Author: Jon Meachem
Year Published: 2008
Rating: 8/10
Review: Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) was the seventh president of the United States. A military hero (especially because of the Battle of New Orleans) he was the first United States president who was not from the "elite". Jackson saw himself as a man of the people and he saw the American people as his family (except for Blacks and American Indians).
In American Lion, Jon Meacham has a formidable task: How to write about a president who he greatly admires for most policies, but finds deplorable for some. He handles this by separating the two. The policies which Meacham (and nearly all modern readers) find deplorable are his attitudes toward slavery (he was a vigorous defender) and the native people of the continent (he saw their removal to lands west of the Mississippi as necessary). These attitudes are not only anathema to us, they were extreme even in Jackson's day. Meacham does not gloss over these facts - indeed, American Lion makes it clear that many contemporaries of Jackson were more enlightened. But Meacham does more or less separate these facets of Jackson's presidency from the others.
In other respects, there is much to admire about Jackson: He oversaw a change in the role of the masses of people and favored voting rights for all adult White men (not just those who owned property). He showed that a person born to poverty could rise to the presidency. He fought and won against the moneyed interests that supported the Bank of the United States. He also supported his friends, despite it costing hm a lot of political capital.
American Lion also makes it clear that Jackson, while a fierce and forceful man, was not the lunatic that some of his opponents thought he was. Although not widely read, he was highly intelligent and he had a tender side for his family (especially children).
American Lion is not a full biography of Andrew Jackson; as the subtitle says, it concentrates almost exclusively on his presidency. For good and ill, it was a presidency that changed America forever. American Lion is an excellent guide to those changes and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in Jackson or his era.
About the Author: Jon Meacham won the Pulitzer Prize for American Lion. He is also the author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power and Franklin and Winston.
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