Andrew Jackson's reputation is drifting down, down, down, like a sere autumn leaf. Whereas in 1948, the first year of Arthur Schlesinger Sr.'s poll of historians, Old Hickory ranked sixth among the presidents, in recent surveys by a variety of sponsors he has dropped into the midteens. It seems only a matter of time before Jackson is banished to the reputational basement with Warren Harding, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan, presidents who never dragged their country into war, which is the yellow brick road to greatness.
Brad Birzer, a professor at Hillsdale College and the author of very fine biographies of Russell Kirk and Charles Carroll of Carrollton, has taken up the cause of Old Hickory, the man and the president, with In Defense of Andrew Jackson, a slim but well-argued and very welcome book from Regnery.
“For much of the nineteenth century,” writes Birzer, “Jackson stood as the great symbol of American democratic achievement—a man who came from the common people and represented them in the White House.” Inheritor of a defiant, ferine spirit, he fought Indians and aristocrats, Southern nullifiers and nationalist Whigs. He left office with blood on his hands, a clear conscience, and the love of his countrymen.
Read Full Article »