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American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House |  | Author: Jon Meacham
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
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Seller: abookheaven
Rating:  188 reviews
Sales Rank: 25156
Format: Deckle Edge
Media: Hardcover
Edition: ZZZ
Pages: 512
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.7
ISBN: 1400063256
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.56092
EAN: 9781400063253
ASIN: 1400063256
Publication Date: November 11, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9781400063253 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
Andrew Jackson, his intimate circle of friends, and his tumultuous times are at the heart of this remarkable book about the man who rose from nothing to create the modern presidency. Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy. Jackson’s election in 1828 ushered in a new and lasting era in which the people, not distant elites, were the guiding force in American politics. Democracy made its stand in the Jackson years, and he gave voice to the hopes and the fears of a restless, changing nation facing challenging times at home and threats abroad. To tell the saga of Jackson’s presidency, acclaimed author Jon Meacham goes inside the Jackson White House. Drawing on newly discovered family letters and papers, he details the human drama–the family, the women, and the inner circle of advisers–that shaped Jackson’s private world through years of storm and victory.
One of our most significant yet dimly recalled presidents, Jackson was a battle-hardened warrior, the founder of the Democratic Party, and the architect of the presidency as we know it. His story is one of violence, sex, courage, and tragedy. With his powerful persona, his evident bravery, and his mystical connection to the people, Jackson moved the White House from the periphery of government to the center of national action, articulating a vision of change that challenged entrenched interests to heed the popular will–or face his formidable wrath. The greatest of the presidents who have followed Jackson in the White House–from Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt to FDR to Truman–have found inspiration in his example, and virtue in his vision.
Jackson was the most contradictory of men. The architect of the removal of Indians from their native lands, he was warmly sentimental and risked everything to give more power to ordinary citizens. He was, in short, a lot like his country: alternately kind and vicious, brilliant and blind; and a man who fought a lifelong war to keep the republic safe–no matter what it took.
Jon Meacham in American Lion has delivered the definitive human portrait of a pivotal president who forever changed the American presidency–and America itself.
Exclusive Amazon.com Q&A with Jon Meacham and H.W. Brands On the eve of the historic 2008 presidential election, we were fortunate to chat with historians Jon Meacham and H.W. Brands (author of Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt) on the similarities of their presidential subjects and how the legacies of FDR and Jackson continue to shape the political world we see today. Amazon.com: One of Andrew Jackson's childhood friends once remarked that when they wrestled, "I could throw him three times out of four, but he never stayed throwed." How emblematic is this of Jackson's career? Meacham: Utterly emblematic. Jackson was resilient, tough, and wily, rising from nothing to become the dominant political figure of the age. He was crushed by his loss in 1824, when, despite carrying the popular vote, he was defeated in the House of Representatives. But, tellingly, he began his campaign for 1828 almost immediately, on the way home to Tennessee. And he won the next time. Amazon.com: What would Jackson think of Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Meacham: I think they would have gotten along famously. It is difficult to imagine men from more starkly different backgrounds—to take just one example, Jackson lost his mother early, and FDR was long shaped by his mother—but they both viewed the presidency the same way: they both believed they should be in it, wielding power on behalf of the masses against entrenched interests. Amazon.com: How important was Jackson's legacy to FDR's Presidency? Brands: Jackson was FDR’s favorite president, and Jackson’s presidency was the one Roosevelt initially modeled his own after. FDR saw Jackson as the champion of the ordinary people of America; he saw himself the same way. He compared Jackson’s battle with the Bank of the United States to his own battle with entrenched economic interests. And just as Jackson had reveled in the enmity of the rich, so did Roosevelt. Amazon.com: Although both were regarded as champions of the people, their backgrounds were drastically different. FDR hailed from a wealthy and politically-connected family, while Jackson was an orphaned son of immigrants. How did each manage to endear themselves to the voters of their day? Meacham: Jackson was in many ways the first great popular candidate. He had “Hickory Clubs,” and there were torchlit parades and barbecues—lots and lots of barbecues. Jackson helped mastermind the means of campaigning that would become commonplace. He also intuitively understood the power of image, and kept a portrait painter, Ralph Earl, near to hand in the White House. Brands: FDR combined noblesse oblige with felt concern for the plight of the poor. His polio had something to do with this—it introduced him to personal suffering, and it also introduced him, in Georgia, where he went for rehabilitation, to poor farmers unlike any he had spent time with before. He came to know them and to feel the problems they faced. He took people in trouble seriously and communicated that seriousness to them. Continue reading this Q&A
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 188
 The first "progressive" President? February 21, 2010
Johan Temmerman
Jon Meacham's well-written American Lion provides a highly detailed insight into the goings-on in Andrew Jackson's White House. It seems the Jackson presidency was characterised by an intricate intertwining between politics and family affairs, and in that respect the narrative makes some of the most fascinating reading of any biography I have read. Unfortunately, and far less unique, the author's present-day views of past rights and wrongs tend to inflitrate his subject matter, skewering what could have been an objective review of this important chapter of US history. Thus, for instance, the author repeats the fallacy (or at the very least, the oversimplification) that "the preservation of slavery" was the cause of the Civil War. He agrees that the Tariff of Abomination was just that to the southern States and calls the South's opposition to it legitimate, but stops short of saying that the South had cause to mistrust the North's motives and machinations, which would eventually lead to the South's secession. Northern machinations well before 1860 included so-called "internal improvements" (as well as the moneyed interests behind them) that Jackson actively fought; while the author correctly states that these most benefited the western and middle States, in fact they also enriched the North, at the expense of Southern taxpayers who disproportionately paid for them while being denied the benefits. Mr. Meacham is bending over backwards to avoid giving any hint of credit to the Southern cause. Another irksome detail is that he decries slavery in the usual terms, but decidedly glosses over the unsavory aspects (were there any other?) of the Indian removal that John Ehle's Trail of Tears so harrowingly chronicles. Mr. Meacham likes Andrew Jackson because he favored both the notion of dominant, indivisible Union as well as limited government. We know how that turned out: the first was bought at the cost of 600,000 American lives - not counting civilians - and on the second we can at least all agree that it's a thing of the past in America, just like in Europe. The author of this powerful biography casts Jackson as a progressive in the Roosevelt-Wilson-FDR tradition. If true, it is a sad epitaph for this remarkable, if not uncontroversial, President.
