The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Stephen L. Carter (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 10, 2012

From the best-selling author of The Emperor of Ocean Park and New England White, a daring reimagining of one of the most tumultuous moments in our nation’s past
 
Stephen L. Carter’s thrilling new novel takes as its starting point an alternate history: President Abraham Lincoln survives the assassination attempt at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. Two years later he is charged with overstepping his constitutional authority, both during and after the Civil War, and faces an impeachment trial . . .

Twenty-one-year-old Abigail Canner is a young black woman with a degree from Oberlin, a letter of employment from the law firm that has undertaken Lincoln’s defense, and the iron-strong conviction, learned from her late mother, that “whatever limitations society might place on ordinary negroes, they would never apply to her.” And so Abigail embarks on a life that defies the norms of every stratum of Washington society: working side by side with a white clerk, meeting the great and powerful of the nation, including the president himself.  But when Lincoln’s lead counsel is found brutally murdered on the eve of the trial, Abigail is plunged into a treacherous web of intrigue and conspiracy reaching the highest levels of the divided government.

Here is a vividly imagined work of historical fiction that captures the emotional tenor of post–Civil War America, a brilliantly realized courtroom drama that explores the always contentious question of the nature of presidential authority, and a galvanizing story of political suspense.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“With an encyclopedic command of period detail . . . Carter has created an entertaining story rooted in the legal, political and racial conflicts of 19th-century America. . . . Carter’s delight in all this material is infectious. He’s a fantastic legal dramatist, and there’s the constant pleasure of seeing his creation of Washington City in 1867, alive with sounds and smells. . . . History buffs can test their mettle by trying to unwind Carter’s entangling of fact and fiction, but anyone should enjoy this rich political thriller that dares to imagine how events might have ricocheted in a different direction after the Civil War.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“[T]he best legal thriller so far this year . . . I’ve liked Carter’s four previous forays into fiction. This one, I loved.”
—Patrik Henry Bass, Essence Magazine

“Washington readers will get a kick out of comparing Carter’s vivid portrait of late-19th-century DC with the city they know today. . . . But the best thing about sitting down with this rich, often thrilling novel is watching its alternative history unfold.”
—John Wilwol, The Washingtonian
 
“[T]he streets come alive in his vision of Washington . . . Carter’s tale comes to a conclusion as thrilling and untidy as the actual events that unfolded during the turbulent postwar years.”
—Andrew Dunn, Bloomberg.com 
 
“A smart and engaging what-if that has the virtue of being plausible . . . Abigail makes for a grandly entertaining sleuth.”
—Kirkus Reviews 

“This novel has all the juicy stew of post–Civil War Washington, with the complexities of race, class, and sex mixed in. Carter draws on historical documents and a vivid imagination to render a fascinating mix of murder mystery, political thriller, and courtroom drama . . . Imaginatively conceived.”
—Vanessa Bush, Booklist (starred)

About the Author

Stephen L. Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University, where he has taught since 1982. He is the author of eight books of nonfiction, writes a column for Bloomberg View, and is a frequent contributor to The Daily Beast and Newsweek. The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln is his fifth novel.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; First Edition edition (July 10, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030727263X
• ISBN-13: 978-0307272638
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.7 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (118 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 64 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A well-written return by Stephen Carter. May 23, 2012

By Jill Meyer TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Stephen L Carter is a professor of law at Yale University and the author of five novels and many works of non-fiction. His first three novels were set in the black communities of New York City, New Haven, and Martha's Vinyard, among other places. His characters were members of that little-written about community, the "Talented Tenth", or the black upper class. Stephen Carter is a wonderful writer when writing on the history, community, and social lives of the "Talented Tenth". His fourth book, "Jericho's Fall", which was published in 2009 was a disappointment; it was a conventional spy thriller set in - Colorado. I read it, reviewed it, and gave it four stars. I wrote that Carter, after having written three marvelous novels, had returned with a middling story that took little advantage of what he, among few writers, really knew and could write well about. Well,the "old" Stephen L Carter has returned to us with his new novel, "The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln".

"Impeachment" takes an alternative history view of Abraham Lincoln's last years in office. Carter begins his book with Lincoln surviving the assassination attempt at Ford's Theater. John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators are hunted down and most were killed before they could talk. Lincoln continues as president, though in Carter's story, VP Andrew Johnson is killed and William Seward is so badly injured that he never leaves his home. Lincoln, therefore, carries on with the Reconstruction of the South. He wants to be relatively gentle on the returning Confederates and not impose the harsh citizenship and economic penalties that were actually meted out under Andrew Johnson. But Abraham Lincoln has as many enemies post war as he had during the war and opponents get together to bring a bill of impeachment against Lincoln. The president was impeached by the US House of Representatives and the trial will be heard and judged by the US Senate.

Lincoln has hired the law firm of Dennard & McShane to defend him in front of the Senate. He doesn't appear at his own trial, but works with the lawyers who are defending him. One of the newly hired law clerks at the firm is 21 year old, Abigail Canner. Recently graduated from Oberlin College, she turns up at the firm with a letter from partner Dennard, promising her a place as a law clerk, on the recommendation of an Oberlin professor. But not only is Abigail Canner a woman, she is also black - a member of what Carter always refers to as "the darker nation". (Carter uses this term in his first three novels, too.) Abigail works her way onto the team defending the president, but is often on the outside looking in at the actual day-by-day work. So she begins working on her own, trying to piece together the importance of some murders, some spy reports, and other out-of-place happenings in "Washington City" that are connected with the on-going impeachment trial. She is also attracted to a fellow law-clerk, the wealthy, white Jonathan Hilliman.

