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The Impeachers

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Impeachment. Only twice in American history has Congress pursued impeachment proceedings against a President of the United States. Neither instance resulted in conviction of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” This book chronicles the first instance where this remedy was pursued, during the presidency of Andrew Johnson.

Brenda Wineapple gives us a well-crafted account of the presidency of Andrew Johnson, the circumstances leading to his impeachment, the key figures from the House of Representatives that prosecuted the impeachment, as well as the presiding Chief Justice, the defense, and the final denouement.

Andrew Johnson was always a bit of a lone wolf, rising from tailor to accidental president when Lincoln was assassinated. When the Civil War began, though sympathetic with the white supremacy of the South, Johnson argued against secession as unconstitutional, and that in fact it was impossible for states to secede from the Union, a position he maintained later on as president. When Tennessee seceded, he continued to take his seat in the Senate. Later, Lincoln named him military governor of Tennessee. When it came time for Lincoln the Republican to run for his second term, he did the unusual thing of offering Johnson, a Democrat, the Vice Presidency, partly to weaken the Democrats, and perhaps with a view toward the restoration of the Union.

Wineapple describes how Johnson quickly instituted his own version of Reconstruction, allowing many of the old leaders of the south to return to office, undercutting newly won civil rights for blacks, and looking the other way when blacks were violently attacked, lynched, and slaughtered. He undercut the efforts of moderate Republican Lyman Trumbull to extend the Freedman’s Bureau by vetoing the bill, even after Lyman’s extensive consultations with Johnson led him to think it would be passed. It increasingly appeared that all the sacrifice of Union troops was for naught, as Blacks still were treated as slaves in all but name. The crowning insult was Johnson’s campaign trip, the “swing around the circle” during the 1866 elections where he denounced Republicans Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, and Wendell Philips by name.

While Republicans in Congress seethed at this treatment and the reversal of gains fought for during the Civil War, all of this occurred under the cloak of legality. Wineapple then discusses the efforts to limit the military occupation, including the work of Secretary of War Stanton and General Grant. This was one of the remaining protections for Black citizens. To protect Stanton, Congress passed over Johnson’s veto the Tenure in Office Act, prohibiting the firing of cabinet officials without Congressional approval. Johnson, believing the act unconstitutional, eventually sacked (or tried to) Secretary Stanton, which represented the crossing of a threshold that triggered the vote of impeachment in the House, and the impeachment trial in the Senate.

Wineapple takes us through the trial, introducing us to the managers for the House prosecution: Benjamin Butler who presented much of the evidence, and George Boutwell, and the courageous Thaddeus Stevens, enfeebled and dying. She gives us sketches of Chief Justice Chase, the defense for the president, key senators like Ben Wade, who stood to succeed to the presidency if Johnson was convicted, and correspondents including Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Georges Clemenceau. Then came the vote, 35-19, with a key Republican, Edmund Ross changing his vote to acquit at the last hour. Six other Republicans joined him and twelve Democrats in voting to acquit. Though never proven, there was evidence of payoffs.

Johnson served out his term, but was disappointed not to receive the appointment of his party. He eventually returned to the Senate, dying in office in 1875. Ulysses Grant succeeded to the presidency, reversing to some degree the effects of Johnson’s “Reconstruction.” But the promise briefly glimpsed by Lincoln was never to be.

Wineapple does an outstanding job of unfolding the history and the fascinating characters around the impeachment. Her account of the life and death of Thaddeus Stevens was particularly striking. Her book makes the case for the challenges of impeachment: the ambiguities of language and procedure. The truth was, Andrew Johnson was a disaster and a white supremacist and could not be removed for these reasons alone. Only the violation of a questionable law (later ruled unconstitutional) provided the pretext. Even this effort fell short. Wineapple also shows us that white supremacy is nothing new but has a long and ugly history in our country, one accustomed to the commission of sordid acts and the constraining of civil liberties with the pretext of respectable legality.

Essentially, impeachment is an unproven remedy for the removal of presidents considered to have committed “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Section IV of the 25th Amendment has never been attempted. This brings us back to the critical importance of the choices we make for who we elect to be president and vice-president. Whether in office by vote or accident, the only proven way presidents may be removed from office is by the Electoral College, reflecting (hopefully) on a state by state basis the results at the ballot box, an opportunity that comes only every four years. The attacks of White Supremacists on voting rights in Johnson’s day also remind us of the vital task of rigorously protecting voting rights for all our citizens, recognized as critical for “liberty and justice for all” then–and now.

