Jackson's Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters

xiii, 434 pp. "Long before he became the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson waged a bloody campaign to gain lasting American control of the Old Southwest–the huge territory that stretched from the Appalachians to the Mississippi and from the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico. Under the Peace of Paris of 1783, most of this vast country had already been ceded to the United States by Great Britain. But from the Creeks and the Seminoles to the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and the Cherokees, the powerful, unconquered tribes who lived there refused to recognize a scrap of paper written in Paris. The pivotal struggle that ensued over much of the next three decades would end in an Indian war that would make Jackson one of the most controversial men in American history. From John Buchanan, the highly acclaimed author of The Road to Guilford Courthouse, comes a compulsively readable account that begins in 1780 amidst the maelstrom of revolution and continues throughout the three tumultuous decades that would decide the future course of this nation. Set against the turbulent years in which outnumbered but gritty American pioneers took on the powerful tribes of the Old Southwest, whose tragic plight is clearly revealed, Jackson's Way artfully reconstructs the era and the region that made Andrew Jackson's reputation as "Old Hickory," a man who was so beloved that men voted for him fifteen years after his death. As Buchanan separates fact from myth and resurrects the remarkable man behind the legend, he brings to life the thrilling details of frontier warfare and of Jackson's exploits as an Indian fighter–and reassesses the vilification that has since been heaped on him because of his Indian policy. Culminating with Jackson's defeat of the British at New Orleans–the stunning victory that made him a national hero and paved his way to becoming the only president who gave his name to an age–this gripping narrative shows us how a people's obsession with land and opportunity and their charismatic leader's quest for an empire produced what would become the United States of America that we know today. Impeccably researched and elegantly written, Jackson's Way paints a penetrating portrait of the shrewd general and politician responsible for sealing the American drive for empire. Best of all, it gives us a dramatic look at a highly charged period in our history, one in which those with the "West in their eyes" would triumph."