YOUNG HICKORY
The Making of Andrew Jackson
Hendrik Booraem

Character and personality are shaped, it is generally believed, almost entirely in the early years. When the poet William Wordsworth says, "the child is father of the man" he echoes an earlier poet, John Milton, who said, "childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day."

In this excellent biography by Hendrik Booraem we learn of the time, the events and the people that bent the twig that would grow into Old Hickory, the seventh president of the United States -- Andrew Jackson.

Old Hickory is but one of the many nicknames that adhered to President Jackson. It is a wonderfully appropriate name. The quality of hickory is strength and endurance; it is the perfect handle for any striking tool that delivers great force and will not break on impact. He was also called the Hero of New Orleans, Duel Fighter and Sharp Knife. It will probably never be known just how many duels Jackson fought, or even how many men he killed in the process. As president, Jackson was feared for his rages. They seemed uncontrollable, yet it is believed he used his anger as a precision tool to intimidate and control others.

"Young Hickory" provides a fascinating account of Jackson's life up to age 21. Biographer, Hendrik Booraem is a noted historian; this is his third book focused on the adolescent years of an American President. I have not read his first, "The Road to Respectability" (1988) about President James A. Garfield. But, I have read and reread "The Provincial" (1994) Booraem's penetrating take on Calvin Coolidge. That careful and insightful book goes further to explain the character of the 30th president than does any other single book published in the last 50 years. In the case of Coolidge -- Booraem's research is exhaustive and painstaking. Often, he discovered neglected primary sources or assigned a new spin to an old story. I can only assume that the same quality is present in his book on Jackson. Where the record is not clear, and that is often the case, he provides you with the divergent accounts and his reasons for the one he chooses and the basis for his informed speculation.

The style of this book is literate and graceful; the words conduct you to the world of young Andy Jackson and make you glad you took the journey. Young Hickory was born on March 15, 1767. He grew up in South Carolina and considered himself a native of that state. There is some basis for the stoutly held contention that he was in fact born in North Carolina. As a boy, Jackson endured hardship and suffering. It is a wonder that he survived his youth. But, let's have Rik Booraem speak from his preface:

"The story of his early life, which unfolded during the American Revolution in the Carolinas, is highly dramatic. He nearly died of small pox after being wounded and imprisoned at the age of fourteen. The war destroyed his home and his immediate family. He constructed an entirely new identity to replace the one he had lost. After becoming a successful lawyer, he turned his attention toward the land west of the mountains."

Young Hickory carries you along like a boat in a spring flood. The story of the British campaign in the Carolinas is as well-told as I have ever read. Booraem is a fine story-teller and paints an unforgettable picture of those exciting times. -

This is a wonderful title fulfilling many criteria and it is an excellent title to use with small children as it is a rhyme that children learn and become familiar with. It is also used in counting and time activities at school. The story is simple yet entertaning with lots of chances for children to participate and even play the part of the Mouse by using the fingerpuppet. Brilliant!

I thoroughly enjoyed the second book of the E.J. Pugh series. It's hard to find a book to read after reading one of Susan Rogers Cooper's books. There aren't too many books out there that combine wonderful, believable characters, humor, and suspense. I know I have the third and fourth book to look forward to. I hope Ms. Cooper keeps writing this series.

Pecan Cultivars--Past and Present is an excellent reference book for all pecan enthusiasts, growers as well as home owners. This book list 1012 varieties of pecans and 44 hican varieties. When they are known the parents of a cultivar are listed. Characteristics of tree and nut, such as average nuts per pound, percent kernel, and susceptibility to disease are shown. I would recommend this book to all pecan growers.

The authors, Tommy Thompson and Fountain Young, are or have been pecan breeder with the USDA.

I think that in school's back then that teacher's should not hit the students for bisbehavior just try to help out the best they can no matter what they do or try I've seen kids hit adults and they adults hit kids it's not righ tfor either one to do it but still in school's now we use iss oss detention and etc. Istands for in s stands for school the other s stands for suspension
o stands for out s stands for school the other s stands for suspension it's not fu for the students at all but they deserve it for the way they behave in school and their attitude.

