MixedThe New York Times Book Review[Meacham] underplays the consequences of his subject’s darker qualities, especially the fact that Jackson was willing to destroy everything in order to exact revenge ... enormously entertaining, especially in the deft descriptions of Jackson’s personality and domestic life in his White House. But Meacham has missed an opportunity to reflect on the nature of American populism as personified by Jackson. What does it mean to have a president who believes that the people are a unified whole whose essence can be distilled into the pronouncements of one man?
Ron Chernow
PositiveThe New York Times Sunday Book Review... Chernow is no ordinary writer...his Washington while long, is vivid and well paced. If Chernow’s sense of historical context is sometimes superficial, his understanding of psychology is acute and his portraits of individuals memorable. Most readers will finish this book feeling as if they have actually spent time with human beings ... because [Chernow] tends to slide into the biographer’s quicksand of identifying too closely with his subject, his particular contribution is to argue for the critical role Washington himself played in becoming George Washington.
