Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age (Galaxy Books) |  | Author: John William Ward
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
List Price: $19.99
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Seller: Princazz
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 571105
Media: Paperback
Edition: 10th printing
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0195006992
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.56
EAN: 9780195006995
ASIN: 0195006992
Publication Date: December 31, 1962
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Product Description
Was the man who lent his name to "Jacksonian America" a rough-hewn frontiersman? A powerful, victorious general? Or merely a man of will? Separating myth from reality, John William Ward here demonstrates how Andrew Jackson captured the imagination of a generation of Americans and came to represent not just leadership but the ideal of courage, foresight, and ability.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 AWESOME BOOK!!!! February 4, 2009
John A. LaPaglia (Hamden, CT USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love this book. Why? You should be ashamed to ask that question. BECAUSE ANDREW JACKSON IS A REAL TRUE SYMBOL FOR THIS AGE OF MANKIND, YOU MORON!!!!! Jackson understood that society back then was, indeed, a feudalistic society. But he did not knuckle under, he did not succcumb to laziness or expediency. No, he took charge of himself and rose out of poverty. He is a real man, something I look up to. He stood up for himself and took charge as an individual.
A Whiff Of Modern Politcs February 7, 2008
Alfred Johnson (boston, ma)
American democratic politics, as can be easily seen in this year's presidential nominating processes, has always been encumbered with symbols. That fact is hardly new or news. What is news is that today's seemingly modern notion of proper electoral technique has a fairly ancient pedigree. Although Parson Weems did more than his share to establish the iconic figure of George Washington, arguably the subject of this work, Andrew Jackson, really was the first president to get the full public relations `spin' treatment that we take as a matter of course in today's politics.
The present volume builds the case for Jackson symbolic virtues at a time when America, after a series of nasty encounters with the British, notably the War of 1812, developed an inward look westward and away from the `degeneracy' of the seaboard. If Jackson did not fit the bill to a tee then his agents, paid or otherwise, filled in the blanks. First place in those efforts goes to highlighting his military prowess and soldierly concerns in defeating (to what real purpose no one knows since the war was over by this time) against the British at the tail end of the War of 1812 at the Battle of New Orleans.
From there it was fairly simple to make him a man of the' people'. In this case the people being empathically not the residents of the eastern seaboard but the `fresh' yeomanry of the Westward trek. You know- the ones who exhibited all the plebian virtues as solid tillers of the soil, holders of folk wisdom against the effete nabobs of the cities and the true patriots of rising American agricultural capitalism. The author builds his case by using a series of fairly common references beginning his work with an analysis of a Jackson poetic tribute `The Hunters of Kentucky' and dissects that bit of work to see how it fit into the scheme of making Jackson the first "people's" president. All the other tributes and, at the end eulogies, then fall into place.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then his Whig opponents do that by learning from his handlers by the time of the `Tippecanoe' Harrison campaign of 1840. And from there we are off to the races. Note this- as if to reinforce the argument presented by the book- can anyone today deny that that myth built so long ago still, with the exception of a dent caused by his savagery against the Native Americans, stands as the way he is thought of in the American pantheon? The Democrats continue their traditional Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinners without blushing.
Highly relevant to an understanding of America today July 6, 2007
A Pawtuxet Reader (Warwck, RI)
This quite readable book (if you read scholarly books) is possibly more relevant today than when it was written (in 1953). The author demonstrates how the concepts of Nature, God, and Will combined in the American imagination to provide the basis for beliefs about ourselves as a nation and our place in the world. The author doesn't explicitly draw a line from then-to-now (or even then-to-1953), but you will be able to draw that line yourself if you are an observer of American culture. If you are interested in current politics or the state of the nation today, read this book; you will understand more about how we got to where we are. It is not a biography of Andrew Jackson, but rather a carefully drawn picture of his times, using him, as the titles says, as a "symbol" for his era.
 This guys writing is for the birds January 13, 2007
Christianna R. Yarbrough (Dallas,Texas United States)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Reading this I am reminded of people you meet that talk just to hear themselves speak this book reminded me of those people. From the start you are engulfed in babble about Andrew Jackson. Even though this is considered a scholarly book, I feel that the writer just typed and typed and used words and sentences that were difficult to understand just to make himself sound important and intelligent. After reading this book I did not have a grasp on who Andrew Jackson was, but I did however know that I did not like the author.
Abstract but discerning August 31, 2004
William J Higgins III (Laramie, Wyoming United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
My first impression of this book was that it was nothing more than rampant ramblings of senseless quibble. Once the reader understands that this is a psychoanalytical, socio-political, cultural and philosophical study of Andrew Jackson the man, versus the times he endured, it is truly an insightful work.
Touted as a man of iron-will, determination and unbound democratic principles, Jackson was a man for the ages which he represented.
Praised for his efforts in the Florida Indian battles and the Battle of New Orleans against the British (and denounced by some for his disregard for orders), he nonetheless came out on top of the situation for the people and his country.
He exhibited qualities of the self-made man and this is what swayed his popularity. Jackson started from humble beginnings, and with his resolve and perceptiveness, became not only President of the United States for two terms, but was also looked up to as a hero with no self-limitations.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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