The American Lion - Book Review

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also infers the strong character influence of his mother, who died when Jackson was a teen and the influences of Jackson’s beloved wife, Rachel, who died prior to Jackson being sworn in as President.

Meacham’s book does a good job of demonstrating the positive power of the United States’ seventh president, but he underplays the consequences of Jackson’s darker qualities. (Andrew, 2008) Jackson was a vengeful and arrogant individual who had violent hatred for the vice president, John C. Calhoun, and the Cherokee Indian Chief, John Ross, which influenced many of his decisions. Meacham’s depiction of Jackson’s attitude of his role as ‘father of the country’ and his willingness to die preserving the United States’ unity was strong. Meacham’s insertion of quotes from Jackson and his wife was helpful and brought a personal aspect to the book with expressions of their feelings during their failures and successes. The chapters covering the conflict between Jackson and Calhoun were hard to follow and drawn out. Brevity and summarization in this area would have been a better read.

American Lion is still an entertaining read with the dissections of Jackson’s battles and reinterpretations to reveal them in a new light. Meacham’s fondness for Jackson is obvious in every chapter of the novel as he explains the story of the self educated rube who designed modern politics. The story highlights the honorable and less honorable aspects of what made Andrew Jackson an American genius. This book is recommended for any reader who would enjoy learning about the intricacies of Jackson’s road to presidency and the reasons for many of the choices he made during his years in office.