The age of Jackson and the art of American power, 1815-1848

Responsibility: William Nester.
Edition: First edition.
Publication: Washington, D.C. : Potomac Books, [2013]
Physical description: vii, 362 pages : maps ; 24 cm

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Call number	Note	Status
E382 .N47 2013		Available

Description

Creators/Contributors

Author/Creator: Nester, William R., 1956- author.

Contents/Summary

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

The precedents, 1769-1829
The making of the man
The battle of New Orleans
The fate of Spanish Florida
The fire bell in the night
The Monroe Doctrine
The corrupt bargain
The presidency, 1829-1837
The scandals
The monster bank
The nullification crisis
The spoils
The master's nightmare
The Trail of Tears
The world beyond
The Texas Revolution
The protegees, 1837-1848
The little magician
The industrial and cultural revolutions
The transcendentalists
The annexation
The manifest destiny
The Mexican War
The legacy.

Publisher's summary

As William Nester asserts in The Age of Jackson, it takes quite a leader to personify an age. A political titan for thirty-three years (1815-1848), Andrew Jackson possessed character, beliefs, and acts that dominated American politics. Although Jackson returned to his Tennessee plantation in March 1837 after serving eight years as president, he continued to overshadow American politics. Two of his proteges, Martin "the Magician" van Buren and James "Young Hickory" Polk, followed him to the White House and pursued his agenda. Jackson provoked firestorms of political passions throughout his era. Far more people loved than hated him, but the fervor was just as pitched either way. Although the passions have subsided, the debate lingers. Historians are split over Jackson's legacy. Some extol him as among America's greatest presidents, citing his championing of the common man, holding the country together during the nullification crisis, and eliminating the national debt. Others excoriate him as a mean-spirited despot who shredded the Constitution and damaged the nation's development by destroying the Second Bank of the United States, defying the Supreme Court, and grossly worsening political corruption through his spoils system. Still others condemn his forcibly expelling more than forty thousand Native Americans from their homes and along the Trail of Tears, which led far west of the Mississippi River, with thousands perishing along the way. In his clear-eyed assessment of one of the most divisive leaders in American history, Nester provides new insight into the age-old debate about the very nature of power itself. About the Author WILLIAM NESTER is a professor at St. John's University in New York City and the author of more than thirty books on various aspects of international relations, including three for Potomac Books: The Revolutionary Years, 1775-1789: The Art of American Power during the Early Republic (2011), The Hamiltonian Vision, 1789-1800 (2012), and The Jeffersonian Vision, 1801-1815 (2012). He lives in New York City.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)