Reason magazine has published a review written by Dr. Amy H. Sturgis, who teaches in the Liberal Studies Program at Belmont University, of a new book about Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States. Sturgis calls the book “a welcome corrective to the uncritical praise he has received for so long.”
Historians of recent decades also have fallen under Old Hickory’s charismatic spell. Andrew Burstein’s The Passions of Andrew Jackson seeks to reverse this trend and balance our understanding of Jackson, the man and the leader. Burstein, a professor of history at the University of Tulsa, sheds new and harsh light on the Sage of the Hermitage and what he represents to Nashville and the country at large.
Burstein’s work challenges a shelf of canonical texts that currently influence scholarly and popular opinion.
Sturgis holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history with a specialty in Native American studies from Vanderbilt University.
Union Planters Bank has established a $5,000 scholarship award to be given annually to the Outstanding Belmont Student Entrepreneur. The first recipient of the award is Kevin Alexandroni, a business student who also operates a kosher catering business, 
“This annual award, highlighting the year’s outstanding Belmont student entrepreneur, is a key building block to bring recognition to the student entrepreneurs in our program,” said 
“We’ve made a five-year commitment to the program,” said Ron Samuels, regional president and CEO of the Nashville-based operations of Memphis-based Union Planters Bank, “One of our business objectives is to help small business. At the core of our whole banking business is dealing with small business.
