This review of Burstein's Passions of Andrew Jackson, a book I have mentioned on the blog previously, will take your breath away. Quite critical, and I am quite pleased. Get a load of the concluding paragraph:

It appears that, here as elsewhere, Burstein has simply not taken the trouble to think out his own argument. He offers hasty judgment and superficial wisdom. In a concluding chapter, "Courting Posterity," he assesses Jackson's character and legacy. He compares him to Washington and Jefferson, and curiously finds all three alike. Looking for a handle, or perhaps just seeking to impress, Burstein fronts his book with three passages from Shakespeare, and proceeds to liken Jackson to a string of tragic protagonists: Lear, Richard III, and finally Coriolanus. His strategy recalls Cole Porter's sage advice:

Brush up your Shakespeare; / Start quoting him now. / Brush up your Shakespeare, / And the readers you will wow. / If you want to prove Jackson was heinous, / Just compare him to Coriolanus. / Brush up your Shakespeare, / And they'll all kowtow (I trow).

In the end, if there is a lesson in this book it is not about Americans, or democracy, or even Andrew Jackson. It is about the perils of pseudoprofundity, of reaching for deep meaning without paying the price of careful reflection. Burstein may not be wrong about Jackson, but he has not made a case that will persuade or endure. Still he offers one homily worth contemplating: "Vanity is a failing common to the overeducated as well as the ignorant" (p. 218).

Ouch. Jackson lives.