#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

 “Terrific … endlessly fascinating.” — Doris Kearns Goodwin

“A true triumph.” — Walter Isaacson

“A thrilling and affecting portrait.” — Stacy Schiff

“Probably the best single-volume biography of Jefferson ever written.” — Gordon Wood

The father of the ideal of individual liberty, of the Louisiana Purchase, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and of the settling of the West, Jefferson recognized that the genius of humanity — and the genius of the new nation — lay in the possibility of progress, of discovering the undiscovered and seeking the unknown. Flawed, contradictory, elusive, Jefferson was at heart a man engaged in the wars of his times. His story resonates today, not least because he embodies an eternal drama: the struggle of a leadership of a nation to achieve greatness in a difficult and confounding world.

Buy the Book
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Other Retailers

Buy the eBook
Kindle | Nook | iBookstore | Other Retailers

Buy the Audio
Random House Audio

Buy the Large Print edition
Random House

“unflinching portrait of a not always admirable democrat but a pivotal president, written with an agile prose that brings the Jackson saga to life.”

Click here to read this article I recently wrote for Parade magazine

Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for biography or autobiography by an American author.

“This is no dry recitation of history: The skinny, rangy, red-haired Jackson, the only president ever to attack a would-be assassin, and the only one with a musket ball lodged in his chest comes alive on the page.” Grade A – Entertainment Weekly

“Meacham’s marvelously readable American Lion brings alive a profoundly flawed but dazzlingly charismatic American original. Savage in war, madly romantic in love and fiercely loyal, our seventh president — as portrayed by this biographer — has little in common with the irascible populist from high school history.” – USA Today

“Provocative and illuminating” – Financial Times

“Enormously entertaining” – The New York Times Book Review

“Elegantly written, thoroughly researched” – St. Louis Post Dispatch

“Meacham’s carefully analytical biography, looks past the theatrics and posturing to the essential elements of Jackson’s many showdowns. . . . and reinterprets them in a revealing new light.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“The most readable single-volume biography ever written of our seventh president.” -Douglas Brinkley, Washington Post

“In helping us understand Jackson, Jon Meacham helps us understand America.”
-Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe and Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

“A beautifully written, absolutely riveting story from start to finish.”
-Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

“A spellbinding, brilliant, and irresistible journey . . . Meacham’s important book shows us how the  old hero transformed both the American presidency and the nation he led.”
-Michael Beschloss, author of Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989

“In magnificent prose, enriched by the author’s discovery of new research materials, Jon Meacham has written an engrossing and original study of the life of Andrew Jackson.”
-Robert V. Remini, National Book Award-winning author of Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Democracy, 1833-1845

“What passes for political drama today pales in the reading of Jon Meacham’s
vividly told story of our seventh president.”
-Tina Brown, author of The Diana Chronicles

“Splendid . . . A fresh portrait of one of the most controversial and consequential men ever to occupy the White House.”
-Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln

Read an Excerpt From American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

BUY THE BOOK

AMAZON.COM | BARNES & NOBLE | BORDERS | POWELLS | INDIEBOUND |  RANDOMHOUSE

Reviews:

Elites and Rivals, Beware: He’s Tough as Old Hickory, The New York Times, 11/9/08

The Warrior President, The Washington Post, 11/2/08