I agree with the other poster that the first half of the book dragged on and on about the Eaton affair. Even if that was the major influencing factor of Jackson’s first term in office history continued to happen around the White House. I was left with the impression that Meachem had limited material when he did the research for the book.

I did gain a better impression of who Jackson was after reading the book. History has painted him as the “most uneducated” President and the book does a good job presenting Jackson’s intellectual powers.

I particularly disliked how the author added his perspective of “right” and “wrong” in the book. I don’t care to read a biographer’s opinions when I want to learn about a historical figure.

I’m an avid reader of biographies and my favorite biographical authors are Isaacson, McCullough, and Chernow. My next biography will be McCullough’s Truman.

Meachem doesn’t hold a candle to any of those biographers and how this book made the Post’s “best” list is beyond me.

Over the last several months, we have seen the author of American Lion on the Jon Steward Show and the Colbert Report. I was impressed with the author (he is an editor for Newsweek) and I bought the book. About halfway through, I was ready to dump the book and give it a negative recommendation. Although I am sure that it is not true, it seems like the majority of the first half of the book deal with Jackson’s War Secretary John Eaton and his wife Margaret and their struggles to be accepted by Washington society. It seemed like this subject when on and on.

About the time I was really discouraged, the book shifted gears and started to focus on a number of key events, including the South Carolina nullification efforts, Jackson’s crusade against the Bank of the United States, tensions with France over a treaty, moving the Indians west of the Mississippi and the conflict between Texas and Mexico. I have not read much about American history from 1800 to 1840. I was fascinated by the how you could see lines being drawn for the Civil War more than 30 year before it took place. I enjoyed the second half of the book.

Overall, I give the book a luke warm recommendation. I am definitely going to have to go back later and find a complete biography on Andrew Jackson.