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A review by creativelycliche
Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times by H.W. Brands
3.0
I will admit up front to a certain bias against Andrew Jackson. I side with many of his contemporary critics on a number of his 'successes'. Jackson was a man who believed first and foremost in his own righteousness and infallibility. By the time he was president he truly believed that he was the mouthpiece for the people, and was perfectly happy to stomp over whatever political or legal barricades were put up to stop him.
This book claims to be an unbiased account, and there are reviews of it that praise it's objectivity, but I can't agree with them. Brands does certainly bring up many of Jackson's faults, but he doesn't leave it to the reader to decide if those faults were mortal or not - he spends a lot of time defending Jackson's actions from Jackson's point of view. Ignoring the Supreme Court? Well (here I paraphrase) "Jackson really believed it would be better for the indians to live separately from the whites". I'm sure he did believe that, even earnestly. But what a silly defense for the Trail of Tears.
The positives of this book are that it is thorough, and that it does not cover up Jackson's actions, just comes up with excuses for him. It is not at all impossible to come out of this with a conclusion different than the author, although I have some major issues with describing Lincoln as a Jacksonian. He was an "odd Jacksonian" because he wasn't a Jacksonian, Brands. Believing in the Union was not somehow a singularly Jacksonian idea.
I don't know if this is the best biography of Jackson out there, but it is a good one. I just encourage you to read it with a grain of salt.
This book claims to be an unbiased account, and there are reviews of it that praise it's objectivity, but I can't agree with them. Brands does certainly bring up many of Jackson's faults, but he doesn't leave it to the reader to decide if those faults were mortal or not - he spends a lot of time defending Jackson's actions from Jackson's point of view. Ignoring the Supreme Court? Well (here I paraphrase) "Jackson really believed it would be better for the indians to live separately from the whites". I'm sure he did believe that, even earnestly. But what a silly defense for the Trail of Tears.
The positives of this book are that it is thorough, and that it does not cover up Jackson's actions, just comes up with excuses for him. It is not at all impossible to come out of this with a conclusion different than the author, although I have some major issues with describing Lincoln as a Jacksonian. He was an "odd Jacksonian" because he wasn't a Jacksonian, Brands. Believing in the Union was not somehow a singularly Jacksonian idea.
I don't know if this is the best biography of Jackson out there, but it is a good one. I just encourage you to read it with a grain of salt.