Andrew Jackson, for Better or Worse

In his long life (1767–1845), Andrew Jackson fought one duel (in which he took a bullet), one armed brawl (in which he took two), and several pitched battles. But now he is in the fight of his afterlife. Several states’ Democratic parties have stopped calling their annual get-togethers Jefferson-Jackson Day dinners.

In his own day Jackson was a war hero and a two-term president (1829–37), known by a vivid nickname: Old Hickory (hickory wood is hard and dense, good for wheel spokes and hunting bows). He was canonized for modern times by Arthur Schlesinger Jr., whose Age of Jackson (published 1945) argued that he led a movement of urban workers and intellectuals, like the New Deal.