When the seventh president was first elected, he hosted a wild party in the White House, opening the building up to the public.
"I think the thing is that Jackson used his presidency to criticize and in some ways combat the 1% of that era," Foner said. "He destroyed the Bank of the United States, the most powerful economic institution in the country. He spoke about the need for government to side with the common man, not the business interests."
"I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me," Jackson once said, according to Meacham. As an intensely partisan, often hot-headed leader, Jackson was never one to try to appeal to both sides of the aisle on many issues.
Then again, many people loathed the man, viewing him as an "American Caesar." In 1835, an unemployed house painter from England attempted to shoot Jackson with a pistol at the US State Capitol. It misfired, and, according to legend, Jackson beat the man senseless with his cane.
Regardless of the would-be assassin's motives, many contemporaries of Jackson saw him as abusing the power of the presidency. In his personal life, he could be quite violent, killing one man long before his political career in 1806, over a fight about a horse race.
The most famous case of Jackson's divisiveness came about when he usurped the Supreme Court's resolution of Cherokee sovereignty on their tribal lands in Georgia. The subsequent Trail of Tears, which saw Jackson forcibly drive the tribe away from their land, ended up claiming thousands of lives.