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Enjoyed this book. Kept me interested all the way through. Would recommend to a fellow reader. Love the cover.

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If only a decent president had followed Abraham Lincoln! Andrew Johnson was a much bigger crook than Nixon yet Nixon at least had enough honor to leave. This book got long winded in many parts but that's politics for you. I didn't know anything about the Radical Republican Party before I read this book. I find myself wondering why none of this is required high school teaching. Just like today, political opinions are easily bought and paid for. Promises and honor lay in the dust. Our generation is still struggling with the evil caused by that time and we've learned absolutely nothing. So sad.

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The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Winegate was a deep dive into a president and historical happenings I knew very little about. Understanding this "accidental presidency" (which happened because of Lincoln's assassination) is really critical in understanding American history post-Civil War. This is a thoroughly researched piece, and y'all, I learned so much. It's definitely a lot of information to take in, but I appreciated that I felt like I got the fullest picture of not only the presidency, but also the realities of what life was like in the United States after the war. This book is intense in its history, as there were deep divisions that remained in the country, as well as terrible violence that still occurred. With that, the book does a really strong job of framing up how this related to Johnson, how he led, and the impeachment process. For me, this was the history I wish I knew, and I'm glad I know it now. There were also definitely some pieces that were all too similar to the politics of today. This is a genre I rarely read (although this is my second presidential biography this year), and I was able to check this one out (and quite appreciated the read) thanks to NetGalley.

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Interesting book on the presidency and impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Very well researched and documented. Timely book, considering what is going on in Washington at this very moment. Will history repeat itself?

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I grew up in the ’90s, and I vaguely remember on TV when I was a kid some kind of scandal involving this guy named Bill Clinton, whom I knew as the President of the United States. The word impeachment kept getting thrown around, but of course I didn’t really know what that meant. Fast-forward 20 years, and the word has resurfaced as a possible fate for the current President, Donald Trump—and this time, I knew what the word meant, but I didn’t really understand what impeachment entails. So Brenda Wineapple’s book on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson came into my life at an opportune time. The Impeachers explains the nature of presidential impeachment through a case study of one of the only two presidents ever to be impeached. However, it is much, much more than that. It’s really a snapshot of American history immediately following the American Civil War. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC.

Here in Canada, we learn some very bare-bones American history (which means we learn slightly more than the average American does about American history). So obviously I knew what the Civil War was, what it was about, causes, etc. I knew the names Lincoln and Grant and (vaguely) Johnson. As history classes in school often do, however, they elide the difficult reconstruction parts that follow any massive conflict. I had known the Civil War was a thing, and that it had led to Emancipation. Never did I really pause to think what that actually looked like, how the Confederate states were readmitted into the Union, the immediate effects of emancipating slaves in the South, the violence that ensued … but of course, the moment Wineapple starts describing the headaches, problems, and loss of life, it was immediately obvious. Just because the Union had “won” the war didn’t mean everyone in the South was suddenly going to magically be all right with living next to free Black people. Duh.

So Wineapple spends the first part of the book on a brief history of the United States right at the beginning of Johnson’s presidency: Lincoln assassinated, the country still fractured, legislators deeply divided on what an equitable Reconstruction looks like. Wineapple frames this as Johnson essentially being the wrong man at the wrong time, his temperament and ideology inappropriate for the task of Reconstruction. As I mentioned above, lots of this was new to me. I had no idea about Johnson’s political views on secession, suffrage, etc.

Wineapple also covers a lot of the animus and internecine racial conflict in the South. She doesn’t mince words: the Union might have won the war and abolished slavery, but that didn’t end racism any more than Obama’s election in 2008 ended it. White people were lynching Black people (and white allies) quite openly. The overall effect is to belie the comfortable idea that the violence and unrest in the present-day United States of America is somehow a new or different condition than earlier in its history. So many people seem interested in “returning” to the better days, of making America—dare I say—great again. Although Wineapple doesn’t come right out and say it, we can infer that there is a strong possibility America was never “great” in that sense. Indeed, even with the civil war “won,” the idea that the former Confederate states would simply return to the Union was not a foregone conclusion….