 Very long-winded February 16, 2010
K. Mullen
I generally like historical biographies, but this book is overwhelming. There are so many stories of each phase of Jackson's life that it's easy to lose track of where you are in history. If you are a Jackson scholar, it's probably a great text, but if you're just looking for a casual historical read, this book bogs you down.
review of American Lion February 7, 2010
Edward J. Cooke (Del.)
Terrific content to the book for any history buff ; numerous details of President Jackson's life I was unaware of . Great reference work done to have so many details of events during Andrew Jackson's life .
Ruined by author's political biases February 3, 2010
NA Miles (West Rising Sun, IN)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
"American Lion" is a well-researched, well-written book. I disagree with those who complained about long sentences and too many quotes, as I rather enjoyed those. I also believe that the book is thankfully not an academic study, and therefore covers the man and his time to a very thorough degree, especially with the new information Meacham uncovers.
But Meacham, by virtue of his job as Editor of Newsweek (one of the laziest, most biased 'mainstream' rags around), is a big liberal who I've seen on TV praising Obama, bashing Republicans, etc. Still though, I gave the book a chance. And I was sailing through first 100 pages, enjoying, until Meacham goes Howard Zinn, and hits his readers with a solid 50 solid pages of Jackson-bashing, bashing white men, America-bashing, religion-bashing (Christians, of course) praising "Indian resistence," (rarely mentioning the heinous atrocities the "natives" did for centuries upon the white men) condemning the entire early 19th century era as "racist" America, etc.
I poured through that, then completed the book; but by this point, I took all the text with a grain of salt. Too bad because the book has potential.
In the 21st century, thanks to the late Mr. Zinn and his truly racist/revisionist crowd of pseudo-historians, you cannot trust a lefty to write a bio of any historic white American, even a Democrat like Jackson. (Of course, like Truman and other old-fashioned Dems, Old Hickory would be a Republican today. In fact, he probably would have been a Republican by the late 1850s, as he admired Lincoln and deplored the southern Dems and their slave-holding ways, which continues into 2010.)
If you are to read presidential/historic bios, read something pre Zinn era: pre 1975.
 Very Interesting January 25, 2010
M. Porter (Virginia)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My review is for those people who are not history buffs like me, but maybe fit into the category of someone like me. Having no real background in either history or biographies, I decided to visit the Pulitzer Prize website to learn about the winners inside the Biography section. That is where I learned first about this book and about the author. As the winner for 2009, I wanted to read it, and so I went to my local library and checked out a copy.
Coming from somebody who doesn't read a whole lot, I found the pacing to be fitting for the type of story that can be written for a biography. Since I haven't read many biographies, I know that the comparison seems lacking, but honestly I didn't find the book boring with large amounts of crazy facts, strange and unusual things to have to remember, or names that didn't seem important for the progress. So I rank this book pretty high in aiming at someone like me who only knew about Andrew Jackson by name, and that's pretty much it.
The book's length is nothing to worry about. In hardback, it's around 350 pages, but the pace is good and I didn't feel like it was a chore to read.
There were lots of interesting facts, of course, but also the author decided early on to hammer in themes that he found interesting while investigating the presidency, and actually life, of Andrew Jackson. Frankly, the most important realization that I took away from my experience reading this book is that Andrew Jackson was a man of the people, and he felt that the American people were his family. He fought his entire life to preserve the people, and I get the sense that a lot of his characteristics can be looked at today as being statues of good faith. Being a religious man myself, I felt some of the pain that Jackson had to go through, in trying to find ways out of situations that shouldn't be felt. I believe the author does a great job in representing Jackson's pain, his struggles, his triumphs, his victories, his failures, his emotional attachments, his strong will, and his compassion for the American people.
I know that down the road, future presidents will want to aspire to some of the good deeds and positive influences that come from Andrew Jackson. In 2010, I found some of the same things that we fight today to be on the same level as the things that Jackson fought in the 1830's. If you are in politics, and you desire to learn about a president like Andrew Jackson, you probably already have read this book. But if you are like me, new to history (in a way) and also new biographies, don't be afraid to pick this book up at your local library, or buy from Amazon. You can even download a sample from the Kindle store, and if you have the Ipod Touch, you can get the app and it's really easy to do.
I give it 5 stars because I just had a good time reading the story. Andrew Jackson's life is both inspiring and highlighted and I feel like I have gained much insight by reading. Thanks to the author and contributors for the book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 188
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