A major Irish trailblazer was the seventh U.S. president, Andrew Jackson, the son of Scots-Irish immigrants. "Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times" by H.W. Brands is one of the first books to take a more sympathetic view of this president often dismissed as a crude Indian killer. Brands does not emphasize Jackson's Irishness, but with another Jackson bio supposedly in the works by Princeton academic all-star Sean Wilentz, a reassessment of Jackson seems to be underway. Given the disdain with which the elites viewed Jackson, a strong argument is waiting to be made about Jackson as the first Irish immigrant president. ($16.95 / 656 pages / Anchor)