Andrew Jackson Book Review

Book Review of Andrew Jackson
By Robert v. Remni
Foreword by General Wesley K. Clark
Published by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, New York, NY, in October 2009

Andrew Jackson was a natural born leader. He started showing signs of leadership even as a young fellow. It’s as simple as that. He grew up to be an intimidating gentleman with a tall stature, piercing blue eyes, and sharp, angular facial features, which made it seem as if he could see inside your soul and convince you to do anything he wanted you to do. It is no doubt that today we look at Andrew Jackson as one of the most strategic and indispensable generals to the American military during his time, but throughout his life he became a man of controversy. If he disagreed with orders from his
Although news of the terms of the Treaty of Ghent disheartened the citizens greatly, they still saw Jackson as a great leader of not only the military, but the U.S. as a whole. This soon changed after Jackson showed that he was unwilling to lift the harsh marital law he had imposed when the British were imminent. The war was over, why did they have to continue to follow such strict rules? He now was becoming known as a tyrant. The law was finally lifted and Jackson returned to Nashville. The War of 1812 was over, but more conflict was about to arise in Florida. There was still much resentment against Jackson for the harsh treaty that he made the Creeks sign following the Creek War. The British and the Creeks shared the hatred towards Jackson and quickly became allies. The British supplied the Creeks with weapons to fight against the U.S. army. These Indians were joined with other Indians and also blacks. The U.S. grouped them together and called them the Seminole. After the War of 1812 the Seminoles were left with a fort which was referred to as the Negro fort. A group of Seminoles from this fort killed some American soldiers and Jackson’s rage soon ensued. He determined that he needed to destroy this fort completely. A supply fleet was sent to test whether or not the inhabitants of the fort would fire on American forces, and they
He was a great military leader no doubt, but at times he was stubborn and reluctant to listen to orders. I did not know Jackson’s story very well before reading this book. I’ve always assumed that he was a great leader that everyone looked up to. This is true to an extent, but he was also a controversial character who at times was even called a tyrant. He was only protecting the citizens of New Orleans and they feared he would take over the city like Napoleon. Another thing I learned from reading this book was, the War of 1812 was a waste of time and good men. I was taught the U.S. had won the War of 1812, but this really wasn’t the case. The U.S. lost many great men during this war and did not gain any new significant amount of territory. This is the same for the British. These enemies fought this war in order to gain new land, and in the end they both failed. It seems both the United States and Great Britain were losers in this