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David's Reviews > American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
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I like Jon Meacham better than I do Andrew Jackson. Other reviewers here on Goodreads have said all the important things that I would say and more about his book, “American Lion”. Anyway here’s my 2 cents worth:
Jackson was not one of the greatest presidents, in my opinion. Even so, he was a stubborn leader with fixed views; and like most absolutists, he would not recant and forged ahead with his determined programs, thereby saving the Presidency and ultimately the nation as the future would prove.
He was dead wrong on Indian removal, which affected my own ancestors in Mississippi and Alabama. Even many of his contemporaries in the affected states disagreed with his Indian policy.
He faced down the Know-Nothings and similar stiff-necks, who for me at least made these decades of American history so boring that it’s a wonder that I’m still interested. Hence, the reason we must read this book, which fills in a gap of our ignorance of what was going on between the Revolution and the Civil War.
He stood firm against the Clay and Calhoun factions in Congress, proving to me at least how delinquent South Carolina and their Southern allies were in their traitorous undermining of federal democracy as intended by the geniuses who formed the Constitution.
He could have but did not take a stand on slavery in that he had slaves, sometimes punishing them severely for running away, but he really thought they were created equal and should be freed. (You can say a thing but not do a thing; but Meacham explains with his usual thorough scholarship how Jackson really meant this.)
The star that Jackson followed was the Union with the people in charge—and nothing less. If it hadn’t been for Jackson, Meacham suggests, Abraham Lincoln as we know him may never have been able to truly save the Union. Fortunately, Lincoln studied Jackson’s presidency closely.
Jackson was a brave man and would take no insult from even the very powerful French, who almost got ready to invade the US due to Jackson’s insistence that they had to repay a large debt to this country, which they had refused to do.
He was too concerned with his family for a world leader at that time. As Meacham describes it, there was a whole passel of competing females pulling at each other’s bonnet strings that it just became too frustrating for Jackson and consequently for the reader. Yet, this perspective—especially, brings out the real humanity of Andrew Jackson.
Jackson was not one of the greatest presidents, in my opinion. Even so, he was a stubborn leader with fixed views; and like most absolutists, he would not recant and forged ahead with his determined programs, thereby saving the Presidency and ultimately the nation as the future would prove.
He was dead wrong on Indian removal, which affected my own ancestors in Mississippi and Alabama. Even many of his contemporaries in the affected states disagreed with his Indian policy.
He faced down the Know-Nothings and similar stiff-necks, who for me at least made these decades of American history so boring that it’s a wonder that I’m still interested. Hence, the reason we must read this book, which fills in a gap of our ignorance of what was going on between the Revolution and the Civil War.
He stood firm against the Clay and Calhoun factions in Congress, proving to me at least how delinquent South Carolina and their Southern allies were in their traitorous undermining of federal democracy as intended by the geniuses who formed the Constitution.
He could have but did not take a stand on slavery in that he had slaves, sometimes punishing them severely for running away, but he really thought they were created equal and should be freed. (You can say a thing but not do a thing; but Meacham explains with his usual thorough scholarship how Jackson really meant this.)
The star that Jackson followed was the Union with the people in charge—and nothing less. If it hadn’t been for Jackson, Meacham suggests, Abraham Lincoln as we know him may never have been able to truly save the Union. Fortunately, Lincoln studied Jackson’s presidency closely.
Jackson was a brave man and would take no insult from even the very powerful French, who almost got ready to invade the US due to Jackson’s insistence that they had to repay a large debt to this country, which they had refused to do.
He was too concerned with his family for a world leader at that time. As Meacham describes it, there was a whole passel of competing females pulling at each other’s bonnet strings that it just became too frustrating for Jackson and consequently for the reader. Yet, this perspective—especially, brings out the real humanity of Andrew Jackson.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
June 3, 2018
– Shelved
June 3, 2018
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Finished Reading
November 1, 2020
– Shelved as:
history-american-presidents
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Jun 08, 2018 05:13AM
A very powerful and critically written review. I will in the future read this book following the read I intend to do on the Robert Remini book The Life of Andrew Jackson; I very much appreciate the recommendation you sent to me.
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I've been intending to read a book about Jackson, so thank you for the recommendation. However, I've hesitated because, with my interest in Native America, reading about the Indian removals will be upsetting and, frankly, produce not a little guilt, because my own ancestors clearly admired Jackson very much. (I have a great-great-grandfather named "Andrew Jackson McIntosh" as well as not one, but two, great-great-uncles named after him, creating great confusion among the genealogists in my family but leaving no doubt as to our forebears' politics!)The book "Born Fighting" that I noticed you had added to your Goodreads list did a good job of explaining the importance of Jackson's election to the Scots-Irish on the frontier (as well as the cultural history and mind-set of the Scots-Irish, in general.) Having said that, I found the second half of the book to be more memoir than history. Still, I learned a great deal about my own heritage from this book, and that was meaningful to me.
Keep the recommendations and the reviews coming -- I greatly appreciate them! (I just hope I live long enough to make it through my ever-expanding TBR list! Lol)
A review worth reading again David - I will look forward to this book in the future. Thank you!
You review encouraged me to type "Andrew Jackson & slavery" and then google it. I was taken to a website called 'History', and it was pretty scathing in its condemnation of Jackson's attitude towards slavery. It blamed the way his attitudes are generally accepted, on the perspective of his biographers. It was a simple and straightforward piece, so perhaps it overlooked the subtlety of Jon Meacham's arguments defending Jackson - but certainly, given a casual reading, he sounded both brutal towards his slaves and dismissive of the efforts of those who promoted freedom from slavery.
Not our favorite president, for sure.
An interesting take on this president, David.
Many contradictions in his personality as is found not only in American Presidents but just about everybody I get to know well, which makes me ever more interested in evolution.
It's timely to read this review again in the wake of today's effort by protestors to topple Jackson's statue in Lafayette Park. It's hard not to understand their feelings, but where does it all end? Do we tear down everything? We live in interesting times, for sure.
Ideas don't dwell in statues, so those Jacksonian ideas that matter will stand whether there is a statue or not. Mobs in a democracy are effluvium that washes away, as the ancients warned us about, and like you say, it's not what they are protesting that drains away with them it's the passion--passion which works best only with love.
