|
Product Description
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times • The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Publishers Weekly“This absorbing and important book recounts the titanic struggle over the implications of the Civil War amid the impeachment of a defiant and temperamentally erratic American president.”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Soul of America
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Vice-President Andrew Johnson became “the Accidental President,” it was a dangerous time in America. Congress was divided over how the Union should be reunited: when and how the secessionist South should regain full status, whether former Confederates should be punished, and when and whether black men should be given the vote. Devastated by war and resorting to violence, many white Southerners hoped to restore a pre–Civil War society, if without slavery, and the pugnacious Andrew Johnson seemed to share their goals. With the unchecked power of executive orders, Johnson ignored Congress, pardoned rebel leaders, promoted white supremacy, opposed civil rights, and called Reconstruction unnecessary. It fell to Congress to stop the American president who acted like a king.
With profound insights and making use of extensive research, Brenda Wineapple dramatically evokes this pivotal period in American history, when the country was rocked by the first-ever impeachment of a sitting American president. And she brings to vivid life the extraordinary characters who brought that impeachment forward: the willful Johnson and his retinue of advocates—including complicated men like Secretary of State William Seward—as well as the equally complicated visionaries committed to justice and equality for all, like Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Frederick Douglass, and Ulysses S. Grant. Theirs was a last-ditch, patriotic, and Constitutional effort to render the goals of the Civil War into reality and to make the Union free, fair, and whole.
Praise for The Impeachers
“In this superbly lyrical work, Brenda Wineapple has plugged a glaring hole in our historical memory through her vivid and sweeping portrayal of President Andrew Johnson’s 1868 impeachment. She serves up not simply food for thought but a veritable feast of observations on that most trying decision for a democracy: whether to oust a sitting president. Teeming with fiery passions and unforgettable characters, The Impeachers will be devoured by contemporary readers seeking enlightenment on this issue. . . . A landmark study.”—Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Grant
Features
- The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation Hardcover
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
- How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
- Impeachment: An American History
- American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump
- Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
- The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
- The Yellow House: A Memoir (2019 National Book Award Winner)
- Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation
- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
- The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy)
- Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy
*If this is not the "The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation" product you were looking for, you can check the other results by clicking this link. Details were last updated on Sep 28, 2024 06:23 +08.