The Life of Andrew Jackson

by John Reid, John Henry Eaton, Frank Lawrence Owsley Jr. (Editor)

Original copies of the first, 1817, edition of this work are so rare that even the Library of Congress does not have an undamaged copy. Consequently scholars and students of Jackson have had to rely on later, incomplete or bowdlerized editions. It is therefore all the more valuable to have Owsley’s critical restoration of the original edition, complete with its useful maps. The work is a straightforward history of Jackson’s military career, begun by John Reid, Jackson’s military aide throughout the War of 1812 and the ensuing Creek War. Reid wrote the first four chapters, and after his death John Eaton completed the work from Reid’s outline, notes, and papers. Owsley, quondam professor of history at Auburn University, has carefully restored the original edition, noted variants between this and successor editions, and included helpful apparatus, including a memoir of John Reid by Helen Reid Roberts, and indexes to the whole. This is the first paperback edition of this valuable record and includes the original four large-scale foldout maps on an accompanying CD.

540 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Reid ( - 1816)

Reviews

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Life of Andrew Jackson is the first work of literature resembling anything like a biography of Andrew Jackson, who was, among other things, a prosperous plantation owner who served in both houses of Congress, achieved fame as a general in the War of 1812, and eventually took office as the seventh president of the United States, serving from 1829 to 1837. From the mid-1820s to about 1850, Jackson's personality and legacy dominated American politics, so much so that this time period is typically called the Jacksonian Era, making it the only period in American history to be named after an individual person.

This work was originally published in 1817. The first four chapters were written by John Reid, an aide to Jackson during his military campaigns. After he suddenly died, another aide, John Eaton, wrote the remainder of the work.

This book, being written during Jackson's lifetime and shortly after the conclusion of the War of 1812 by two of his closest associates, who had access to important documents and possibly worked at least in part under Jackson's direct supervision, is one of the most important pieces of information for scholarship on the life of Andrew Jackson and his military campaigns. Although this is the earliest complete account of Jackson's life before the War of 1812, the recollection of those details, though not without use to the scholar, is extremely negligible. As it is presumably thought necessary to establish in the minds of the reader an image of the man whose martial exploits the author will proceed to discuss, some account of them is given, but it is extraordinary brief, with no doubt being left that the intended focus of the work is Jackson's military campaigns against the Creeks, Spanish, and British. The description of such events is provided here in extraordinary detail, often accompanied by perceptive analysis. While I found some parts difficult to comprehend, rejected the support given in this work to Revolutionary France, and while many ordinary modern readers may be offended by some of the characterizations of American Indians, no doubt can be entertained as to this work's importance as the earliest comprehensive account of the life and military exploits of Andrew Jackson, written shortly after the events occurred by men who were themselves eyewitnesses to much of that about which they write.

Originally published in 1817, Eaton, now serving as a United States senator, revised the work ahead of Jackson's 1824 and 1828 presidential campaigns. As editor Franklin L. Owsley convincingly shows, because these works were written with the direct intention of getting Jackson elected to the presidency, they are of less value as history than the original. In order to make Jackson seem as great as possible, Eaton eliminated nearly all of the following types of content: anything remotely resembling criticism of Jackson, anything that gave credit to other people over and sometimes even along with Jackson, anything that criticized people, including some men by name and also ordinary men serving in the militia, whose support Jackson wanted in his campaigns, as well as a great detail of content that, though useful, was excised in order to achieve a shorter length. Meanwhile, praise of Jackson was often added where it had been lacking before. While perhaps more effective as campaign literature, these later editions are less useful as history owing to lack of completion and objectivity. Over time, the original version became more rare, and some have not even realized its existence, and instead passed negative judgement on the work while relying solely on the later versions. Owsley does well to produce the original 1817 version of the book while including an appendix with some of the later changes. I was curious however as to why he did not include a section on the First Seminole War that was later added.

In all, this is not a perfect book, but is immensely valuable as history, and Owsley has done a fine job as editor here. I recommend this book to all serious War of 1812 and Andrew Jackson scholars.