Biography and Memoirs Book Discussion Group June 11, 2009

Join us as we discuss great lives and times as presented in biographies and memoirs. All discussions are free and there is no registration required.
2nd Thursday of each month @ 10:30 a.m.

June 11th, 2009
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham
Meacham offers a lively take on the seventh president's White House years. We get the Indian fighter and hero of New Orleans facing down South Carolina radicals' efforts to nullify federal laws they found unacceptable, speaking the words of democracy even if his banking and other policies strengthened local oligarchies, and doing nothing to protect southern Indians from their land-hungry white neighbors. For the first time, with Jackson, demagoguery became presidential, and his Democratic Party deepened its identification with Southern slavery. What he does bring is a writer's flair and the ability to relate his story without the incrustations of ideology and position taking that often disfigure more scholarly studies of Jackson.

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