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Title details for Andrew Jackson by H. W. Brands - Wait list

Andrew Jackson

A Life and Times

by H. W. Brands
John H. Mayer
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The extraordinary story of Andrew Jackson—the colorful, dynamic, and forceful president who ushered in the Age of Democracy and set a still young America on its path to greatness—told by the bestselling author of The First American.

The most famous American of his time, Andrew Jackson is a seminal figure in American history. The first “common man” to rise to the presidency, Jackson embodied the spirit and the vision of the emerging American nation; the term “Jacksonian democracy” is embedded in our national lexicon.
With the sweep, passion, and attention to detail that made The First American a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a national bestseller, historian H.W. Brands shapes a historical narrative that’s as fast-paced and compelling as the best fiction. He follows Andrew Jackson from his days as rebellious youth, risking execution to free the Carolinas of the British during the Revolutionary War, to his years as a young lawyer and congressman from the newly settled frontier state of Tennessee. As general of the Tennessee militia, he put down a massive Indian uprising in the South, securing the safety of American settlers, and his famous rout of the British at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 made him a national hero.
But it is Jackson’s contributions as president, however, that won him a place in the pantheon of America’s greatest leaders. A man of the people, without formal education or the family lineage of the Founding Fathers, he sought as president to make the country a genuine democracy, governed by and for the people. Jackson, although respectful of states’ rights, devoted himself to the preservation of the Union, whose future in that age was still very much in question. When South Carolina, his home state, threatened to secede over the issue of slavery, Jackson promised to march down with 100,000 federal soldiers should it dare.
In the bestselling tradition of Founding Brothers and His Excellency by Joseph Ellis and of John Adams by David McCullough, Andrew Jackson is the first single-volume, full-length biography of Jackson in decades. This magisterial portrait of one of our greatest leaders promises to reshape our understanding of both the man and his era and is sure to be greeted with enthusiasm and acclaim.
Look for H.W. Brands's other biographies: THE FIRST AMERICAN (Benjamin Franklin), THE MAN WHO SAVED THE UNION (Ulysses S. Grant), TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS (Franklin Roosevelt) and REAGAN.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 13, 2005

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415952269
      • File size: 747770 KB
      • Duration: 25:57:51

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Our seventh president, was quite a character--war hero, brawler, lawyer, carouser, and militant "small-d" democrat. H.W. Brands, of the University of Texas at Austin, presents a detailed, lively, and partisan look at Old Hickory's life, times, and legacy. He makes the period a time of high adventure and Jackson a daredevil hero of the common man. It's all good reading, if not objective history, and the tome gets spirited treatment from narrator John H. Mayer, whose virile, expressive baritone seems particularly apt for the subject. He seems to be discovering the book as he reads, and enjoying every syllable in the process. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      Old Hickory, our seventh president, was lauded as the father of "by the people, for the people" democracy. Nevertheless, this is a warts-and-all bio, showing Jackson as a slaveholder who was also fiercely anti-Native American; he was involved in a controversial marriage and, often, controversial politics. Jackson's pre-presidency years are covered more thoroughly and with more zest than his later years, but Brands's one-volume biography is thorough. Unfortunately, Chuck Montgomery's narration lacks color and dramatic impact as it is delivered in the pedantic voice of a history lecturer. However, his presentation is certainly serviceable, and Brands's dynamic saga is an experience in American politics not to be missed. M.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from July 11, 2005
      Historian Brands, author of the bestselling The First American
      : The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
      , now turns to Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), illuminating both the mettle of a fascinating leader and the crucible in which American democracy was forged. A military hero during the War of 1812 and winner of the popular presidential vote in 1824 (he lost the election in Congress), Jackson won the office handily in 1828. Brands argues that the populist Jackson changed the very nature of the presidency, vetoing more bills than all six of his predecessors combined; thwarting the bank of the United States; and in a dramatic test of wills, preparing for civil war when South Carolina threatened to secede over tariffs. He died at the age of 78, just days after learning that Texas would join the union. Although Brands lacks the narrative flair of David McCullough, his effort is intensely engaging. He meticulously renders Jackson's life, his ugly massacres of Indians as well as his triumphs, with unflinching detail. He also conveys the vagaries of war, life on the frontier, the perilous state of the union and the brass-knuckles politics of the day. The result is a bracing, human portrait of both a remarkable man and of American democracy as it was transformed from a "government of the people" into a "government by the people." Agent, Jim Hornfischer
      .

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 2, 2006
      Sounding like a schoolteacher whiling away a snowy winter's day in his classroom by sharing a historic tale with his students, Montgomery reads Brands's life of the nation's seventh president with careful attention and understated smoothness. Beginning with Jackson's humble roots and Revolutionary War experience in the Carolinas, and taking him through his time in the White House, Brands's biography follows in the footsteps of other recent blockbuster biographies of the presidents. Montgomery's voice maintains a consistent tenor, only occasionally lapsing into clichéd emoting, as he treks his way through the ridges and valleys of Jackson's career. With a faint twang underscoring his flat, uninflected tone, Montgomery's voice sometimes lacks the necessary aura of scholarly authority that would invest Brands's book with its full share of historical richness. Even so, Montgomery keeps listeners intrigued, never allowing the fidgets to set in and smoothly moving Jackson's life along without fuss or undue theatrics. A little more theatricality, though, might have made the entire endeavor a more rewarding experience for Montgomery's students. Simultaneous release with the Doubleday hardcover (Reviews, July 11).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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