The first "common man" to rise to the presidency, Jackson embodied the spirit and the vision of the emerging American nation; the term "Jacksonian democracy" is embedded in our national lexicon. Historian Brands follows Jackson from his days as rebellious youth, risking execution to free the Carolinas during the Revolutionary War, to his years as a young lawyer and congressman from the newly settled frontier state of Tennessee. As general of the Tennessee militia, his famous rout of the British at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 made him a national hero. But it is Jackson's presidency that won him a place among America's greatest leaders. A man of the people, he sought to make the country a genuine democracy, governed by and for the people. Although respectful of states' rights, when his home state threatened to secede, he promised to march down with 100,000 federal soldiers should it dare.--From publisher description.