The American Nation: A History, Volume 15

In the Editor's Introduction to the Series: That a new history of the United States is needed, extending from the discovery down to the present time hardly needs a statement. No such comprehensive work by a competent writer is now in existence. Individual writers have treated only limited chronological fields. Meantime there is a rapid increase of published sources and serviceable monographs based on material hitherto unused. On the one side, there is a necessity for an intelligent summarizing of the present knowledge of American history by trained specialists; on the other hand, there is a need for a complete work, written in an untechnical style, which shall serve for the instruction and the entertainment of the general reader.
From the Editor's Introduction to Volume Fifteen: Hardly any year in American history so distinctly marks the transition from one era to another as 1829. The character of Andrew Jackson is so distinct and so aggressive that few writers upon the period can resist the temptation to group the events of his administration around his personality. This temptation Professor MacDonald has resisted. His conception of the period is that it witnessed the fruition of national policies, nearly all of which would have come up and would have divided the nation had there been no Andrew Jackson. At the same time, he shows how that dominant personality determined when and how most of the great questions should arise; and how Jackson hammered out a series of political principles that became the foundation of a new democratic party.