“Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times”, by H. W. Brands

656 pages, Anchor, ISBN-13: 978-1400030729

Picture this: a boring-as-hell meeting in which nothing of substance is said and even less gets done. NOW picture this: a sallow, hollow-cheeked septuagenarian in obvious physical discomfort standing up in the middle of one of these meetings, walking out the door and, when challenged by the speaker as to why he was leaving, looking them right in the eye and say something, like, “Because, sir/madam, you are one of the most boring human beings on the planet and are wasting my valuable time.” THAT was Andrew Jackson, Old Hickory himself, a man who did not suffer fools gladly, and he is caught in all of his curmudgeonly glory by H. W. Brands in Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times. He was definitely one of the most colorful presidents our nation has ever had, and it’s always quite a nice change to read about a president who never really wanted to be President (such creatures are rare). This was a man who had a very rough life, whose struggling parents moved to the frontier (now Tennessee) to try to make a living and yet both died leaving Andrew Jackson as a young orphan. From there, he plowed on doing anything he could do to survive.

Brands manages to keep his readers interested without a lot of bloated jargon and keeps the narrative going in a quick, yet leisurely fashion; I never once felt bogged down by the details. Brands also understands that many of his readers may be unfamiliar with many of the current events, so he also carefully gives his readers helpful background information surrounding many of the events. Example: One thing we read about a lot in this book is the practice of “dueling” (you know, when two men stand back to back, take ten paces, and then turn around and shoot); well, Jackson participated in many of these events as did others close to him, so H.W. Brands spends just the right amount of time giving his reader a primer on some of the lesser known aspects of the practice. Currently, Andrew Jackson seems to receive quite a bit of heat because of his outdated racist beliefs (he may even lose his place on the $20 bill); we must remember, however, that these views were quite common because of people’s surroundings. Perhaps the author gives him too much leeway, but Jackson didn’t come across as particularly harsh when compared to many of his contemporaries. Other than John Quincy Adams (the man who Jackson succeeded as President), you rarely find people that had acceptable attitudes towards race and gender equality up until the late 20^th Century.

I learned a lot from this book. I liked the man’s attitude, his unwavering stances, and his determination to do whatever it took for his young country to succeed and stay on track. I also found it quite interesting that partisan politics is definitely something that is not new. Despite what many people will tell you, our country isn’t really getting “worse” when it comes to arguing politics – you see this behavior just as fervent in Jackson’s day – it’s just that people didn’t have twitter accounts nor the ability to generate hateful memes to distribute across the virtual galaxy in a matter of minutes. I sure would like to see someone like this as President again – someone that truly doesn’t want the job, but the majority of people convince him/her that their country needs them.