Making of America
5 primary works • 8 total works
Book 1
Andrew Jackson tells the story of one of our most controversial presidents.
Born in the Carolina backwoods, Jackson joined the American Revolutionary War at the age of thirteen. After a reckless youth of gunfights, gambling, and general mischief, he rose to national fame as the general who defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans.
Jackson ran for president as a political outsider, championing the interest of common farmers and frontiersmen. Determined to take down the wealthy, well-educated East Coast “elites,” he pledged to destroy the national bank—which he believed was an engine of corruption serving the interest of bankers and industrialists. A stanch nationalist, he sought to secure and expand the nation’s borders. Believing that “we the people” included white men only, he protected the practice of slavery, and opened new lands for white settlers by pushing the Native people westward.
Jackson, a polarizing figure in his era, ignited a populist movement that remains a powerful force in our national politics.
About the Series
The Making of America series traces the constitutional history of the United States through overlapping biographies of American men and women. The debates that raged when our nation was founded have been argued ever since: How should the Constitution be interpreted? What is the meaning, and where are the limits of personal liberty? What is the proper role of the federal government? Who should be included in “we the people”? Each biography in the series tells the story of an American leader who helped shape the United States of today.
Born in the Carolina backwoods, Jackson joined the American Revolutionary War at the age of thirteen. After a reckless youth of gunfights, gambling, and general mischief, he rose to national fame as the general who defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans.
Jackson ran for president as a political outsider, championing the interest of common farmers and frontiersmen. Determined to take down the wealthy, well-educated East Coast “elites,” he pledged to destroy the national bank—which he believed was an engine of corruption serving the interest of bankers and industrialists. A stanch nationalist, he sought to secure and expand the nation’s borders. Believing that “we the people” included white men only, he protected the practice of slavery, and opened new lands for white settlers by pushing the Native people westward.
Jackson, a polarizing figure in his era, ignited a populist movement that remains a powerful force in our national politics.
About the Series
The Making of America series traces the constitutional history of the United States through overlapping biographies of American men and women. The debates that raged when our nation was founded have been argued ever since: How should the Constitution be interpreted? What is the meaning, and where are the limits of personal liberty? What is the proper role of the federal government? Who should be included in “we the people”? Each biography in the series tells the story of an American leader who helped shape the United States of today.
Book 2
Born into poverty, Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) rose to become the nation’s seventh president and the founder of the Democratic Party. When the War of 1812 broke out, Jackson’s leadership earned him national fame as a military hero, and during the 1820s and 1830s he became an influential, and polarizing, political figure. Jackson is best known for making America more democratic. The problem was that, for Jackson, “the people” were white and male. So while he moved the United States toward a true democracy, he also trampled on the rights of minorities, appointing proslavery Supreme Court justices and giving America the Indian Removal Act, which resulted in the Trail of Tears. The book includes selections of Jackson’s writings, endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.
Book 3
Book 5
The fifth book in the Making of America series, Franklin D. Roosevelt examines the life of America’s 32nd president: his birth into one of America’s elite families, his domineering mother, his marriage to Eleanor Roosevelt, his struggle with polio, and his political career. A Democrat, Roosevelt (1882–1945) won a record four presidential elections and is the longest-serving US president. During his time in office, he led the country through the Great Depression and World War II, and helped to redefine the role of the US government with the New Deal. Scholars often rate him as one of the three greatest presidents, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The book includes selections from FDR’s writings in addition to endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.
Book 6
Book six in the Making of America series tells the story of Supreme Court justice and civil rights activist Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993) was a US Supreme Court justice and important civil rights activist. The book traces his life from his childhood in Baltimore, where he faced racial segregation at school, to his years at Howard University School of Law (he was denied admittance to white law schools) and his legal work with the NAACP. Marshall argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court—more than anyone else in history—especially against those cases that attempted to justify Jim Crow segregation. He became the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, serving from 1967–1991.
Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993) was a US Supreme Court justice and important civil rights activist. The book traces his life from his childhood in Baltimore, where he faced racial segregation at school, to his years at Howard University School of Law (he was denied admittance to white law schools) and his legal work with the NAACP. Marshall argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court—more than anyone else in history—especially against those cases that attempted to justify Jim Crow segregation. He became the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, serving from 1967–1991.
In the fourth installment in the Making of America series, Susan B. Anthony, Teri Kanefield examines the life of America’s famous suffragette. Anthony was born into a world in which men ruled women: A man could beat his wife, take her earnings, have her committed into an asylum based on his word, and take her children away from her. While the young nation was ablaze with the radical notion that people could govern themselves, “people” were understood to be white and male. Women were expected to stay out of public life and debates. As Anthony saw the situation, “Women’s subsistence is in the hands of men, and most arbitrarily and unjustly does he exercise his consequent power.” She began her public career as a radical abolitionist, and after the Civil War, she became an international figurehead of the women’s suffrage movement. The book includes selections of Anthony’s writing, endnotes, a bibliography, and an index.
The third installment of the Making of America series, Abraham Lincoln, tells of one of our most beloved presidents. Born in a cabin deep in the backwoods of Kentucky, growing up in a family considered “the poorest of the poor,” Lincoln rose to become the sixteenth president of the United States. As president, he guided the United States through the Civil War, helped end slavery in America, and strengthened the federal government. Unlike other biographies, the Making of America series goes beyond individual narratives linking influential figures to create an overarching story of America’s growth. The first three books in the series, read together, tell the story of American constitutional history from the founding of the nation through the end of the Civil War. The stories can also be read on their own and are the perfect way to get young readers excited about American history. The book includes selections of Lincoln’s writing, a bibliography, and an index.