Andrew Jackson: Reinventing the Presidency

A biography of America's 7th president, ANDREW JACKSON: GOOD, EVIL AND THE PRESIDENCYexplores whether Andrew Jackson is a president Americans should celebrate or apologize for. We discover how Jackson fought in the Revolutionary War when he was just thirteen -- then used what he learned to kill a man over a gambling debt; how Jackson led the American army to the most surprising victory in its history in the Battle of New Orleans -- but also launched an unauthorized invasion of Florida; how Jackson was the first great champion of the common white man -- but also "owned" over a hundred black Americans; how Jackson dramatically expanded the United States -- by brutally wresting vast regions of the south from Native Americans; how Jackson, in one of the boldest political strokes in history, founded the Democratic Party -- and yet was viewed by his enemies as an American Napoleon. The film concludes with the words of Jackson's first biographer, "Andrew Jackson was a patriot, and a traitor. He was the greatest of generals, and wholly ignorant of the art of war. He was the most candid of men, and capable of the profoundest dissimulation. He was a democratic autocrat, an urbane savage, an atrocious saint."

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News & Politics

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• PBS
• Reinventing the Presidency