Historians have come to call the period between 1824 and 1848 the Era of the "Common Man." This time period is defined by Andrew Jackson's prominence in American politics. To truly understand the significance of the title given those events we must first define the "common man." You could, as Jackson's party did, define the common man as the middle class citizenry (white, male farmers;) or you could say the common man was simply a person living in America. Both definitions prove the title to be a fallacy. The common man was ravaged by the political and economic reforms of the "Age of Jackson," either indirectly or through the nation's leaders' indifference to their plight.

The presidential election of 1828 was the starting point of many political reforms. Jackson's defeat in the 1824 elections, due to, what he referred to as the "corrupt bargain", between John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, helped to develop his theory on the "democratization" of government. This theory shaped a lot of the political decision made during Jackson's presidency. The one of the first major reforms made was the reduction of voter requirements for the electorate. Before the election of 1828 most states required voters to be tax paying, land owners. Most states thereafter allowed all white males the power to vote. This is an example of Jackson's definition of "common man" proving the time period's title. White males did, in fact, gain privileges. However, if you consider the other definition of the "common man" however the title is disproved. The American population was not composed solely of white males; therefore the new reforms still left out a large several "common men." Another reform created, though not directly by the Jackson administration, that was to improve the representation of the populace in politics. This system called the political party, gained weight with the political rivalry between De Witt Clinton and Martin Van Buren in New York, after the War of 1812. Van Buren's supporter's argued that: "an institutionalized party, based in the populace at large, could ensure genuine democracy." The effect, however, in the 1820's and 1830's, was the creation of the two national parties: the Whigs and the Democrats. These balkanized groups became voices not of the "common man" but instead the upper middle, and higher class men who could afford to support them. Both of these movements: democratization and the validation of the political party; were meant to aid but they ultimately failed.

The failure of other political movements spawned from the disregard for the "common man," from their conception. Henry Clay wanted to develop the infrastructure of America. During the "Age of Jackson," America consisted of only a few turnpikes and several, less dependable roads. Clay's American System, would have created a large network of paved roads across the nation. Jackson opposed the American System because he believed internal improvements to be wastes of federal money. He vetoed of bills that called for subsidies for the creation of roads, like that of the Maysville Road in Kentucky. Jackson must not have considered how a better infrastructure would have helped the "common man." At the time it was a laborious task to a city large enough to hold a market, in the South at least it was. Roads like Maysville would have made the journeys quicker and less tedious.

The Democrats and the Whigs, the two political parties in the era, differed greatly on their imaginings of the American economy. The Democrats wanted a rural, agrarian society. The Whigs wanted an urban, industrialized nation. The economic policies created during this time reflected the Democrats control of the government. One of the most notorious movements of the Jackson administration was the Indian Removal Movement. Jackson did not create any one bill that forced the Native Americans to leave their home states. However, he did not interfere, in fact congress actually helped, with the creation of such bill as the Removal Act of 1830, when state legislatures legalized the relocation of Natives to the west. Democrats argued that the removal of the Natives would open land for the white settlers and end conflicts between whites and tribes. Once more the "common man" (white male farmers) are helped by this development, but the "common man" (the Natives, themselves) were inarguably harmed. Expansionism, the movement that caused the "need" for the Indian Removal Movement, became a large driving force of the American economy. The country went through a "speculative fever," wherein everyone was buying up land in large amounts. At this time currency came in two forms: hard money (i.e. gold and silver) or soft money (i.e. bank notes.) The United States did not have it's own source of gold and silver. All of their hard money came through international trade. International trade for the U.S. had yet to fully recover from the Embargo and Non-Intercourse acts of the War of 1812. Jackson heavily mistrusted paper money and was leery of valuable land being exchanged for bank notes whose worth was relative only to the credit of the issuing bank. In 1836 he issued the presidential order known as "species circular," which stated that all land sales had to be bought with hard money or bank notes that were backed by hard money. Instead of stabilizing the system, Jackson threw the country into the Panic of 1837. Business failed, banks closed, unemployment grew. The "common man", by any definition, was expected to pick up the slack of the now impoverished merchant class. Jackson attempted to make changes in the economic policies of America that he believed would benefit the "common man". These changes were huge disasters.

The Age of Jackson also called more commonly by the title of the Era of the "Common Man" was anything but. Political and economic negligence of the "common man's" perspective and unsuccessful reforms caused the common man to suffer.