Book Review

Old Hickory's War: Andrew Jackson and the Quest for Empire. By David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 1996. x, 308 pp. $24.95, isbn 0-8117-0113-1.)

These books are continuing evidence that the fascination with Andrew Jackson will never go out of style. Love him or hate him, he is one of the dominant figures in our history. The attempt to chronicle his triumphs and misdeeds is an industry that never encounters a recession. Lorman A. Ratner, who professes always to have been "intrigued" by Jackson, attempts to understand Old Hickory by viewing him in the context of his closest Tennessee friends and political allies. His book consists largely of a series of brief biographies of Jackson, John Overton, John Coffee, George Washington Campbell, William B. Lewis, William Carroll, Hugh Lawson White, John Henry Eaton, James K. Polk, and Sam Houston. His interest is in "what they had in common, what might have brought them together, and what their relationship to Jackson can teach us about him, about them and their era, and their political culture."

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Ratner finds a group of men driven by self-interest to attain gentry status on the southwestern frontier through a combination of military service, the law, politics, and land speculation. Their vision of this status was derived from the ancient Celtic traditions of their Scottish and Scotch-Irish fathers and grandfathers. At the center of this tradition was personal independence maintained by a fierce sense of honor that demanded bravery and a willingness to fight. Jackson himself exemplified this common theme. Ratner claims he rose from the ranks to lead the people with his valor on the battlefield, as did the warrior thanes of old Scotland. He saw life as a series of personal battles, found his closest friends among his comrades-in-arms, and demanded personal loyalty from his friends and dependents above all things.

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