When I saw this book I thought my son would not sit through it, as he was still little(2&1/2). He loves the book and has most of it memorized. It's a book of funny words great rhymes and lots of fun for young kids to associate with. Definite Thumps Up!!!!

I am a mom and a former children's librarian. I highly recommend this book for preschool-Kindergarten age children.

What an absolutely fun and enjoyable read. To go through the whole "clock strikes" sequence not only helps my daughter learn numbers, but we were able to get up close and personal with the famous mouse. The author came up with some fantastic new nursery rhymes, holding true to the fun-to-say "Hickory Dickory Dock!" We loved reading this book over and over again because the words really move along easily. The illustrator added great visual characterization of such a fun tale. Great job, it's fun to see the nursery rhymes take on new and energetic life! The mouse and his adventures endeared me to this modern version of the nursery rhyme forever. I'd love to see more by Mr. Aylesworth.

The historiographical fortunes of Andrew Jackson have varied over the years from the controversy of his own time to virtual adoration during the New Deal years to today's increasingly jaundiced opinion of the general/politician/Indian fighter.

The Heiders, professional historians, definitely fall into the disapproving faction that lately has been gaining the upper hand. In part, their work is a logical outgrowth of the current political climate. In the 1930s, when Reform was in vogue, Jackson's role as "reformer" (or, destroyer) of such "elitist" institutions as the Second Bank of the United States and his rough nationalism as expressed towards South Carolina during the nullification crisis played well with the generally liberal guild of historians.

But, times have changed and with "multi-culturalism" the current fashion, Andrew Jackson is less a frontier hero in the eyes of many than a frontier sociopath with a brutal contempt for both Indians (now called "Native Americans") and blacks. That, at least, is, in part, how the Heider's seem to regard him.

And, with good reason. Jackson's contempt for the Indians is, despite the apologetics of biographer Robert Remini, too patent to be ignored. His general bloodlust -- he was an extraordinarily violent man in both private and personal life -- don't endear him to modern sensibilities either.

The Heiders, in this well-researched and well-written book, see Jackson as the Loose Cannon of antebellum America: headstrong, insubordinate, genocidal -- and an out and out liar. His prevarications about his unauthorized seizure of Spanish Pensicola in 1818, which included an after-the-fact falsified map, his summary killing of two British nationals on flimsy pretext and his ruthless persecution of anyone who dared to differ with him leave the Old Hero's moral and ethical standing in tatters.

To be sure, the Heiders, when presented with two interpretations of Jackson's actions -- his own and that of his enemies -- generally side with the more hostile account. But, their thorough research builds a persuasive case that Jackson was, indeed, out-of-control, arrogant, and a blood-stained imperialist with abiding racial hatreds.

The Monroe administration found Jackson's actions reprehensible and insubordinate -- but very useful. Thus, the president and his cabinet, led by John Quincy Adams, winked at Old Hickory's depredations. The political popularity of the "Napoeleon of the Woods" made him, as well, too dangerous a potential adversary.

The book goes into considerable detail and some of it may be lost on those not familiar with its period. Still, it is a valuable antidote to two generations of Jackson-worship on the part of historians. One wonders what, a few generations hence, the view of Jackson will be once the cultural wheel has turned over a few more times from now.

This easily readable, complete account of the origins of the Southeast United States pulls no punches. It is fascinating.

I am an unabashed Andrew Jackson admirer. But how he ever got away with what he did confuses me. Aaron Burr was charged with treason and tried four times for only thinking about what Jackson executed with impunity. Timing, as they say, is everything.

