Andrew Johnson: The American Presidents Series: The 17th President, 1865-1869 [Hardcover]

Annette Gordon-Reed (Author), Arthur M. Schlesinger (Editor), Sean Wilentz (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: January 18, 2011 | Series: American Presidents

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth man to ascend to the highest office in the land, is generally regarded by historians as among the weakest presidents. Gordon-Reed has no intention of moving Johnson up in rank (“America went from the best to the worst in one presidential term,” she corroborates). So this is no reputation rescue. Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (2008), which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, takes as her task explaining why we should look anew at such a disastrous chief executive. She reasons he is worth looking at, though her reasoning yields a far from sympathetic look. In a short biography, all bases can be covered, but the author is still left to exercise the tone of a personal essay, which this author accomplishes brilliantly. Her personal take on Johnson is that his inability to remake the country after it was torn apart rested on his deplorable view of black Americans. In practical terms, his failure derived from his stubborn refusal to compromise with Congress in the abiding post-Lincoln controversy over who was to supervise the Reconstruction, the executive or the legislative branch. A failure, yes, but more than that, a failure at an extremely critical time in American history. --Brad Hooper

Review

"In this short and brilliantly written book, award-winning author Gordon-Reed … argues that the nation went from the best President to the worst during this most crucial period of its history."—Library Journal

"In a short biography, all bases can be covered, but the author is still left to exercise the tone of a personal essay, which this author accomplishes brilliantly."--Booklist (starred review)

"A fair-minded, toned-down portrait of a deeply problematic president who could not rise to the country’s challenge after the Civil War."--Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Times Books; 1st edition (January 18, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805069488
• ISBN-13: 978-0805069488
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #264,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, devastating assessment of one of our worst presidents February 24, 2011

By R. B. Bernstein

Format:Hardcover

Andrew Johnson's historical fortunes have risen and fallen by reference to two currents of thought in American political culture -- one having to do with issues of slavery and race, and the other having to do with our assessment of the Presidenty, its independence, and its powers. When people pay no attention to issues of slavery and race, and when people generally favor the Presidency, then Johnson becomes a tough, brave, defiant defender of the American Presidency from a hostile, ideologically-warped Congress. When we do pay attention to the critical issues of race and the legacy of slavery, and we have doubts about the Presidency in light of the adventures of imperial Presidents, Johnson takes a beating.

As well he should.

Annette Gordon-Reed's fine, concise book is a strong contribution to an uneven series. She seeks not to trash Johnson but to understand him, and she does so not by applying a warped twenty-first-century ethical/moral measure to him but by assessing him by reference to his era. The resulting assessment of Johnson and the damage that his Presidency did to posterity is devastating. In particular, she does something in this book that is truly remarkable, and that I have not previously seen in any assessment of Johnson to date -- she recognizes that Johnson and the man whom he succeeded as President, Abraham Lincoln, had many things in common as well as many differences. She draws out this comparison with care and thoughtfulness, showing that two men born in southern/border states in straitened circumstances, with meager education, rising through their own unaided efforts, and living in regions characterized by white hostility to blacks, somehow turned out miles, even light-years apart.

Those reviewers who have sought to trash the book here have misrepresented its content, its style, and its research. This book is a companion to the great, standard life of Johnson by the late, great Hans Trefousse. I knew him as a colleague, and I also know Prof. Gordon-Reed as a colleague. Based on that knowledge, I can say without doubt that Prof. Trefousse would have welcomed this new book by Prof. Gordon-Reed -- not least for its warm and generous tribute to a great scholar now, sadly, no longer with us.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars "Andrew Johnson: Why he was the worst president" June 4, 2011

By jimmereeno

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'll start off by clearly stating that I am in no way a historian. In fact, I've been attempting to remedy my lack of historical knowledge by stepping through presidential biographies one-by-one in sequence. In doing so, I've read several other books in the "American Presidents Series", edited by Arthurs Schlesinger, jr. These have been my go-to books for "less consequential" presidents between the founding fathers and the civil war. Specifically, on those presidents that I didn't feel like reading an 800+ page book. I've always found the books in this series to be even-handed and factual, so I was happy to pre-order this one on the kindle. I wish I had waited.

I would highly recommend kindle users to download the free sample before purchasing this book. Perhaps it's just what you want.

After purchasing/reading this book, I had to come back to read reviews and confirm that I wasn't the only one who found this book particularly slanted. I'm glad that I'm not the only one calling out the author/publisher on this one. The author may be correct in her assessment of Andrew Johnson, but it certainly doesn't fit within the "just the facts" American Presidents Series. I don't know who to blame for this, but I wonder if the editors were taken by surprise when the manuscript was submitted and didn't wish to push back the release date for a president that not many people care about. I wouldn't be surprised if a major edit is done for subsequent editions of this book. In the meantime, my recommendation would be to retitle the book with a sub-title so it reads "Andrew Johnson: Why he was the worst president".

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a critical, informative, and concise history of the first President Johnson February 16, 2011

By Glenn R. Springstead

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I enjoyed reading this biography, which is another entry in the presidential biography series started by Arthur Schlesinger and now edited by Sean Wilentz. Gordon-Reed weaves a highly readable narrative from Johnson's improbable rise in local Tennessee politics to his emergence on the national stage as a vocal and courageous opponent of secession, Tennessee war governor, Lincoln's Vice President running mate in 1864, and president in his own right after Lincoln's assassination. Johnson was the first U.S. president to be impeached, and Gordon-Reed spends a good amount of time on the subject.

The book does start abruptly and subjectively, with Gordon-Reed casting Johnson in a negative light. Despite his opposition to secession and initially harsh criticism of Southern planters and rebels in his first days as President, Johnson soon quarreled with "radical Republicans" over Reconstruction in the South and began first to welcome southerners of all persuasions, including those formerly active in the Confederate forces and government, back into the good races of Congress and State offices, and then to oppose attempts by Congress to expand democratic rights to the new freedmen. While Johnson stated most of his objections to Congressional Reconstruction on state's rights, Gordon-Reed points out he also vetoed congressional legislation to award voting rights to African Americans in the District of Columbia, which Congress had Constitutional authority over.

But through much of the book Gordon-Reed handles her subject with more even-handedness. One of the regrettable aspects of Johnson's life is he apparently did not write much and appeared to have few confidants. His wife was often ill or simply very private, and as a result was not able to provide much of a public role during Johnson's time in Washington. Johnson also came into controversy after his impeachment for his role during the trial and executions of Lincoln's assassins as critics maintained he failed to give attention to pleas that the only female conspirator tried for Lincoln's death (Mary Surratt) be spared. After his years in the White House, Johnson was selected by Tennessee to fill a seat in the U.S. Senate, but Johnson died before being able to take up his new duties.

For Gordon-Reed, Johnson's short but memorable tenure is most notable for the missed opportunity it represented in establishing the rights of African Americans and re-establishing, in Lincoln's words, a new era of freedom. Instead, African-Americans, particularly in the South were largely excluded from public and political life and continued to suffer violence through 100 years of Jim Crow policies. Still, not even eight years of U.S. Grant as President, who was much more favorably inclined to African Americans than Johnson, was enough to rally the nation to Lincoln's call at Gettysburg.