Andrew Jackson (edit title)

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Liked It Rated 4 stars “This is probably the best single volume biography of Old Hickory. Remini is America's top Jacksonian. He wrote this one for a general audience so it isn't as dry as his academic stuff. This is a fair and honest look at Jackson's life, achievements and failures. I still don't like him but I...” see full review » see other reviews »

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  • Rated 4 stars

  “This is probably the best single volume biography of Old Hickory. Remini is America's top Jacksonian. He wrote this one for a general audience so it isn't as dry as his academic stuff. This is a fair and honest look at Jackson's life, achievements and failures. I still don't like him but I understand him better.”

  Sorella M wrote this review Wednesday, July 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No

  
  
  • Rated 5 stars

  “The life of Andrew Jackson (“Old Hickory”) is also the story of the life and maturation of a young American nation. Andrew Jackson, hailing from Tennessee, was often seen as a volatile man who dueled for his wife’s honor, and warred for maintaining his nation’s independence. He was also known for his opposition to the National Bank and the stabilization of our financial institutions and systems (the only American president with no federal debt!). Unfortunately, as a visit to Jackson's home will attest (The Hermitage outside of Nashville Tennessee), Jackson was the owner of a large number of slaves. As much as many want to proclaim that Jackson was merely a "man of his times," I prefer to state bluntly what historian Bobby Lovett of Tennessee State University was quoted as saying in a recent LA Times article (March 21, 2008): "To enslave another human being, you can't be a good person. You have to be a pretty tough, vicious, mean person to hold another person or another 140 people in slavery for all of their lives." Was Jackson truly a “tough, vicious, mean person?” In regards to slavery, yes. However I also remember biographer Robert Remini’s description of Andrew Jackson as being a very loyal husband to his wife Rachel who became more dependent on her Christian faith to sustain her during her latter years; both Jackson and his wife remained devout Presbyterians. The following are Jackson’s recorded last words before his death, “I am in the hands of a merciful God. I have full confidence in his goodness and mercy . . . The Bible is true . . . I have tried to conform to its spirit as near as possible. Upon that sacred volume I rest my hope for eternal salvation, through the merits and blood of our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Later Remini records, “The hero of New Orleans, the terror of Indians, Spaniards, British soldiers, politicians, and other assorted ‘villains,’ lay on his deathbed praying with fervor and deep conviction.””

  tapbirds wrote this review Friday, March 21 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No