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Judging Andrew Jackson

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Andrew Jackson has some big hair and hints of big attitude on the twenty dollar bill.

In life — in the Tennessee woods, in war, in the White House — he was bigger than that. A brawler, a dueler, an infamous lover. The first populist president, who brought the common man, literally, into the White House and made the American presidency imperial.

Andrew Jackson had a temper. He was the first president targeted for assassination, and the only one who fought back and attacked his assailant!

He drew lines Barack Obama will still live with. He took on special interests and big money. He flexed America’s military muscle at home and abroad. He drove slaves and exiled Indians.

Newsweek’s Jon Meacham unpacks Old Hickory’s colorful legacy in a big new biography. This hour, On Point: The age of Jackson.

You can join the conversation. What do you know about the man behind the face of the $20 bill? Can you imagine a commander-in-chief who grew up ready to duel? What can we learn here as a new president takes the stage?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Joining us from New York is Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek. He’s author of the New York Times bestsellers “Franklin and Winston: An intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship” and “American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation.” His new biography is “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.”

Read an excerpt from “American Lion.”

 

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Listener comments
  • I heard Mr. Meacham on Diane Rhem’s show last week and he was really good but I didn’t get to catch the whole thing. Can’t wait to listen to the second hour.

    Posted by Sam, on November 21st, 2008 at 9:27 am EST
  • As he makes the NPR rounds, I _do_ hope that someone should think to have Ms Sarah Vowell on to reason calmly with this person, if only because calm reasoning irritates the shade of Andrew Jackson (though not as much as the prospect of a cool, well-educated, black man sitting in his old office).

    Jackson is representative of why the know-nothing, know-it-all, born-fightin’, Ms Palin may yet fulfill the prophecies of Sinclair Lewis and Robert Heinlein.

    Posted by Luddy Mises, on November 21st, 2008 at 10:56 am EST
  • Please note that America is still a republic with constitution instead of democracy.

    Great program.

    Also, are fatherless boys more likely to be rageful?

    Posted by john oleary, on November 21st, 2008 at 11:32 am EST
  • I am an American woman of Cherokee ancestry. What the US government did to my people is called GENOCIDE. No mitigating that.

    No matter what Jackson did for his white peers, he is rotting in the hell of his own beliefs at this time. Exactly where he belongs.

    Nobody can bring back what Jackson destroyed.

    Posted by Mari McAvenia, on November 21st, 2008 at 11:43 am EST
  • What was the role of the Wyoming Massacre and the alliance between Native Americans and the British in this early Revolutionary War battle to the perspective of Andrew Jackson’s relationship with the Native Americans? In NE Pennsylvania NA people suffered until modern times in the aftermath of the saga of Queen Esther, and the deeds of her tribes. Are we judging Jackson’s bias with an inappropriate modern perspective?

    Posted by Robert Wilson, on November 21st, 2008 at 11:53 am EST
  • One more thing: The slow, cancerous demise of the United States, as the colonists created it, was destined to occur. It has taken more than seven generations of ill-begotten social engineering but it is all falling apart now. Right on schedule.

    We, of the Six Nations, will reclaim Turtle Island. Our spirits are stronger, our blood is untaintable. We don’t measure a person in numbers. We shall overcome. Just watch.

    Posted by Mari McAvenia, on November 21st, 2008 at 11:59 am EST
  • Samuel Morrison’s Oxford History of the American People, states that Jacksonian Democrats suffer from “one of the unlovely traits of democracy everywhere” and that is the contempt for intellect. What is your opinion concerning the contempt of intellect statement?

    Posted by Frank Barthel, on November 21st, 2008 at 1:30 pm EST
  • I cannot believe I was cut off while waiting to speak to Mr. Meacham; they even said “you’re on the air, Alex,” but I wasn’t.

    I’m descended from and am the biographer of Andrew Jackson’s greatest enemy. Leave it to my family to fight the man for whom the age was named! I shook Andrew VI’s hand a few years ago and ended the feud. Being a Democrat in Nashville, I have no reason to defame Old Hickory. But the man on the $20 bill began at Horseshoe Bend. The rest, as they say is history. I know things that happened there that eventually changed the world we know forever. My ancestor died on his way to DC to try to stop what became the Trail of Tears; I can’t change that nor make my ancestor famous. I’m just glad that some truths are finally coming out.

