Robert V. Remini is professor of history emeritus and research professor of humanities emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago and historian of the United States House of Representatives. He is the winner of the National Book Award for the third volume of his study of Andrew Jackson, and he lives in Wilmette, Illinois.
Remini is the author of an acclaimed three-volume biography of the seventh president and now follows up with a superb condensation that incorporates the results of recent research. He describes Old Hickory's early struggle to overcome his reputation as a violent and vengeful man (``virtually a social outcast'' in western Tennessee); the spectacular fulfillment of his search for military glory at Horseshoe Bend and New Orleans; and his frequently turbulent two-term administration (1829-1837). In this vivid biography, Remini analyzes his subject's shortcomings, which included wretched administrative appointments, inability to replace the corrupt U.S. Bank with a better system and failure to bring Texas into the Union. But the overall emphasis is on a chief executive who ``served the American people extremely well,'' preserved the integrity of the Union, saved the government from misrule and liquidated the national debt. Jackson stepped down from office more popular than when he entered the White House. Illustrations. (August)
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