When Men Grew Tall, or The Story of Andrew Jackson

When Men Grew Tall, or The Story of Andrew Jackson presents the life of the seventh American president as a vigorous national romance, tracing Jackson from frontier hardship and Revolutionary boyhood through duels, Indian wars, New Orleans, and the fierce democratic battles of Washington. Lewis writes in a muscular, anecdotal style, closer to popular historical narrative than detached biography, reflecting the early twentieth-century fascination with "great men," frontier character, and the making of American political identity. Alfred Henry Lewis, journalist, novelist, and observer of public life, brought to this subject the instincts of a newspaperman and the dramatic eye of a storyteller. His experience covering politics and human conflict helped shape a Jackson who is less marble monument than force of nature: combative, loyal, flawed, and profoundly representative of the rough democratic energies Lewis associated with the republic's expansion. This book is recommended for readers interested in presidential biography, Jacksonian democracy, and the literary culture of American nationalism. Though modern readers may question some of its heroic assumptions, Lewis's portrait remains valuable for its narrative vitality and for what it reveals about how Jackson's legend was fashioned for a later age.