    Posted by Alex Brandau III, on November 21st, 2008 at 2:05 pm EST
  • Regarding the Trail of Tears there is another interpretation in a lecture called “Columbus Day Without Guilt” which can be had from the Ayn Rand Bookstore if one is interested.
    Regarding the right of secession try “The Real Lincoln” by Thomas Delorenzo.

    Posted by Mike Allen, on November 22nd, 2008 at 9:31 am EST
  • Hi Tom,

    Enjoyed your show last Friday, while driving to see my newest grandchild (#15), a beutiful boy.
    My book club is considering “American Lion”, and , based on your conversation with John Meacham, I’ll recommend it. It seems like a good read about a very influential President, both good & bad sides.

    Thanks, enjoy your show.

    Joe

    Posted by Joe Collins, on November 24th, 2008 at 1:48 pm EST
  • his administration was also fsirly corrupt

    Posted by drew, on November 27th, 2008 at 3:41 am EST
  • It doesn’t matter what “good” Hitler or Stalin did – assuming he and his evil Nazi regime contributed anything to society other than an evil the likes of which have never been seen – because of the horror and atrocity he inflicted on others.

    So, how do we determine what the acceptable level of horror and atrocity is before a leader’s contribution(s) to society are completely overshadowed, as in the case of Hitler?

    I’m not comparing Hitler to Jackson, although it’s clear that he had no problem with destroying a group of people based on nationality and/or race. Fortunately, however he had other more important agendas unlike Hitler who put wiping out the Jews as top priority.

    Posted by Roth, on November 28th, 2008 at 5:27 pm EST
  • It’s fascinating how Jackson’s greatest contribution, second only to some of Washington’s and Jefferson’s in the history of america isn’t given any mention. The defeat of the Biddle and the Rothchild bankers. One caller glossed over how Jackson beat the bankers but that was BAD for the country? and ashbrook follows it up by intimating his bank policies caused the economy to fall? then they move on? Wow.

    Why do you think Jackson is on our money? Jackson is second only to Washington in greatness and Lincoln was a tyrant, there is no comparison between the two. Lincoln started the draft in this country, further handed banking power to the Rothschilds, jailed over 30,000 dissidents for peaceful protests, killed over 600,000 american boys for nothing, even provoking the south with embargoes beforehand when Jackson kept the same secession movement in check through peaceful means. All other countries ended African slavery without wars.
    Lincoln suspended habius corpus, ordered sherman to ravage the south in his psychotic march to the sea.
    But anyways, you will all find out soon enough exactly what Jackson stood against and why you should thank him.

    This program is the jewish bankster controlled media at it’s finest. Our greatest threat was and will always be centralized banking and Jackson thwarted them like no other. You can thank the Obamas and Bush’s and Clintons when you’re on the street by 2012 then maybe you can take a second look at Jackson.

    Posted by ty, on December 19th, 2008 at 12:56 pm EST
  • Also you think Jackson hated Indians?
    Who ordered the execution of seven sioux tribes after their rebellion was already stopped in 1862. That’s right, lincoln ordered the biggest execution in American history, and carried it out.
    Oh and those 30,000 newspapermen and others Lincoln held in jail without trial for merely disagreeing with the north’s agression? More than 10000 were held in jail for 4 years or more before released. pretty stunning huh? History is written by the winners so you guys don’t hear about real history in college.

    Posted by ty, on December 19th, 2008 at 1:06 pm EST
  • I should clarify I’m not against jewish people, I think they are like any other. I’m against the Jewish run banksters as a mafia just as i’m against the italian run mafia and have no hatred towards italians. It’s simply handed down between the same families and they keep the banking money and strategies within their own circle so that’s why it’s all jews. Normal jews are just as good as anyone else and I’m some small percent jewish myself, and my great great grandmother was full blooded abenaki. Her generation was sterilized by u of vermont. Ashbrook I don’t always hate your shows, but this was a disaster. Grow some balls and interview Alex Jones!

    Posted by ty, on December 19th, 2008 at 5:22 pm EST
  • I heard some discussion of a symphonic piece that was also written that corresponds to The American Lion…music that encorporates music from the Congo representing slavery and Native American sounds. I would love to have the name of the composer and a cd to purchase to give as a gift along with the book.

    Kyle Tabor Furr

    Posted by Kyle Furr, on January 2nd, 2009 at 8:46 am EST
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