Joh Meacham’s American lion uncovered the life of our cantankerous seventh president, Andrew Jackson. Jackson will always be admired for being a headstrong leader and upholding the democratic principles during his terms in the White House. He will also live in infamy for being an overreaching executive who disassembled the Bank of the United States and destroyed Native American culture. Meacham’s greatest accomplishment is sorting through the complexities of Jackson’s life. Meacham does this by addressing Jackson’s negative qualities and glorifying his accomplishments. As a result, he provides well researched anecdotal evidence from many private collections of letters and biographies (364). Even though Meacham tries to provide an unbiased analysis …show more content…
Meacham’s book goes well beyond these preconceived notions and provides an in-depth study of who Andrew Jackson really was. Arguably Meacham’s reason for writing American Lion. Jon Meacham spent years gaining permission and collection private letters many of which were kept by Mrs. John Lawrence Merritt and Scott Ward (363-364). These letters shed light on the last years of Jackson’s life. “These letters were largely in private hands for the past 175 years” (363). Meacham explained his motives …show more content…
Before becoming the executive editor at Random House, Jon was the editor-in-chief of Newsweek and a contributing editor of Time Magazine. In 2009 Jon won the Pulitzer Prize for his work on American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. Other notable works include American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power and Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship. All of which were praised for their unique approach to telling historical events through personal