This third episode of American
History Too! is all about one man – the seventh President of the United
States, Andrew Jackson (1829-1837). In
particular, we debate Jackson’s role in the removal of Native Americans from
their ancestral homes in the East to newly allotted land west of the
Mississippi in the 1830s.
Before jumping into the Indian controversy, we bring you up
to speed with what’s being happening the US since our last podcast on the
Constitution – all in two minutes! We
then dive straight into work of historian Francis Prucha and explain – with the
help of other historians such Mary Young and Jon Meacham – why his attempt to
rehabilitate Jackson’s image is greatly flawed. We also debate Jackson’s legacy with regards to
the Native Americans – is Jackson a game changer or merely a colourful
character?
In addition, Richard Nixon is mentioned an obscene amount of
times for a nineteenth century podcast, Malcolm misguidedly attempts to rank Jimmy
Carter in the higher echelons of American presidencies, and we most definitely do not discuss the tariff.
Finally, we answer our listener Francesca’s question on
whether – as suggested in The West Wing
– Andrew Jackson really did have a big block of cheese in the White House.
We hope you enjoy this third episode (which also features
improved audio quality from our first two efforts) and please let us know if
you have any comments, questions, or suggestions.
Cheers,
Mark & Malcolm
(Contact us on Twitter at @ahtoopodcast or by email at
ahtoo@outlook.com)
Reading List:
Francis
Paul Prucha, ‘Andrew Jackson’s Indian Policy: A Reassessment’, Journal of American History 56 (1969), pp.527-539 (available on JSTOR).
Mary
Young, ‘The Cherokee Nation: Mirror of the Republic’, American Quarterly, 33 (1981), pp.502-24.
Ronald
N Satz, "Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era," in Leonard Dinnerstein
and Kenneth T. Jackson (eds.), American Vistas 1607-1877 (New York and
Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995), 211-227.
Jon
Meacham, American lion: Andrew Jackson in
the White House (New York : Random House, 2008)
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