Having received most of my "education" about the War of 1812 back in high school on ONE day, and from Johnny Horton's song, "....in 1814 we took a little trip...and fought the bloody British in the town of New Orleans..." A humorous little ditty - lots of fun, but not really a great place to get a realistic look at that time in our history. Anyway, as I said, having received my education thusly, I was totally enthralled by this very griltty recounting of Jackson and his amazing victory over not only the British, but forces in the U.S. arrayed against him, his own fragile health, and the topography of New Orleans itself. This is not to be missed!

Along with Brian Kilmeade's other books "George Washington's Secret Six" and "Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates", another outstanding, condensed, yet thorough work on an interesting piece of American history. A great companion book to HW Brands, " Andrew Jackson, His Life and Times."Along with Oreilly's "Killing" series, I anxiously await the arrival of his next book!Dr. Stanley E. Toompas, Optometrist& Arthur of, "I'm the One the Other Isn't"

This book made the Battle of New Orleans understandable. It is not a complete history of everything that happened, but it is a good story to read and easy to understand. It is the second book that I have read about this Battle, one was a novel, but had good facts. I know this one is not footnoted, but Kilmeade does list his sources and there are many of those. It was so interesting to read about Jackson himself. Some of that I already knew, but it did bring him to life in that time frame. My ancestors fought in this battle so that is why I was so interested in its history. I have also read Kilmeade's other books and find them very interesting.

Once again the authors delve more deeply into the history of our country than our teachers and textbooks ever did. From Washington's spies, of which I only some existed. To the Tripoli pirates, where I only knew that Jefferson sent the Navy and which the USMC sing so proudly about. Now the Battle of New Orleans, which is without a doubt, a much more important moment in our history than I had ever known it to be before.Thank you gentlemen. Please keep the books coming.

I have read Brian before, and his style is more oriented to high school 9th grade students. That is not my preferred style.Having said that this particular offering was interesting for the facts it offered. I was unfamiliar with the overall history of the New Orleans Battle and the story alone made this an interesting piece. For new historians who are just expanding their world, I would recommend this.As for those who are upset by some perceived glorification of President Jackson, I thought Kilmeade's style actually watered it down a little bit. Left or right, Jackson was an interesting and intense character, and if you have very hard feelings about Jackson, you should be for warned that you will need a few grains of salt.