fine idea.
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