Andrew Johnson

The American Presidents Series: The 17th President, 1865-1869

By: Annette Gordon-Reed, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. - editor, Sean Wilentz - editor

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

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.

©2011 Annette Gordon-Reed (P)2024 Tantor

Not great.

Not very detailed. Little explication of historical documents. Let them use their own words. More about the impeachment would be good.

psychobabble and biased history

The author had it in for her subject from page one, and her bias against him never abated throughout what I read. Between her massive slant against Andrew Johnson, her attempts to make psychological interpretations of her subject, along with her unfounded pages of speculation about things for which there is no evidence whatsoever, eg, that Andrew Johnson was born illegitimate, I gave up on the book after an hour. in some 25 years as an Amazon book purchaser, this is the first time that I ever felt a book was so poorly written that I have left a negative review.

Andrew Johnson

This is a good summary of Johnson’s life and accomplishments. The book was written before our current hyper-partisan era, and offers a good example of how “there’s nothing new under the sun.”