J.M. Opal took his BA from Cornell University and his PhD in History from Brandeis University. He taught for six years at Colby College in Maine before moving to Montreal, Quebec, where he is Associate Professor at McGill University. He has published Beyond the Farm: National Ambitions in Rural New England (2008) and articles in the Journal of American History, Studies in American Political Development, and Early American Studies. This article is based on his new book, Avenging the People: Andrew Jackson, the Rule of Law, and the American Nation from Oxford University Press.