Hello everyone! Thank you for joining me on the maiden voyage of the Age of Jackson Podcast. I am really excited to be sharing with you my passion and love for this period of American History. Not only are some of the people larger than life but some of the events in this period continue to affect us to this day. But as this is the very first episode of this podcast, I figured it would be best to introduce people to the Age of Jackson. What do I mean when I use the term, “the Age of Jackson?” Who was Andrew Jackson and why does it get his own age named after him? What was happening in America in the early nineteenth century? How have historians treated this period of American history and what work is being done right now?
To answer these questions, I enlisted the help of Mark R. Cheathem.
Mark R. Cheathem is a professor of history at Cumberland University and received his Ph.D. in history from Mississippi State University. He has written several books, including the award-winning Andrew Jackson, Southerner, and is the author of the upcoming The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson, to be published later this year. Since 2015, Dr. Cheathem had been the project director and co-editor of the Papers of Martin Van Buren. He also runs the website Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics.
Join me as I asked Dr. Cheathem about what was the Age of Jackson!