Jon Meacham, a three-time New York best seller, a native of Nashville, and a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for American Lion, Meacham is an accomplished writer. He received a degree in English literature and had been editor for numerous organizations. While his notorieties should be praised, his background must be noted that he did not earn a degree in History. His writing was vivid and engaging; it was easy to get engrossed by his book. While the literature was impeccable, it should still be noted the historiography is slightly lacking. American Lion is a phenomenal book to understand Jackson within the White House, yet not a full encompassing Andrew Jackson biography. Due to a couple of simple facts. First, Meacham focused on Andrew Jackson’s
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The letters have clearly shaped the narrative of the book. The humanistic side of the seventh President is present throughout the book. This quality helped Meacham describe Jackson’s motives and personal life. Often times major historical figures are revered as more than human, yet in American Lion, Jackson’s humanity shaped the readers perspective, which was Meacham’s objectice. While this viewpoint on Jackson is certainly worth noting, it also led to Meacham’s second blunder of the book, his bias. Meacham depicted a human who overcame great odds and praised him for his many accomplishments. During Jackson’s controversial choices, most notably the Indian Removal Act and his ideas on slavery, Meacham decided not to indulge Jackson’s motives as enthusiastically as other aspects of his life. While bias and shortcomings in a historical perspective cheapen Meacham’s book, it still proved to be a significant piece in dissecting Andrew Jackson’s life while in …show more content…
Wallace conveyed the issue of Indian removal as a central subject during the early to mid-ninteenth century. There were two sides to the issue. One side believed civilizing the Indians was the best solution, whereas the other side thought moving the Indians was the only logical decision for numerous reasons. The later opinion supposed relocation would produce economic benefits for the white lower class, had legal merit, and it was a moral obligation to move the Indians. Wallace depicted Jackson as a proponent of these ideas because Jackson said the Indian race would not survive if not protected by a barrier between white and Indian
The letters have clearly shaped the narrative of the book. The humanistic side of the seventh President is present throughout the book. This quality helped Meacham describe Jackson’s motives and personal life. Often times major historical figures are revered as more than human, yet in American Lion, Jackson’s humanity shaped the readers perspective, which was Meacham’s objectice. While this viewpoint on Jackson is certainly worth noting, it also led to Meacham’s second blunder of the book, his bias. Meacham depicted a human who overcame great odds and praised him for his many accomplishments. During Jackson’s controversial choices, most notably the Indian Removal Act and his ideas on slavery, Meacham decided not to indulge Jackson’s motives as enthusiastically as other aspects of his life. While bias and shortcomings in a historical perspective cheapen Meacham’s book, it still proved to be a significant piece in dissecting Andrew Jackson’s life while in …show more content…
Wallace conveyed the issue of Indian removal as a central subject during the early to mid-ninteenth century. There were two sides to the issue. One side believed civilizing the Indians was the best solution, whereas the other side thought moving the Indians was the only logical decision for numerous reasons. The later opinion supposed relocation would produce economic benefits for the white lower class, had legal merit, and it was a moral obligation to move the Indians. Wallace depicted Jackson as a proponent of these ideas because Jackson said the Indian race would not survive if not protected by a barrier between white and Indian