The First Populist: The Defiant Life of Andrew Jackson

In this comprehensive and evenhanded biography, historian Brown (The Last American Aristocrat) makes a convincing case that Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) was the most consequential American leader between Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Noting that Jackson was the first president “to come from neither Virginia nor Massachusetts,” Brown documents how Jackson overcame an impoverished childhood in the Carolinas to become a lawyer and land speculator in Tennessee, as well as his rise to national prominence as a military commander during the War of 1812, when he defeated British troops in the Battle of New Orleans. Elected president in 1828, Jackson quashed plans for “a government-chartered national bank catering to economic elites,” helped to “institutionalize partisanship” by ousting Republicans and installing Democrats in government offices, brought a “bloodless conclusion” to the Nullification Crisis, and played a central role in displacing Native Americans from their land. Though Brown notes that Jackson’s populism is relevant today, when “economic inequality, liberal elitism, and demographic change in America” have once again encouraged a backlash against the status quo, he avoids facile historical analogies, noting that Donald Trump is one of four modern-day presidents (along with Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton) to hang Jackson’s image in the Oval Office. Thoroughly researched and fluidly written, this accessible presidential biography will appeal to admirers of Ron Chernow and Doris Kearns Goodwin. (May)