Andrew Jackson: How the War of 1812 Shaped America’s Destiny

Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger gives us readers the more in-depth perspective of how Andrew Jacksons journey came along and how the war of 1812 shaped America’s destiny. This book focuses mainly on the events that led to the war and the short time after the war was over along with the key events that led to the success of American history and the role Andrew Jackson played throughout. When I first got the book, I didn’t really know what to expect because I’ve never been big on history so going into reading the book I didn’t know very much about Andrew Jackson or the war of 1812.

The depth and extent the authors bring regarding the events leading up to the battle truly provides simplicity to the significance of how important the strategy behind the victory was in our nation’s destiny. The tone of the wording in the book is very interesting, and the book implies that there could’ve been legalese, which is a legal document with technical language that is often hard to interpret, this was done on behalf of the British to be sure they had control of the Mississippi river which was also wanted by the Americans. 

In the book they include parts that mention the treaty of Gent which was the treaty signed by British and American representatives ending the war of 1812 as well as the Treaty of Paris which was when British recognized Americans independence and surrendered most of its territory east of the Mississippi River to the United States. One major thing that the authors focused on was the peace negotiations that establish awareness on the diplomacy’s importance.

The background and reasoning of the coalition building that lead to Jackson’s success were uplifting. In my opinion I believed that Jackson was very open-minded especially when it came to bringing together the most diverse group of people as long as they all had a common goal to achieve he wanted to help. Jackson was willing to bring in people from all cultures and races including Native Americans, African Americans, militia groups, army forces, etc. this led to another great achievement of his which was the faith and commitment of the people in New Orleans. 

While Jackson did very many good things and made a huge name for himself in history one thing, I do not agree with is how he treated his army. In one of the chapters the author writes about how the volunteers had little food and no food to feed their horses. They supply shipments were expected to be delayed and Jackson could see his volunteers becoming weak and the only thing he was worried about was if they dismantled, he wouldn’t be able to fight the Indians or the British. In the book they also didn’t include him being a slave owner and trader which they should have.

Although Jackson was not the most educated person he was still able to accomplish many things such as being the general who fended off the British in New Orleans, and being the founder of the democratic party he was faced with many challenges but he was also very successful in all of them. This book was very interesting and really informative especially not knowing very much in the first place. I do plan on being more aware of my history and all the events that lead up to todays life. All the different chapters in the book about the several events that happen leading up to all Jacksons success really captures the importance of every event no matter how big or small it was in history.