Professor Brands has created a well written, first rate, history of Andrew Jackson's life and times. The "and times" part of the subtitle is important because, unlike some biographies that focus only on their subject, Brands also describes the background events that shaped Jackson's life. Brands has the talent to cover in a paragraph or two what other author's require a chapter to do. The book discusses the myriad of events that Jackson was involved with, such as: the Indian wars against the Creek, the battle of New Orleans, the Seminole wars and military campaign in Florida, the South Carolina Nullification, the transfer of the Indian tribes of the Southern US to west of the Mississippi river and the fight against the Second Bank of the United States, to name just a few. In short, the book covers the important events that shaped the US between Jackson's birth in 1767 and his death in 1845. While a book about Jackson, I learned quite a bit about John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and Sam Houston. I learned details that are overlooked in many textbooks. For instance, I never knew that the US considered the Rio Grand River as the southern boundary of the Louisiana purchase from France and that President John Quincy Adams set the boundary north of this as part of the settlement with Spain for Florida and Oregon. I think that this puts the subsequent Mexican claims of Texas in a somewhat different light. The book also contains capsule summaries of many background events in which Jackson was not directly involved, such as: the Scotch-Irish emigration to America, the early Indian wars, the creation of the State of Texas and many other events.
The overriding theme of the book is Jackson's commitment to the Union and his willingness to do whatever he felt was required to do this. This led him to disregard the commands of his military superiors and even to a disregard of the law when he felt that it impeded his support for the Union. Jackson is painted as a man whose sense of honor led him to duels and to put his political life, as well as his physical life, on the line when he felt that his honor or that of his wife or even those of a friend were being challenged.
Jackson has come down to us as the great democrat, a man of the people, at war with those who he felt wanted to subvert the will of the people. However, many of his ideas and actions offend modern sensibilities (and it should be noted those of Jackson's critics at the time). He supported slavery and instead of helping the Indians who fought with him, he forced them to sign treaties that took their lands and eventual led to their removal across the Mississippi. Brands does not condone these actions, but he does explain them in terms of Jackson's support for the Union. Jackson saw the attacks against slavery as a threat to the Union. He felt that eventually the states would abolish slavery, but until then any attempt for the rest of the country to do so would lead to civil war. His relationship with the Indians was even more complex. He personally felt that he did not hate them as a group, but was quite willing to do everything necessary to protect white settlers and to prevent the Indians from becoming the eventual allies of Britain, France or Spain in an attempt to destroy or at least weaken the US. To this end, he felt that Indian nations within the states were unconstitutional and would eventually lead to war with the Indians and their eventual extermination. He felt it was far better for them to be relocated to territories beyond the Mississippi, which were not part of any state and contained relatively few white settlers. The movement west by the Cherokee became a "trail of tears", resulting in the appalling death of thousands of the participants, and in Brands words "making a mockery of Jackson's claim that his policy was founded in humanity".
Having only 560 pages of narrative text, Brands cannot go into great detail about the many events that are discussed. For instance, while there is a chapter devoted to the Battle of New Orleans, it is not covered in as detailed a fashion as it is in many books that are entirely devoted to this subject. Likewise, there are whole books devoted to Jackson's fight against Nicholas Biddle and the Second Bank of the US and his fight against John C. Calhoun and the Doctrine of Nullification, but I do not think that there is a better book that covers all these topics and the scope of Jackson's life and its impact on the history of the US.
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