Customer Reviews

Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age (Galaxy Books)

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As a self pro-claimed cultural historian, John William Ward is attempting to demonstrate how Andrew Jackson captured the imagination of the people of his time (early nineteenth century America) and how the ideals of the period were "fused" in him through symbolism and myth. Although Andrew Jackson was a political figure who served as President of the United States, this book serves a "cultural study of Jackson's time" rather than a political history of his presidency. The thesis of the book is that Jackson, "who was the age's hero in a wider sense than has been commonly realized" symbolized to the people of the United States all those things upopn which they based thier national pride. This national pride, Ward contends, rested upon three main concepts; "Nature", "Providence", and "Will". These three concepts serve as major themes in the developmnet of Ward's thesis. Ward makes a very compelling argument and thouroughly supports it throughout the book with relative evidence including a variety of newspaper articles and headlines, political cartoons, speeches, poems, songs, letters, diaries, euolgies, government documents, and historical biographies. Overall, the structure of the book, the development of the thesis as it relates to the major themes, and the way in which Ward skillfully interweaves descriptive information with analytical reasoning makes for a very clear, concise, relatively easy, and interesting read. Although this book is not a political or narative history, it is a valuable and stimulating resource for any student seeking to understand this particular period in American history.

My first impression of this book was that it was nothing more than rampant ramblings of senseless quibble. Once the reader understands that this is a psychoanalytical, socio-political, cultural and philosophical study of Andrew Jackson the man, versus the times he endured, it is truly an insightful work.

Touted as a man of iron-will, determination and unbound democratic principles, Jackson was a man for the ages which he represented.

Praised for his efforts in the Florida Indian battles and the Battle of New Orleans against the British (and denounced by some for his disregard for orders), he nonetheless came out on top of the situation for the people and his country.

He exhibited qualities of the self-made man and this is what swayed his popularity. Jackson started from humble beginnings, and with his resolve and perceptiveness, became not only President of the United States for two terms, but was also looked up to as a hero with no self-limitations.

As one generation describes slices of history to another, the events and personalities are altered in the process. Ward shows how Jackson's persona emerged in the transfer of historical knowledge from one generation to the next.
In earning a national reputation as a war hero in the Battle of New Orleans, Jackson credited God with the victory and saw himself as a chosen instrument in His hands.
A city-wide religious ceremony was held in the aftermath of that victory. All New Orleans acknowledged humble thanksgiving to God for the successful defense of the city.
Riding the crest of this military popularity Jackson was elected president and the masses who turned out for his inaugural events were unlike any other before him. His administration was a shift from the elite to a populous approach to government. Ward includes helpful anecdotes to keep the readers abreast of some of the details of the time and places covered.

Ward was a deep, even radical, but at the same time understated, American thinker at a time when almost all of his colleagues preferred either to play it safe or to grandstand stylistically. His books were dry and careful, but produced definitive classics of the field. Jackson is his best known, but he himself preferred his translation of Grimke. To see true American thought at work, read this book.

More than we would like to admit, America lives through, and is defined by, the myths and symbolism created during the period when it was basically a "Slave Republic," or better yet, a "Slave Aristocracy." Arguably, even today, if the U.S. reputation were based solely on the nation's expressed deeds and the actual implementation of the principles and intent of its Constitution, rather than on the lip service paid to it and the high-minded rhetoric and myths of white supremacy based on it, one would be at hard pressed to point to anything about this nation that is concrete, lasting, or not subject to quixotic reversal?

While the myths surrounding our first president, George Washington, the father of the nation, are understandable even when not always true, those surrounding Andrew Jackson are much more complex, much more revealing, and needless to say, much more difficult to understand. Because although they embody the spirit of the American white man, they also contradict the U.S. Constitution in fundamental ways and ignore his demonstrated hostility towards Native Americans and slaves. But more importantly, they also betray an uneasy but mostly latent hostility that has always existed between poor and wealthy white men, too.

The cover notes to this book begin: "Every age creates heroes to suit its needs." For a young nation of the early 19th Century, Andrew Jackson filled the need of a hero of the common man." So long as the term "common man" is interpreted to mean the "poor white man," then it can be said to reflect the realities of Jackson's times.

Thus, the real value of this beautifully and carefully written (almost poetic) book is that it gives us a template for the psychology of American heroism. Through Andrew Jackson, it attempts to capture perfectly the spirit of the white man during the era of 1820-1850. It shows how myth making and symbolization became a fundamental aspect of advancing this nation's national narrative. For the first time in American history, Andrew Jackson captured the imagination and advanced the cause of the common (white) man, rather than those he fundamentally opposed (and opposed him): Native Americans, slaves, and most importantly the landed gentry (which consisted of the class of most of our founding fathers).

It was Jackson's heroics in the Battle of New Orleans -- where he single-handedly advanced the strategy that crushed the British -- forcing them to the negotiating table -- that set the stage for the new "common man" mythology and that was to become the basis for an enduring symbol of the ideals of an era. The book therefore is as much a study of Jackson's times as it is a study of the man himself. And in this sense, at its deepest level, and examined carefully, it is a study of the fundamental fault lines that trisected the emerging nation: between the landed gentry and the common white man, between whites and blacks; and between whites and Native Americans. Thus, like Andrew Johnson a generation or so later, it too is an analysis of an essentially flawed hero, yet one who embodied the deep essence of the very racist American spirit.

