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Andrew Jackson (Great Generals) | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert V. Remini
Creator: Wesley K. Clark
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $10.97
You Save: $10.98 (50%)
New (33) Used (12) from $8.05
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 140602
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9
ISBN: 0230600158
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.56092
EAN: 9780230600157
ASIN: 0230600158
Publication Date: September 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Amazon.com Review
This brief biography focuses more on the political career of Andrew Jackson than on his military heroism at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. It nevertheless provides an overview of the martial events that made Jackson's rise to the presidency possible. Robert Remini is widely touted as one of the great historians of the Jacksonian era, and Andrew Jackson is his most accessible book on the period's most intriguing figure.
Product Description
The newest addition to Palgrave's Great Generals series focuses on Andrew Jackson's career including his time as a general in Tennessee and his rise up the Army ranks. Jackson's effective use of spies in war time and of martial law in peace time sparked a debate about the curtailing of civil liberties in the name of national security that continues to this day. Most of all, Jackson was a great motivator who could, with a few carefully selected words and by his own brave example, turn around starved, deserting troops, convincing them to fight. With dramatic scenes of fierce battles and victories, Remini reveals here why Jackson's bold leadership as a general led to his election as President of the United States in 1828.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Another Remini Masterpiece February 11, 2007
I have read several of this author's works, and have never been disappointed. It is easy to see why he has become an acknowledged expert on the "Age of Jackson." His writing is always very easy to digest, and his insights are illuminating. I highly recommend this book, and the audio version is equally enjoyable.
 Interesting book. December 21, 2006
We had to read this book in my AP U.S. History class. It is good. My theory on the reason why Remini wrote this book was to explain why Jackson did the things he did like the duels and make up for them. I never realized how interesting the presidents were espically Jackson. Good book to read.
Setting The Record Straight: Remini, Jackson and the Spoils System March 13, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Few Americans have won the mythical status enjoyed by Andrew Jackson. Often portrayed, in his day and since, as the champion of the common man, Jackson came to Washington as an outsider, the first President born outside the thirteen original states, indeed the first president born neither in Virginia nor Massachusetts. Throughout Jackson historiography, Jackson via his policy of `rotation' in office has been accused of instituting the spoils system in American politics. This criticism highlights how Whig myths have come to permeate the historical writing on this subject.
Starting with James Parton in 1860, anti-Jackson historians have followed this criticism, blaming Jackson for replacing a supposed merit system with a partisanship that corrupted the civil service for generations. Despite further research since Jackson's time, many historians have uncritically repeated these accusations without examining the actual record of appointments during the presidency unhappily described by some as "The Reign of Andrew Jackson".
There have been essentially four cycles of studies into the life and Presidency of Andrew Jackson. The first cycle began soon after the death of Jackson with the "liberal patrician" or "Whig" school, who were generally unfavourable towards the policy of rotation. Most familiar is James Parton's classic The "Life of Andrew Jackson". So critical of rotation was Parton that he stated "this single feature of his administration would suffice to render it deplorable rather than admirable." Other members of the "Whig" school include Sumner, Schouler and Von Holst, all very critical of Jackson's policy of rotation. Parton's biography was the standard source on the Jacksonian era, until the second cycle represented by the Progressive Historians, such as John Spencer Bassett's "The Life of Andrew Jackson (1911), which cast Jackson in somewhat of a different light. Bassett reduces the amount of blame put on Jackson for rotation by suggesting that his democratic views made him oblivious to unintentional dangers from partisan appointments. However, the Progressives shared with the Whigs the view that Jackson had brought a spoils system to national politics and that its effects were negative.
Historians in the third cycle of Jacksonian studies, of which Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.'s "The Age of Jackson" (1945) served as a pivotal work, shifted attention away from Jackson himself towards larger forces in his era. Historians of the third cycle, such as Hofstadter and Hammond, debated the effects of class and culture in determining party differences while showing little interest in evaluating Jackson's rotation policy, though tending to criticise it briefly. No biographies of Jackson discussed the policy of rotation in depth during the next thirty years.
The appearance of Robert V. Remini's three-volume biography of Jackson marked the start of the fourth cycle of interpretation. Based on modern scholarship, Remini covers all aspects of Jackson's life and career, demonstrating his contribution to the great developments of nineteenth century America, particularly empire, freedom and democracy. By returning to first hand sources, Remini shows that the policy of rotation in office has been exaggerated and misunderstood. However, having set himself the remarkable task of producing a thorough study of the life and Presidency of Jackson, Remini did not have the scope for a detailed re-interpretation and re-evaluation of rotation. Since Remini's work there have been many scholarly works on Jackson, but none offer an in-depth reassessment of rotation as touched upon by Remini.
Remini states that Jackson has received a disproportionate share of the blame for the spoils system and that there is a need to disprove the Whig myths, which have come to permeate the historical writings of historians over the generations. Remini was not the first to stress the need for such a revision; in fact a similar plea was expressed by J.R. Poinsett in the "Oration on the life and character of Andrew Jackson, delivered July 4, 1845" when he stated about Jackson, "His instinctive love of justice... gave a high tone to his government and exalted the honor of his country. His hatred of corruption rendered his administration pure.... I will content myself with expressing my belief that in future time the impartial historian will justify both his motives and his conduct on this trying occasion.
