The expulsion of Native Americans from the eastern half of the continent to the Indian Territory beyond the Mississippi River remains one of the most notorious events in US history, and the man most responsible and most widely blamed for their removal is Andrew Jackson. Robert Remini, hailed by the New York Times as “our foremost Jacksonian scholar,” now provides a thought-provoking analysis of this single most controversial aspect of Jackson’s long career. Masterfully capturing Jackson's flaws and limitations as well as his heroism, Remini contends that, despite the injustice and atrocities that accompanied the removal, Jackson in fact ensured the tribes’ survival.

This is at once an exuberant work of American history and a sobering reminder of the violence and darkness at the heart of that history.