Mark R. Cheathem's Blog, page 5

Background to The Coming of Democracy

One of the things I didn’t have to address in my previous series on the evolution of a book was the changes that a book can undergo between proposal and publication. I didn’t have this experience with any of my previous books, but The Coming of Democracy was different. In 2012, I sent Johns Hopkins University …

Read the Introduction to The Coming of Democracy

My thanks to Johns Hopkins University Press for allowing me to post the introduction to my forthcoming book, The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson. On 29 May 1840, approximately 7,500 individuals gathered in Clarksville, Tennessee, to witness a parade celebrating presidential candidate William Henry Harrison. The Whig Party had chosen …

The Coming of Democracy Is . . . Coming!

After what has felt like an eternity, The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press) is in the final stages of production. It is scheduled to come out in July and is available for pre-sale. I want to publicly thank Harry Watson, Robert Owens, John Belohlavek, John Brooke, and …

Remembering Hendrik Booraem

Dr. Hendrik Booraem V passed away in October 2017. His obituary outlines a more remarkable publishing record than even I realized. Many people may not recognize his name, but Booraem wrote one of the most underappreciated biographies of Andrew Jackson. Entitled Young Hickory: The Making of Andrew Jackson, Booraem’s biography is exhaustive in explaining the world …

Books for Fall 2018

Jacksonian Democracy Carol Berkin, A Sovereign People: The Crises of the 1790s and the Birth of American Nationalism (Basic Books, 2017) 978-0465060887 Mark R. Cheathem, Andrew Jackson, Southerner (LSU Press, 2013) ISBN 9780807150986 Cassandra Good, Founding Friendships: Friendships between Men and Women in the Early American Republic (Oxford Univ. Press, 2015) ISBN 9780199376179 Jack Larkin, The Reshaping of Everyday Life (HarperPerennial, 1989) ISBN 0060916060 …

Jacksonian America: 2017 in Review

Total blog views: 41,076 Most active 2017 month in views: August (5,024) Ten most-viewed posts of 2017 (2017 posts in bold): 1. Debunking the Lincoln-Kennedy Federal Reserve Meme 9,766 2. Andrew Jackson’s Profane Parrot 4,368 3.  Was Calvin Coolidge a Klansman? 1,773 4. The Man Who Wanted to Kill Andrew Jackson 1,678 5. 248 Years Later, Andrew Jackson Remains Controversial 1,153 6. Is Donald …

Review of Andrew Jackson: Hero Under Fire

As part of his publicity campaign for his new book,  Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans: The Battle That Shaped America’s Destiny, Brian Kilmeade hosted a Fox News Channel (FNC) special, entitled Andrew Jackson: Hero Under Fire. At the risk of piling on my previous review of Kilmeade’s book, I wanted to give some …

Review of Kilmeade and Yaeger’s Jackson Book

Popular history books can be a mixed bag. Oftentimes, they are well written but contain poor history. Finding the sweet spot–a well-written, well-researched book–is not easy, although one can think of journalists (Jon Meacham, Doris Kearns Goodwin) and historians (Bill Brands, Stephen Ambrose) who have been successful to various degrees in this regard. Fox News …

Sneak Peek at My New Book Cover

After a longer span of time than expected, The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson is finally in production. Copy-edits are in, and I’m awaiting page proofs. You may remember that back in August, I asked you to help choose the book cover. Turns out, the folks at Johns Hopkins Univ. Press had …

10 Books That Influenced Andrew Jackson, Southerner

Joe Stoltz, who has a new book out on Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans that you should rightly assume is better than Brian Kilmeade’s, inspired me to write about the books that played an integral role in the writing of Andrew Jackson, Southerner.  (Yes, I’m four years late to the game.) In alphabetical …