The author's method of exposition is to define Jacksonianism through select episodes in Jackson's career and then trace their translation into symbols and myths. Foremost among the myths are the appropriate images of Jackson as a "victorious general," but the overdrawn images of him as a "rough-hewn frontiersman," as "a self made man of iron will," and as "god's instrument for religious America." These are all images that helped to make our seventh president a legend in his own time. However, none looked carefully at the moral dimension of this flawed hero. Given that he was a religiously devout man, that he was,and given his deeds against Native Americans and having owned more than 200 slaves, can only be a measure of how hollowed-out U.S. religious piety must have been during those difficult times.

The book gets deeply into the nitty-gritty of what made him such an icon to white America. However, in my view, as usual, it leaves out the really important stuff. What is left very much understated if not unsaid entirely is that this symbol of the 1820s American spirit, of the common white man, was a brutal racist, who if he were to have lived during any other time, including contemporary times, he would undoubtedly have been hauled before an international court and prosecuted for genocide or crimes against humanity.

Such is the nature of many of America's past heroes. That even with a Constitution that advanced the principles of fairness and justice, many of our heroes were consciously guilty of undermining it, and doing just the opposite. Yet through a kind of "historical moral blindness," the author either saw no contradiction in this or deemed it unworthy to report on? The phrase "he was a man of his times" seems a sufficient "catch-all" to cover all past crimes, sins and contradictions with the U.S. Constitution. Still a wonderful read. Four stars

American democratic politics, as can be easily seen in this year's presidential nominating processes, has always been encumbered with symbols. That fact is hardly new or news. What is news is that today's seemingly modern notion of proper electoral technique has a fairly ancient pedigree. Although Parson Weems did more than his share to establish the iconic figure of George Washington, arguably the subject of this work, Andrew Jackson, really was the first president to get the full public relations `spin' treatment that we take as a matter of course in today's politics.

The present volume builds the case for Jackson symbolic virtues at a time when America, after a series of nasty encounters with the British, notably the War of 1812, developed an inward look westward and away from the `degeneracy' of the seaboard. If Jackson did not fit the bill to a tee then his agents, paid or otherwise, filled in the blanks. First place in those efforts goes to highlighting his military prowess and soldierly concerns in defeating (to what real purpose no one knows since the war was over by this time) against the British at the tail end of the War of 1812 at the Battle of New Orleans.

From there it was fairly simple to make him a man of the' people'. In this case the people being empathically not the residents of the eastern seaboard but the `fresh' yeomanry of the Westward trek. You know- the ones who exhibited all the plebian virtues as solid tillers of the soil, holders of folk wisdom against the effete nabobs of the cities and the true patriots of rising American agricultural capitalism. The author builds his case by using a series of fairly common references beginning his work with an analysis of a Jackson poetic tribute `The Hunters of Kentucky' and dissects that bit of work to see how it fit into the scheme of making Jackson the first "people's" president. All the other tributes and, at the end eulogies, then fall into place.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then his Whig opponents do that by learning from his handlers by the time of the `Tippecanoe' Harrison campaign of 1840. And from there we are off to the races. Note this- as if to reinforce the argument presented by the book- can anyone today deny that that myth built so long ago still, with the exception of a dent caused by his savagery against the Native Americans, stands as the way he is thought of in the American pantheon? The Democrats continue their traditional Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinners without blushing.

This quite readable book (if you read scholarly books) is possibly more relevant today than when it was written (in 1953). The author demonstrates how the concepts of Nature, God, and Will combined in the American imagination to provide the basis for beliefs about ourselves as a nation and our place in the world. The author doesn't explicitly draw a line from then-to-now (or even then-to-1953), but you will be able to draw that line yourself if you are an observer of American culture. If you are interested in current politics or the state of the nation today, read this book; you will understand more about how we got to where we are. It is not a biography of Andrew Jackson, but rather a carefully drawn picture of his times, using him, as the titles says, as a "symbol" for his era.

I love this book. Why? You should be ashamed to ask that question. BECAUSE ANDREW JACKSON IS A REAL TRUE SYMBOL FOR THIS AGE OF MANKIND, YOU MORON!!!!! Jackson understood that society back then was, indeed, a feudalistic society. But he did not knuckle under, he did not succcumb to laziness or expediency. No, he took charge of himself and rose out of poverty. He is a real man, something I look up to. He stood up for himself and took charge as an individual.

Reading this I am reminded of people you meet that talk just to hear themselves speak this book reminded me of those people. From the start you are engulfed in babble about Andrew Jackson. Even though this is considered a scholarly book, I feel that the writer just typed and typed and used words and sentences that were difficult to understand just to make himself sound important and intelligent. After reading this book I did not have a grasp on who Andrew Jackson was, but I did however know that I did not like the author.

This book has its interesting moments, but seems to be quite bland at times. If read for school, don't become discouraged too easily. The true meaning of the book is brought together later by the author. All in all, the book was rather bland to me, but I'm simply one reader. Find out for yourself.