So, impeachment trial itself aside, The Impeachers provides such valuable insight into US history just after the Civil War. How does it fare with the impeachment though?

Honestly, there are more details here than I probably wanted. This will be an excellent reference for anyone who is a student of this era. Wineapple is careful to go into the backstories of anyone who might be anything more than a passing player in this drama; there are even photos! Believe me, I’m not criticizing the book for these attributes—but they do add up for a somewhat drier experience than I typically look for in my history books. This is just a case of mismatched book and audience, though, not a reflection on the book’s quality.

When we finally get to the impeachment trial, things feel more anticlimactic. Again, Wineapple wants to recount everything in as much detail as possible, drawing out the inevitable acquittal (uh … sorry, spoilers) that we know must be coming. Again, if detail is what you want, then you will not be disappointed. I really just wanted to know what happened and hear Wineapple’s take on the how and why.

On the other hand, all of the back and forth helps us understand what impeachment is and is not. Firstly, it’s not clearly laid out in the Constitution. This first presidential impeachment was very improvisational and ad hoc. It’s not a criminal procedure—it’s a political one, despite the Chief Justice presiding. Finally, its political origins mean it hangs more on the well-chosen words and backroom deals of political vote-grubbing than it does on any type of evidentiary support. At the end of the day, Johnson is acquitted not because he’s “innocent” of the articles of impeachment but because enough senators had doubts, or professed to have doubts because it was more politically expedient for them to do so.

I understand now better the issues at stake as people call for the impeachment of Donald Trump. It’s not just a procedural but an inherently political decision. And, without meaning to downplay the direction in which the United States is currently heading, this book reminds us that there have definitely been Constitutional lacunae previously in American history. It’s true that we don’t really know what Americans and their government will do if Trump finally crosses some kind of line he hasn’t already crossed with apparent impunity—but the United States has actually been in similar situations before. Now, I don’t say this to be reassuring in any way. Instead, I just want to observe that The Impeachers is a good lesson in why learning one’s history is so important: if we remember where we’ve been, we have a better sense of the precedents that can shape our future.

Anyway, as a non-American who doesn’t often read about American history, this was a pretty OK read. A little too technical/detailed for my history-reading tastes. A student of history might be more appreciative of that kind of thing, though. This definitely improved my understanding of an important period of American history and helped put some current events in a new perspective. If we take that to be part of history books’ purpose, then on that scale, The Impeachers succeeds.

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This is an important, relevant, well-written book that should be required reading by all in the U.S., especially by those in positions of power, those who believe the impeachment process can really remove a sitting president, and those woefully ignorant of U.S. history.

What I thought was great about the book:

Vast research shows through via details that bring the huge cast of people, and the times, to life. The history felt recent as opposed to far away and unimportant.

It shows the process meant to remove a corrupt or incompetent president from office to avoid a revolution, by explaining the first time it was used, against Lincoln's successor the incompetent and racist Andrew Johnson, on the grounds of violating the law and the constitutional rights of congress.

The book shows clearly the evils of white supremacy, and the waste of war, and many of the evil acts carried out against freed slaves by former-Confederates.

It presents a glimpse of what might have been, for freed slaves and their descendants, if Lincoln had lived, and if Johnson had been removed from office, and if the North had not been exhausted by the former-Confederates' constant obstructionism. The North won the war but lost the battle for justice for former slaves.

The list of personages at the end was a wonderful study list for further research by this reader.

Things that disappointed me about the history, and a bit about the book:

The book made clear that race relations in the U.S. have moved not so very far from that era due mainly to the former-Confederates' obstructionism and violence (and later due mainly to the Dixiecrats, et. al.), and due to disgraceful aspects of human nature.

The author spelled out racial slurs in full in quotes, which only normalizes those evil words for the reader. It is time to stop that, really, really stop that normalization.

Impeachment is shown as a poor tool to remove a criminal or incompetent president due to the corrupt and partisan participants in the process. A parliamentary vote of no-confidence is much more efficient.

The author used euphemisms that by now should be retired in histories, such as “his intimate friend” to mean a man's mistress.

