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The American Presidents Series: The 17th President, 1865-1869
Times Books
January 2011
On Sale: January 18, 2011
192 pages
ISBN: 0805069488
EAN: 9780805069488
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction History
A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian recounts the tale of the
unwanted president who ran afoul of Congress over
Reconstruction and was nearly removed from office Andrew Johnson never expected to be president. But just six
weeks after becoming Abraham Lincoln's vice president, the
events at Ford's Theatre thrust him into the nation's
highest office. Johnson faced a nearly impossible task—to succeed America's
greatest chief executive, to bind the nation's wounds after
the Civil War, and to work with a Congress controlled by the
so-called Radical Republicans. Annette Gordon-Reed, one of
America's leading historians of slavery, shows how
ill-suited Johnson was for this daunting task. His vision of
reconciliation abandoned the millions of former slaves (for
whom he felt undisguised contempt) and antagonized
congressional leaders, who tried to limit his powers and
eventually impeached him. The climax of Johnson's presidency was his trial in the
Senate and his acquittal by a single vote, which Gordon-Reed
recounts with drama and palpable tension. Despite his
victory, Johnson's term in office was a crucial missed
opportunity; he failed the country at a pivotal moment,
leaving America with problems that we are still trying to solve.
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