Andrew jackson biography reviews of spiritual

Far from being the backwoods dunce or boorish frontiersman I had expected, the seventh president of the United States proved to be an impressive, dynamic, forceful and vigorous personality. There is no doubt that early on, lacking a father-figure in his life, he was the cause of far more than his fair share of scrapes and dust-ups.

At times he could be thin-skinned, hard nosed and downright incendiary.

Politics, especially presidential elections, brings out a focus on values, ethics and spirituality like few other events.

At the same time, he was unfailingly chivalrous to members of the opposite sex and could be surprisingly cultured and well-mannered in sophisticated company. And while he possessed little of the diplomatic polish or intellectual finesse of his predecessor, in most ways he thrived as a two-term president. But his writing is too dry and dense for my taste and in order to get the most out of this biography, I would have to read it twice.

Full review here. I quickly realized this classic is not a biography at all — it is a dense, thorough discussion of Jacksonian democracy and the evolution of classical liberalism. Jackson is portrayed more as a cosmic force for justice and equality than as a flesh-and-bones man who served a two-term presidency. Not for the timid reader or casual fan of the presidency , this classic is both intellectually stimulating as well as challenging.

For the nearly ideal combination of breadth vs.

Although Jackson was a Presbyterian, like the Methodists, Disciples of Christ, and most Baptists who dominated the region, he rejected Calvinism, emphasized the virtue of .

This biography is extremely faithful to the original series and captures the most relevant aspects of his life while leaving aside some of the more detailed facts and less important anecdotes. In not quite four-hundred pages of text Remini almost flawlessly distills the essence of the much longer series and leaves nothing critical behind.

Overall, a solid biography of Jackson, but not my favorite. A Pulitzer Prize winner written in the past decade, my expectations for this biography were high.