My biggest issue with the book is that the author doesn't spell out clearly that Johnson did indeed have children by at least one of his slaves. The last living one's striking resemblance to his true father is really proof enough, so the Jefferson-story DNA tests are not really necessary. This is important because it surely influenced Johnson's, and all former slave owners', opposition to granting full civil-rights to former slaves. Full rights would have meant under the laws of the time that the illegitimate children would have had inheritance rights. Johnson's race-mixing would have come out and his family would have had to share their wealth more equally. He gave some things and favors to his children born to his slave, but it was far from equal to what his legitimate children received. His last illegitimate child died in poverty, with the public even recognizing this evil and trying to put together a pension for him. He had to work as a doorman in advanced old age at a hotel named for Johnson, like an exhibit for the patrons.

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Impeachment, they say, is not a legal process. It’s a political process. Despite the legal verbiage of “high crimes and misdemeanors” as the standard for impeaching a president, that isn’t much of a standard at all. This can be seen in today’s political punditry and leaked sources as officials consider impeachment, but it is especially poignant in Brenda Wineapple’s The Impeachers (available everywhere May 21st). In it, Wineapple brings to life the characters in Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial.

While the most striking characters are Thaddeus Stevens (whose rendering superb, and whom thanks to Lincoln I can’t see as anyone but Tommy Lee Jones) and Andrew Johnson himself, Wineapple brings an entire roster of important players to the commentary game such as Mark Twain (a James Harden type: high-usage, high-efficiency), Horace Greeley (Russell Westbrook: often misses but always high-intensity), and Georges Clemenceau (Montrezl Harrell: low-usage but brings the fire every time). With these characters plus the many members of the House involved in the impeachment process, the convoluted background story of Johnson’s impeachment gains new life and has the vigor of a much more current struggle. A personal favorite is an anecdote about Ben Butler being struck by a thrown apple while speaking at New York City Hall. Butler is hit, then “caught the apple, bowed to the man who’d thrown it, and in his studied way coolly bit into it. The crowd laughed, and Butler continued his speech.” Boss move, Butler.

Wineapple is superb in her storytelling and, more importantly, she is able to glean the big-picture takeaways from Johnson’s impeachment from a historical perspective. You will leave The Impeachers not just knowing the blow-by-blow details of how and why the impeachment happened. You’ll have a greater understanding of how this episode fits into the larger narrative and lessons of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

I was often struck, throughout the book, at just how terrible of a human being Andrew Johnson tended to be. He had been heard to say “This is a country for white men, and, by G — d, as long as I am president it shall be a government for white men.” I understand that we have to look at historical figures in terms of their own time period, and there is a lot of that to do. But plenty of others had seen the light by 1867 and it is amazing that someone (even a Southerner) holding the Presidency could say such a thing at that time. Wineapple goes to write:
That offended (Thaddeus) Stevens to the core. He and fellow impeachers believed that the war to preserve the Union had been fought once and for all from the noxious and lingering effects of slavery.

And that’s the thing: the country had become so polarized that the Radical Republicans were living in one world while Southerners were living in another (inventing the Lost Cause at this very moment). While Wineapple thankfully refrains from making connections to today’s politics, it is sometimes hard not to see the parallels: polarized politics, an unpopular president, a House in favor of aggressive change. And it should remind us, although the specific circumstances are different, that American politics carries many continuities despite the myriad changes in how we live. Johnson was impeached, but not removed. He was saved not because of legal arguments, but because members of the Senate wanted to preserve their chances in the next election. Impeachment was political. And no matter what anyone says, impeachment will always be political. But I don’t mean that cynically. Johnson’s impeachment was, above all else, borne out of a yearning to return to American ideals. This “dream of a just nation” is what should make politicians tick. Brenda Wineapple’s The Impeachers is clear in this regard, and it was nice to see these American ideals at work in history. It is surprising how fun a book about impeachment can be.

I received this book as an eARC courtesy of Penguin Random House and NetGalley, but my opinions are my own.

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This book is so timely that I can’t even predict how someone will read the phrase “this book is so timely” in the gap between writing this review and posting it. So timely. You might want to read it for that reason. You might want to avoid it for that reason, but if so, definitely read it later, because this is good stuff. Wineapple does not fall into common historian traps like referring to white Southerners as simply “Southerners”; she is willing to state flat out when one of her subjects is known to be lying and when they might or might not have been lying but definitely were wrong.

