Customer Reviews

Andrew Jackson (Childhoods of the Presidents)

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Andrew Jackson certainly possessed qualities that we Americans admire above all in our leaders: in spite of the fact that "he did not like to read, never mastered spelling, and was often ungrammatical in his speech and writing" Andrew Jackson was an eloquent and persuasive leader, "able to stir others to seemingly impossible feats." He was the first "people's president." All of his predecessors in the office were East Coast bluebloods, but Jackson was born in a log cabin in either North or South Carolina. His ancestors were Irish, so he came by his hatred of the British naturally, and was almost killed at the tender age of thirteen, when he refused to polish a British officer's boots. The officer slashed Jackson's head with his sword, and our future president carried the scars of this encounter for the rest of his life.

Two of his brothers and his mother died during the War of Independence, which only reinforced Jackson's hatred of the British. He had to wait until the War of 1812 to exact his revenge in the Battle of New Orleans (which actually occurred after a peace treaty between England and America had been signed in Ghent, Belgium).

The hero of the Battle of New Orleans could do no wrong (except to the Indians) and won the popular vote in the 1836 presidential election, although John Quincy Adams eventually became president (shades of Al Gore and George W. Bush!) Four years later, Andrew Jackson was elected president by an overwhelming majority, and served two terms in office before ill health forced his retirement. He might have become our first three-term president, if it weren't for his health problems, which included tuberculosis, dropsy, and several bullet wounds from the duels he had fought.

This book presents a fair assessment of Jackson's career, including his involvement in the 'Trail of Tears'-- the forced relocation of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. He was one of our most popular presidents, in spite of his hair-trigger temper and his feuds with several prominent politicians.

"Andrew Jackson" is a quick, interesting read, as are all 100 books in this YA (Young Adult) 'World Leaders Past & Present' series. I am reading my way through all of the volumes in our library, and will be sad to see them come to an end.