Remini offers the reader a great insight into the pioneering mind of one of America's greatest Presidents.
[The above Review is taken in part from 'Andrew Jackson's policy of 'Rotation in Office' by Alexander Rayden. Copyright 2005 Alexander Rayden, All Rights Reserved].
 Snatching Democracy from the Jaws of Oligarchy May 10, 2005
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Few American presidents could be said to have left such a distinctive mark on the office and the nation as Andrew Jackson. Even as Jackson's legend fades into the mists of the past, we owe it to ourselves to reach back and draw it up into the light of honor accorded such giants as Washington, Lincoln and FDR, because Jackson was a figure of equal stature. One way to accomplish this is to read Robert V. Remini's concise history entitled simply Andrew Jackson, a quick, yet surprisingly thorough chronicling of Jackson's many achievements as president, politician, general and pivotal figure in the establishment and settlement of the state of Tennessee.
What makes Jackson so interesting is the way his checkered past shaped the trajectory of his Presidency. Decades before Lincoln, he was the first president to be born into rustic circumstances and rise above them to achieve greatness, but unlike Lincoln, his story is not that of a paragon of virtue overcoming adversity with folksy charm and wit. Jackson was a bully, an adulterer, a blowhard and a holder of grudges, character flaws that he eventually reshaped to his advantage, and to that of the nation's.
Humiliated and wounded as a boy during the Revolution, Jackson carried a lethal grudge against the British that eventually got its airing during the War of 1812 when he commanded US forces in the Battle of New Orleans and won a lopsided victory that sent a stinging message to the rest of the world about the folly of underestimating America's determination to defend its sovereignty.
It made him a hero and launched his political career, an enterprise that might have been merely interesting were it not for Jackson's staunch determination to take the smug creatures of privilege in Washington by the scruff of their collective neck and teach them a stern lesson about whose country it really was. By 1828 the nation was already in danger of being sold out to the highest bidder and Jackson rose to power on the promise of snatching Democracy from the jaws of Oligarchy. Remini's speculates that, in some measure, this came from Jackson's early experience after having been ripped off in a land deal by moneyed interests.
In any case, Jackson was as good as his word, going after the all powerful National Bank with a vengeance, staring down the threat of secession on the part of South Carolina over a question of tariffs, and defeating formidable political foes with equal helpings of restraint and ferocity. Jackson helped found the state of Tennessee, was instrumental in the establishment of the Democratic Party, virtually invented modern campaigning, was the first president to wield the veto with brio, and elevated the office of the Presidency to its present formidable role. But Jackson's most lasting contribution was his faith in and reliance on the people, even after he'd been elected, a true Democrat of a type almost entirely missing today and one not likely to be resurrected any time soon.
Remini is a comprehensive Jackson scholar, one whose works on the Hero of New Orleans number eleven. This book is more or less an abridged version of his longer work and represents a cherry picking of facts and reflections. Regrettably, the book favors facts over reflections which is unfortunate, because one would like to know more about Remini's interpretations of events. But if you want to pick up a basic understanding of Andrew Jackson and his importance to American history this book is a wonderful start.
Jackson's parting words on leaving office were, "Remember, my fellow citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing." What politician would ever say that today?
That Jackson is increasingly forgotten when discussing the great Presidents of our history says something, too, about our ability to retain the blessing for future generations.
A Great American President May 2, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
On a recent of list of great presidents in American history, Andrew Jackson was ranked near the top. Yet there is no Andrew Jackson Day. Most people would be hard pressed to name a single fact about "Old Hickory". Yet if he lived in the age of the cable news network, he may have been the most scandalous president ever. In this short but very well written biography, Robert Remini does a comendable job documenting the life of General Andrew Jackson.
Jackson was raised in far from ideal conditions. When his parents died when he was young, he lived with several different relatives at varying times. After growing up in the Carolinas, he moved west to Tennesse where opportunity was available. In Tennesse, he became a very accomplished attorney which allowed him to accumulate wealth. It was in Tennesse that he met his wife Rachel who was in a failing marriage. For a time, Jackson actually lived under the same roof as Rachel and her then husband. When Rachel's first marriage became irreconcilable, she immediately married Jackson. Unfortunately, it was not until three years later that Rachel's first husband officially filed the divorce papers. This forced Andrew and Rachel to marry again to make the union legal.
Jackson's early political career was not remarkable. He had less than fulfilling stints in the House and Senate before he achieved real glory in the military. Jackson is most noted for his conquests in the War of 1812 and battles with American Indians. Riding the wave of his military glory, he was elected president. In doing this he also helped to found the Democratic party. Jackson's accomplishemnts as president include his elimination of the National Bank, forcing the French to pay war reparations, and ending the spoils system that plagued the government. He was championed as a common man's president because of this Tennesse background and military service.
The whole life of Andrew Jackson is not disclosed in this review, but this book is an excellent source to discover his life. Remini's writing is not bogged down in political lingo, but tells the story for those interested in reading about a great life. While a short read, it is thorough and highly enjoyable.
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