Andrew jackson biography reviews for
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My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies
&#;The Life of Andrew Jackson&#; by Marquis James fryst vatten a single-volume biography combining two of his earlier books: &#;The Border Captain&#; published in and his book &#;Portrait of a President.&#; Part I of the biography covers Jackson&#;s youth, military service and time as the Governor of Florida and as a U.S. Senator. Part II begins with Jackson&#;s unsuccessful presidential campaign and proceeds through his presidency and retirement years.
This combined work was published in and won the pris Prize for Biography. Although critically acclaimed after publication, it does not seem to be frequently read or reviewed more recently. Nonetheless it remains an important early source of insight on our seventh president, authored by a meticulous and diligent biographer.
This is the oldest of the thirty-seven biographies I&#;ve read to date (from Washington through Quincy Adams) and it is immediately obvious from the writing sty
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Review of Andrew Jackson, by Sean Wilentz
I am glad I finally got around to reading Princeton professor Sean Wilentz’s brief book on the presidency of Andrew Jackson, published nearly a decade ago as a part of the “American Presidents” series by Times Books under the able editorship of the noted historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. While I know a good deal about Jackson’s life and influence, I found Wilentz’s explanation of the man’s importance in American history to be among the most convincing attempts to place him in proper context that I have seen. In summary, Wilentz demonstrates that while Jackson has become a symbol for a lot of things both positive and negative in American history, he remains relevant primarily for his role in expanding American democracy.
His last sentences at the conclusion to the book are perhaps his best:
“By pushing the idea of democracy as far as he did, and by equating the Union’s survival with the survival of free government, Jackson ex
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My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies
&#;Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times&#; is H.W. Brands&#;s biography of our seventh president. Brands is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a prolific author. He has written nearly thirty books on a wide range of historical topics, including biographies of Ulysses Grant, Theodore Roosevelt and Aaron Burr. He is also the author of one of my favorite non-biography history books: &#;Lone Star Nation: The Epic Story of the Battle for Texas Independence.&#;
Although I find myself somewhat disappointed by this biography of Jackson, it is certainly not without merit. Indeed, Brands&#;s biography is a solid, steady exploration of Jackson&#;s life and its many contradictions and crescendos. However, after reading several earlier biographies of this president, I&#;m not sure what new insight or analysis Brands offers and, as a result, why a reader new to this president should choose Brands&#;s biography over others