The first section, about the Reconstruction before impeachment proceedings, made me think a lot about the essential problems of forming a civil society with people who don’t think you’re human. I feel that most American schools under-teach the Reconstruction. The end of the Civil War is presented as a triumph; the path to the Civil Rights movement sort of a hand-waving muddle. Culturally there is a focus on a narrative of progress: no longer slaves! full civil rights! Yay! Wineapple goes into clear and succinct detail on the sorts of crimes that did not end with the Civil War–in fact in some directions intensified–and their impact on Black Americans for more than 150 years. Even if you have some background in this material, she handles it well. It’s very clarifying, too, how a person can consider themself to be on the right side–can even be, more or less, on what history will consider the right side–and still not have done the self-examination enough to grow in their treatment of other people, their perspective on others’ needs. This book is a thorough demonstration of how choosing the right side is not enough, dreaming of a just nation is not enough.

There are characters in this narrative, compelling, astonishing characters. Thaddeus Stevens and his family of choice, Frederick Douglass, Vinnie Ream, Ulysses S. Grant and his incredibly touching friendship with William Tecumseh Sherman. No perfect people, but fascinating ones, well-drawn.

The impeachment itself is a parade of dead ends, times when people were ready to give up, things not making a lot of sense. It ends abruptly. But it’s an incredibly useful perspective to have, in a century where Nixon and Clinton shape our view of censured presidents and what good censuring them does. You don’t have to trust the process. It doesn’t always result in the most justice for the most humans. But there are things that are worth doing even if they can’t be completed. Even if there’s still more to be done 150 years later. Having a torch to pass along is better than extinguishing it.

Also, Andrew Johnson: screw that guy, man. I have all sorts of more nuanced historical take here–and so does Brenda Wineapple, way more nuanced than mine–but really it’s probably never a bad moment to roll your eyes at that guy. Blech.

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Oh, Andrew Johnson. One of those you love to hate and hate to love. Also one of the least respected presidents in history. The Impeachers takes the reader on a journey through Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial as well as the people who were involved in the process. (Honestly, just looking at Johnson’s inauguration as Vice President sets the tone for how he’s received by the public if the multiple assassination attempts haven’t already done so!) Brenda Wineapple took a topic that has the high probability of being boring and makes it interesting without adding shock value in. Well done!

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I received an advance ebook copy of this book in return for my honest review.

For anyone interested in getting a more in-depth idea of the thoughts of the key Congressional figures in Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial and the dilemmas with which they grappled, this book is for you!! The author's thorough research into the extensive cast of characters involved in this particular historical event shines through on each page. The book adopts a chronological narrative form, which allows each person to come onto the stage in the book only when they entered into center stage during the events of 1867. With this decision, the author has made the huge cast more accessible and minimizing confusion over who is who.

Andrew Johnson is only one character in this book on his trial and serves as a great companion piece to the previously-published book on Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial "Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy" by David O. Stewart.

There are a couple of places where the author adds in little details about the historical figures that sometimes seem more like a way to spice up the writing, as these little tidbits of their lives are of little relevance to the particular topic at hand. But this is minimal and does not detract from the information in the book.

I did feel that sometimes there were moments where the content delves too deeply into the motives and motivations of historical figures that I felt we were straddling the line of speculation as well. The narrative makes little use of words and phrases such as "may have," "could have," "perhaps," and "maybe," so it is difficult to tell where the line between solid evidence and historian speculation occur.

However, I still believe that this is a solid read for anyone wishing to understand more about not only the trial, but the political climate surrounding Andrew Johnson's impeachment, the causes, the reactions, and the ________ of the population at large. The many quotes taken from females commenting on the subject was particularly refreshing to see as well. There is a sense - not deliberately stated - that women were actively involved during this time as well, not only fighting for women's suffrage, but commenting upon, witnessing, opining, and - in the case of Vinnie Ream - more than a sideline involvement in the events.

As the author mentions near the end of the book, many of the dilemmas with which these historical figures grappled are still unsolved during today. Very apropos for anyone interested in seeing where our current situations have already appeared in history. Definitely worth the read!