Frontier justice, combined with an officially unsanctioned invasion of undisputably Spainish soverign territory, is accomplished without so much as a truely serious international whimper. Jackson simply ignored and crushed ALL domestic opposition. This event has all the improbable content of the most outrageous novel: land based buccaneering, genocide, invasion, forced removal, betrayal and, most of all, proof that in the early stages of this part of what was going to become a major cornorstone of the future United States, that certain political sections of early America's hierarchy believed that might made right. Absolutly no democratic ideals here.

I have never read anywhere what this book made me feel but I truely believe this was Jackson's first formal execution of his and other's concept of Manefest Destiny.

The authors are excellent. The subject matter is riviting. The local history is fascinating. Jackson is an American original. With all the good he did for his country he had to know that to execute this plan he needed safe harbor in the highest levels of the US government. Thank God he was on our side.

An often forgotten episode in American history was the United State's pursuit to gain Florida. Troubles on the border allowed Andrew Jackson to come in at remove the Creek and Seminole people. He invaded a foreign territory and executed citizens of a third county while there. His actions were unauthorized (but with the blessings of the President), but he still got away with it.

This is one of the few books that covers the First Seminole War. The authors have done their research and used sources that have been ignored in the past. Many factors went into this conflict, and they are all examined. All the political aspects in Washington City, as well as ramifications from the Fort Jackson Treaty of 1815 that disinherited the Creeks.

The overall impression is that Jackson knew what he wanted and would not let anything get in his way. He pulled off an obviously illegal operation, and got away with it all.

Fraustino, Lisa Rowe (2001). The Hickory Chair. Illustrated by Benny Andrews. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN: 0-590-52248-5...

Louis can't see his Gran, because he is blind, but he can smell her, "lilacs, with a whiff of bleach," and he loves her "molasses voice." When she dies, she leaves behind a note for each of her family, hidden on a favorite thing she wants them to keep. Louis is the best at finding the notes, but no one can find the note she left for him. Since he has no note, he can take his pick, and is comforted by the hickory chair in which she often held him, which still holds her smell and her shape "rocked into the seat." Years later his grandchild finds the note his Gran left him, hidden in the hickory chair.
This is primarily a story about the ways memories, love, and the senses are tied together. Louis' memories and love are both expressed in sensory images. When he is happy, the air tasted "sweet and light." When he is sad, the air "curdled in my throat." We are given a vivid portrait of the manner in which a child without sight perceives the world. Benny Andrews' oil and fabric collage illustrations complement the text. The angular figures show us the emotions of Louis' African American family, sometimes joyous, sometimes somber, but always loving. The text is straightforward and vivid. A good choice for elementary school age children, this book will be even more effective with a discussion afterward.

Louis is the youngest grandson in the family and has a special loving relationship with his Gran. Singer, wind listener and storyteller, she shares lots of sensory experiences with all her grandchildren. Like many other multi-generation relationship books, Grandmother is wise and wonderful. When Gran is gone, Louis misses her very much, especially when she seems to have forgotten him. I really empathized with the feelings that Louis must have had at the loss of such a close and powerful relationship and at his grandmother's seeming abandonment. How painful to a young-without defenses boy.

The artwork, bright, naive, folk-style paintings is pretty and gives a southern feeling to the book.

As Gran always told him, Louis was her favorite youngest grandchild. Their relationship was so close and special. He remembers how she always smelled of lilacs and bleach and how her voice sounded like molasses. He remembers her salty kisses and the games of touch your nose and hide and seek with his cousins. And he remembers how his Gran told him that even though he was blind, he could still see as well as anyone, because he had "blind sight". But mostly he remembers sitting on her lap in the hickory chair his grandfather had made from a tree that grew right where he built their house, reading and telling stories and sharing. When Gran died, she wanted everyone in the family to have something special that belonged to her and so she left notes all around her little house and sent the family on a treasure hunt. Louis was the best finder because he knew Gran so well and pretty soon everyone had found their notes and had their special possessions. Everyone, but Louis. How could his Gran have forgotten her favorite youngest grandchild? So Louis picked from what was left, the old hickory chair and once he had climbed up and sat down, the missing note didn't matter so much because he felt like he was back on Gran's lap..... Lisa Rowe Fraustino has written a tender, gentle, poignant story that reaches out to both children and adults alike. Her eloquent text is full of imagery and magic and complemented by Benny Andrews' beautifully expressive and innovative artwork. You'll swear you can hear Gran's molasses voice, smell the scent of lilacs and bleach and taste her salty kisses. And many years later, as Louis sits with his youngest favorite grandchild in the old hickory chair, they make a discovery that will put a smile on each and every readers face. Perfect for youngsters 6-10, The Hickory Chair is storytelling at its very best and will touch your heart with its insight and wisdom.

