Book Review: Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger

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Brian Kilmeade is an on-air personality for the politically conservative Fox network. This book was published around the time that Confederate statues were being removed from public places. My suspicion is that the motivation for this book was to ensure that monuments to Jackson in the South were allowed to stand. I suspect this because the book focuses on Jackson’s affinity for inclusion and even mentions that Native Americans owned slaves (as if two wrongs make a right?).

The book characterizes Jackson as:

  • TOUGH

    “The men revered their general, who shared their hardships as they marched together… Along the way, one soldier remarked upon Jackson’s toughness. Then another observed that he was as ‘tough as hickory.’ Said aloud, the comparison rang true and, soon enough, his men took to calling their commander ‘Hickory’ and eventually ‘Old Hickory.'” [page 24]

  • COMPASSIONATE

    “Jackson arrived to inspect the smoking ruins of Tallushatchee… Jackson’s interpreter, an…

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