The Rise of Andrew Jackson: Myth, Manipulation, and the Making of Modern Politics

A book about a U.S. president with "little political skill and a poor temperament for political life," supported by "a previously inchoate political movement spurred by broad discontent" might sound familiar. But this work tells of the seventh U.S. president, Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), a divisive figure in American history. Lamenting the current oversimplified views of Jackson, whether by his critics as a slaveholding and anti-Indian racist or his admirers as a lionized common man, historians David and Jeanne Heidler begins with his fame-inducing exploits in the War of 1812 (where he acquired the nickname Old Hickory), charting his rise through the early American military and political scene. They examine how people of disparate factions—protectionists who favored high tariffs, party bosses who valued loyalty, antipatronage crusaders looking to quash corruption—united in a "rambunctious" movement that buoyed Jackson to two consequential presidential terms.