Ed McAvoy moves to the small town of Peekamoose Heights, New York to get
away from the big city. A former police captain in Detroit, Ed is badly
injured on the job and forced into medical retirement. He chooses the
picturesque town of Peekamoose Heights, which is nestled in the Catskill
Mountains for the sleepy small town atmosphere and lighter workload. Little
does he know that his city police skills will be needed so frequently!

Sam Douglas has worked his way into small business ownership and now he and
his wife own a small antiques shop in Peekamoose Heights. When Sam receives
an invitation to an auction in Florida, he uses the opportunity to secure a
Queen Anne clock for his former employer, Kate Winthrop. Kate has been
seeking such an antique and is willing to trade her existing clock for the
Queen Anne. Sam will then sell the Kate's clock to another customer.

Unfortunately, the plan does not work out quite as planned and soon Sam is
accused of murder. Can Ed McAvoy help to establish his friend's innocence?

Hickory, Dickory is a fine small town mystery. While the cast of characters
was large, I enjoyed the deft characterization and individuality of the
various residents of Peekamoose Heights. Twists and turns galore and
subplots that caught my attention from page one made this book a very full
and satisfying read while the motley cast of characters has me eager to
revisit Peekamoose Heights. Hickory Dickory reminded me at times of a cozy
mystery and others of a police procedural and would appeal to readers of
either genre.
Review by Briana Lambert

As an avid antique hunter and flea market junkie, this book by Bill Stackhouse almost steps from it's pages onto the floor of a shop cluttered with the trash and treasures of bygone days. Now I make every effort to learn the history behind my eagerly sought purchases and enjoy in imagination that they might harbor mysteries of their own. If ever you have looked through a dusty hall hoping to spot a genuine "find" you will enjoy this masterfully told story! Bill is carefully crafting a web of personalities in his Ed McAvoy series and I just can't wait for the next one. This is a book you'll want to share, and ask folks to return for your permanent collection.

I turned to Roy Nichols' work because truthfully there isn't much of a Franklin Pierce bibliography. Nichols' work dates back to 1931, an era of different writing styles and certainly different interpretations of American political life.

When I refer to this work as a "Plodder," I intend no disrespect. Nichols work is, for the most part, a straightforward biography of a New Hampshire politician who became an unlikely compromise candidate for the presidency in 1852. To borrow a sports analogy, one has to be in a position to win in order to win, and the author painstakingly traces the steps of this methodical politician that put him in lightning's way.

Nichols leaves the reader with ample evidence to believe that Franklin Pierce owed at least something of his steady rise through local offices to the reputation of his father, General Benjamin Pierce, a Revolutionary war hero and governor of New Hampshire in his own right. Franklin graduated from Bowdoin and began his lawn practice precisely at the heydey of his father's own success. A late twentieth century biographer most certainly would have delved into the psychodynamics between father and son.

In the style of the day, Nichols hints at, but does not detail, several critical factors in Pierce's life. His marriage to Jane Appleton smacks of Lincoln's trials with Mary Todd. His drinking was problematic. His absence of commitment to one of the proper religious denominations of the day was noted then by those who charted such things. He seemed to have been unduly shaken early in his congressional career when John Calhoun denounced him on the floor over a ludicruously insignificant matter. Later The reader is left to surmise the impact of a horrific family tragedy upon Pierce's state of mind as he prepared to take the presidential oath in 1853.

