The First Populist: The Defiant Life of Andrew Jackson

A timely, “solidly researched [and] gracefully written” (The Wall Street Journal) biography of President Andrew Jackson that offers a fresh reexamination of this charismatic figure in the context of American populism—connecting the complex man and the politician to a longer history of division, dissent, and partisanship that has come to define our current times.

Andrew Jackson rose from rural poverty in the Carolinas to become the dominant figure in American politics between Jefferson and Li...