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This book is well written and researched. I have read about the presidency of Andrew Johnson, but this is the first that goes into detail about his impeachment. It is well a well known fact that Andrew Johnson was not one of the better Presidents that we have had lead our nation. He worked to overturn many of the intended consequences as a result of the southern states losing the Civil War and extended extreme racial bias on a wide basis for another century and more. The book goes into detail about the many people who played a role in the impeachment and trail of Johnson and does so in an informative manner.

I recomend this book for those looking for more information on the specifics of the first impeachment trail of a President in the United States.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook and Twitter pages.

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<p><em>Note: My thanks to NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book for review.</em></p>
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<p>Going in to this book, I didn't know a great deal about the circumstances surrounding the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, and I knew even less about the reasons that drove the era's legislators to this great length. Having read Brenda Wineapple's <em>The Impeachers,</em> I'm happy to say that I now know a great deal more.</p>
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<p>Wineapple populates her story with the giants of the era, men such as Thaddeus Steves, one of those who lead the charge for impeachment, Salmon Portland Chase, the cunning, Supreme Court justice who had ambitions of his own that coloured his perception of the case, and of course, Andrew Johnson himself. These were men of imposing personalities, and Wineapple does a magnificent job painting them in big, bold colors; they fairly leap off the page.</p>
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<p>Ultimately, of course, the measure failed, but Wineapple makes the case that this had less to do with the merits of the impeachment articles (and the evidence for them) than with these personalities and their varied motivations and concerns. Essentially, it was felt that impeaching Johnson would cause irreparable damage to the Republican waiting in the wings to ascend to the presidency: none other than the hero of the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant (who was also a prominent character in this unfolding drama). Rather than do so, they felt it was a safer bet to acquit Johnson and start over.</p>
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<p>Given that the book is about impeachment, it's hard not to draw comparisons between that time and our own and, especially, between the temperament of Andrew Johnson and our current president. Like Trump, Johnson was a blusterer and a bit of a megalomaniac, convinced that he was the victim of conspiracies and unwilling to acknowledge his own weaknesses and his part in his situation. The portrait that Wineapple paints is a very unflattering one indeed, and there are very good reasons for that. For, as Wineapple points out, Johnson was a a racist who built his appeal on stymying almost all measures that would have contributed to the betterment of people of color in the former slave states. Indeed, there were often times when he went out of his way to ensure that people of color understood that not only were they second-class citizens, but that their president had no interest in changing that. </p>
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<p><em>The Impeachers </em>does a fine job of providing the context that allows us to understand just why it is that this signature event in American history transpired in the way that it did. Despite the end of the Civil, many (including Johnson) felt that the United States was still a white man's country, and that less effort should be spent in punishing the former Confederacy and more in ensuring that white citizens regained their former amity. The great tragedy of the whole affair is that it would be almost another hundred years before the desire for a better country for <em>all</em> would experience another great leap forward with the Civil Rights Movement on the 1950s and 1960s.</p>
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<p>Though subsequent generations of historians painted the impeachment as a partisan affair, Wineapple argues that these arguments were themselves focused on a discrediting of the policies and mindset of the Radical Republicans. Her work allows us to see these men as visionaries committed to the idea that the United States could, in fact, be a more perfect union if only its leaders would have the will to do so.</p>
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<p>Stylistically, Wineapple has a masterful command of both her materials and her language. While some books on history can be slow going even for those who love reading about the past, this is certainly not the case with <em>The Impeachers.</em> While reading it, I almost had the feeling that I was there in the moment, swept up in this epochal event, so adeptly does Wineapple capture the tenor of the times and the voices of her subjects.</p>
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<p>By this point in 2019, it seems pretty clear that our own Andrew Johnson is not going to be impeached even though, as Yoni Applebaum compellingly argues in a recent issue of <em>The Atlantic,</em> there is very good reason to do so, the case of Andrew Johnson, as Wineapple presents it, serves as a warning of becoming too confident.</p>
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<p>Le sigh.</p>
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The Impeachers by Brenda Wineapple tells the very colorful story of the Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson.

Andrew Johnson and the men who sought his removal from office are written about in elegant detail, we learn of the men’s virtues and their faults. Most notably for Andrew Johnson stubbornness and pride rank at the top of list, but other readers may substitute different attributes. Still his would be impeachers aren’t exactly paragons of virtue either and several suffered from those same vices. In fact, the only thing the impeachers agreed on was that Johnson had to go.