Nichols' Pierce was himself a plodder who for the most part achieved political offices the old fashioned way: he earned it, and particularly by his services within the Democratic Party. Pierce enforced party discipline with a ruthlessness that served him well early in his career, but his intractibility was a serious handicap in the 1850's as America saw multiple realignments of political families. Nichols recounts the presidential years in straightforward fashion, but he deftly questions the wisdom of trying to build national unity through a "representative" cabinet of such diverse characters as Jefferson Davis and William Marcy. The upshot of such a strategy was a not unexpected rearguard action from within the executive branch that stymied the few genuine executive initiatives from the presidential desk.

Much to his credit, Nichols reminds his readers that the Pierce Presidency was more than Bleeding Kansas. In fact, one is left with the impression that Pierce never had the full picture of the Kansas situation. The years 1853-1857 were times of Indian wars in the northwest, railroad dealings and wheelings north and south, filibustering in central America, the emergence of the Know-Nothings, and a variety of midrange diplomatic problems with England and Spain in particular. Some of Pierce's diplomats--Pierre Soule and Dan Sickles, for example--did not represent him well. There is surprisingly little information about reaction to the Fugitive Slave Law; Pierce never waivered in his belief that the growing vocal reaction against slavery was nothing more than the annoyance of a few malcontents, an impression formed in New Hampshire in the 1830's when Pierce was laboring to build party unity.

The absence of a psychological vocabulary hinders Nichols when he attempts to describe the dissolution of Pierce after his presidency. As the Civil War unfolds, Pierce's inability to either understand its forces or accept the new national order becomes eery. In the structured world of Franklin Pierce, the abolitionists are the villains, true anarchists, and their sin is disruption of the Democratic Party. The moral component of both "causes," north and south, totally escaped him...

I had always been somewhat intrigued by Franklin Pierce, perhaps our most obscure president. I would wonder why he was almost neglected by history while other presidents got much more press. As I eventually learned - and as this book reaffirms - there is a reason he is almost completely ignored. Pierce represented the nadir of the Presidency, a period that by historical circumstances and Pierce's own lack of ability made presidential power as weak as it ever would be.

Nichols's book describes the early life of Pierce. The son of a Revolutionary War veteran, Pierce used his family connections and his own gifts of intelligence and oratory to rise in the local political community, first on a state level and then eventually into both houses of Congress. While adept enough to get these positions, he never really sparkled at any of them; his period as a general in the Mexican War is similarly unimpressive.

The Democratic Party, desperate to find a nominee in 1852, eventually settled on Pierce, not because he was a great candidate, but - as a Northerner with distinctly pro-Southern views - he was the only candidate with wide geographical appeal. Attaining the Presidency, he did little to calm the growing North-South rift and, in fact, left things in a sadder state than when he left.

Nichols portrays Pierce sympathetically enough as a man beset by poor health, a hard-to-live-with wife and a series of family tragedies, culminating with seeing the death of his last child in an accident just prior to his inauguration. Pierce, however, was also a politician with little political awareness, oblivious to the growing conflict over slavery and with sympathies in complete contrast to that of his New Hampshire neighbors. Compared with most of his fellow Presidents, Pierce wound up dying in ignonimy.

This is a good book, very detailed and with a high level of objectivity, and can be considered probably the best book on Pierce. Originally written in the 1930s, Nichols occasionally uses language that may seem quaint to modern eyes, but this is still quite readable. If you want to learn about Franklin Pierce (and the era leading up to the Civil War), this is a good place to start.

625 pages, 76 chapters, 10 illustrations. Comprehensive, scholarly, thoroughly researched biography of an underrated President who was a victim of his times and of the tragedies of his own life. Many important American historical events, which the author puts in context, occurred during the Pierce administration. Events leading to, and immediately following, the Civil War were paramount. Preface to first edition was written in 1931. Second editon was published 27 years later and was "completely revised." Difficult but fascinating reading.