Andrew Jackson: The American Presidents Series: The 7th President, 1829-1837

Andrew Jackson: The American Presidents Series: The 7th President, 1829-1837The towering figure who remade American politics the champion of the ordinary citizen and the scourge of entrenched privilege "It is rare that historians manage both Wilentz's deep interpretation and lively narrative." Publishers Weekly 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

The towering figure who remade American politics--the champion of the ordinary citizen and the scourge of entrenched privilege

"It is rare that historians manage both Wilentz's deep interpretation and lively narrative." - Publishers Weekly

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.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Times Books
Published: 12/27/2005
ISBN: 9780805069259
Pages: 195
Weight: 1.06lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.30w x 1.00d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2005 pg. 1180
Publishers Weekly 10/31/2005 pg. 42
Library Journal 12/01/2005 pg. 142
Booklist 12/15/2005 pg. 16
Choice 10/01/2006 pg. 363
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2006 pg. 71