Because of Wineapple’s picturesque writing style, the reader is transported back to the post-Civil War world, where Lincoln is dead, the South is in ruins, the legislative and executive branches have at least two different attitudes towards Reconstruction and mistrust and hostility still permeate the day. Actually, if I stop and think about it, the names and faces have changed, but I question how far removed the material in this book is from our current political situation.

If one could ever consider a book on impeachment entertaining, The Impeachers would probably be the book.

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The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Wineapple is an engrossing history of one of the most important moments in American history: reconstruction after the Civil War. This was a period that was never taught too much in school at least from my experiences. It could have been that I just wasn't paying enough attention in class, but that's a story for another time. Due to my obsession with Ken Burns documentaries, I have a fairly good grip on the narrative of the Civil War. But once Lincoln was assassinated, I don't remember learning about much between that point and the 20th century. Andrew Johnson has the honor of being the first president to be impeached, and this was a piece of trivia I actually knew, especially from being raised in the era of Bill Clinton's trial in the late 1990s, but that was about it. This book spares no detail in setting the stage for how our country came to this crossroads, and all of the important people involved. I'll try my best to summarize: Abraham Lincoln, seeking reelection in 1864, in the midst of that pesky Civil War, needed to bring balance to his campaign ticket. Johnson, a staunch believer in Union preservation, but from the southern state of Tennessee was just what Lincoln needed to appease the less radical voters. Unfortunately, after his tragic assassination, nothing seemed to go according to plan. Johnson was sworn in as president, and to everyone at the time, seemed committed to the progression and activism required to put the pieces of the country back together. Rebuilding the Union after the Civil War meant progressive ideas that were frankly tough to swallow for people located below the Mason-Dixon Line. After all, there were around 4 million Americans newly freed from the shackles of slavery and looking for their deserved basic liberties and human rights. Post war, more radical members of Congress believed that after a costly conflict to decide its meaning, the Constitution was to be taken literally, for the rights of ALL who lived under it. Johnson however, seemed to have other ideas...

I hope you can forgive my ignorance, but I had no idea Andrew Johnson was such a complete sack of crap. Johnson proclaimed that, "This is a country for white men, and as long as I am president, it shall be a government for white men." Of course, Johnson's line of thinking wasn't unheard of, but it's clear through the study of this book that Johnson as president didn't have the balls to confront everything that was happening around him. Tough decisions needed to be made, not only about freedmen, but about how the former members of the Confederacy were to be confronted and dealt with. While Congress passed numerous Reconstruction Acts to guarantee liberties and keep Confederates from controlling the states, Johnson worked against them, and tried tirelessly to block their execution. As Johnson and members of Congress fought tooth and nail, one could imagine the prospects of the country once again falling apart, and something drastic needed to be done. In 1868, Andrew Johnson was formally impeached.

Ok, enough of the history lesson out of me, I want to examine and talk more about the writing style of the book. It's a quite interesting blend of informational text combined with lyrical story telling. With quotes and musings of persons of note sprinkled in with the narrative, The Impeachers reads like an entertaining documentary spread out on paper. Despite the vastly intellectual subject matter, the style lends itself to be comfortably read with ease, so long as you spare the time to read it. My only struggle was trying to figure out just the right voice actors speaking the lines in my head.

After the Bill Clinton proceedings in the 1990s, we say the word "impeachment" with a far different thinking than those from generations long before. While the interpretations of impeachment have come a long way from "high crimes and misdemeanors", the Andrew Johnson trial forever shifted its use to enforce the intended balance of power in our government. It's truly amazing to me how after over 150 years from both the Civil War and the Johnson impeachment, the vestiges of their respective results plague our thoughts and actions to this very day.

Verdict: The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Wineapple is a brilliantly cultivated history of the struggle between legislative and executive that framed the era of Reconstruction after the American Civil War. Enjoyable to read while still being fully engrossing, this book is well worth the investment of time that it takes for a full appreciation. It's a heavy handed thing to say in the political climate we're in, but I think it's warranted: those who do not learn history, are all but doomed to repeat it.

A special thanks to Random House Publishing Group for generously supplying an advanced review copy to TehBen.com, all views and opinions are my own.

Review to be published on tehben.com on May 1st, 2019

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