Abigail Canner is the daughter of the middle-class black community of Washington DC. She's been well-educated and is a beauty. She wants to be a lawyer and, by god, she will be. Her determination to get ahead is part of her charm to the many - both black and white - who meet her. And Abigail is only one of Carter's many well-drawn characters in his book. There are no caricatures, and the plot is well-paced. Heavy on law, Carter does a good job, a really good job, at explaining the law to the reader.

But the important thing about Stephen Carter's new novel is that he's back to his original form. For the Carter fans, a long wait is over. "The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln" is another well-written novel.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A sprawling novel that tries to cover too many bases June 12, 2012

By rgregg VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Stephen Carter is a prolific writer who is known for his complex and detailed fiction such as "The Emperor of Ocean Park".
In "the Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln", he has taken on the task of writing a "what if" historical story with an intriguing premise.
What if Lincoln survived the attempt on his life by John Wilkes Booth? Carter has taken Lincoln to 1867 where he finds himself facing impeachment in the Senate for some of his actions after the Civil War in order to do what he felt was needed to stabilize the country.
The fascinating main character in this book is not Lincoln but a young black woman named Abigail Canner. She is a recent college graduate who is taking on a job as a law clerk at the law office of the firm who is responsible for defending the President.
Canner makes for a solid lead in this book as her feisty attitude, knowledge of the law, and determination to succeed is vital to the role she is about to play at the law firm. Her skin color is a key attribute in the novel and it both helps her and hurts her in various ways in post Civil War USA.
This is not simply a story of the impeachment trial. It covers many bases. Carter throws in a murder mystery, an examination of the social mores existing in Washington after the war, conspiracy theories, race relations, and political divides.
When one member of the defense team is found dead along with a supposed prostitute, Canner refuses to accept both the conclusions of the police and the relationship between the two murder victims. Her investigation into that issue is an interesting part of the book.
Canner finds herself torn between advancing her career, romantic sparks between herself and another member of the law firm and the prejudices of members of her own family and others.
This book is well over 500 pages and covers an enormous amount of ground in getting to and through the actual trial of the President.
The story had a few problems for me. Carter is a law professor and uses that knowledge along with his obvious awareness of history to put together a big piece of fiction. And the law as applied both in the late 19th Century as well as the complications of an impeachment trial are a bit too much for the average reader to absorb.
As the story is a fictional description of the era, he uses both real and fictional characters to tell his story. If any book required a list of characters at the beginning, this is one. The law firm itself is full to the brim with key players. The many members of high society who are vital to the story are too numerous to mention. Canner's own family and friends who have critical roles to the outcome (no spoiler here) are many.
You throw in Lincoln's cabinet, his own advisers, the complete array of Senators and you have nearly 100 key people. There are many other characters who play a role in either defending Lincoln's decisions or seem to be conspiring against him for his actions. Many times I would have liked to refer to a list in order to remind me who's who.
Carter also portrays Lincoln as someone who likes to tell rambling stories to others and there are a few too many of those rambles for me.
So this combination history story, trial novel, mystery tale, defining of race after the Civil War, family story, society examination and political piece fails to come together completely for me. Not because the concept is bad or many of the people in the story aren't fascinating. Simply because Carter tries to pack too much story into too many pages. If he had cut back a little on the trial detail or the views of so many privileged people in the District of Columbia, he might have been able to focus in on fewer elements and kept me more involved in the book. The best part of this book for me was the logic behind Lincoln's decision process and the evolution of race relationships post Civil War.
And I do compliment Carter on an amazing final twist that he throws in for the reader near the end of this epic.
Others may feel that the elements mentioned are truly the base of his novel. And I wouldn't fault anyone for feeling that way but it just didn't come together for me. As much as I wanted to love this book, I left with a lot of like and a bit of disappointment at what might have been. A "what if" for me!

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating alternate history. Carter is at the top of his game June 13, 2012

By switterbug TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

What if the president survived the assassination attempt, only to face an impeachment trial two years later? That's the premise of this stout, absorbing tale. But Carter, with an almost mesmerizing touch, weaves more than a "what if" story here. What most engaged me is the way that Carter liberated himself from any stilted, biased or passive political ranting of his own. Instead of telegraphing his views into the characters, he allowed history to inform us, while never forgetting to hook us with an invented story within the framework of an intense and complex time in history.

In 1867, the war has been over for two years. Andrew Johnson, not Abe Lincoln, was shot and killed by Booth. And Secretary of State William Seward has been so wounded that he doesn't leave his house anymore. And the president's wife has died a year ago from a mysterious accident. This is the alternate history that Carter has meticulously woven together. Lincoln faces an impeachment trial from Congress on four counts due to his policies (or lack thereof) and intercessions (or lack thereof) during Reconstruction: 1) suspension of habeas corpus, 2) seizing of telegrams and shuttering a handful of newspapers 3) not sufficiently protecting the freedmen in the southern states 4) conspiring with the military officers to overthrow the constitutional forms of government.

This finely nuanced and well-paced novel is packed with fully realized characters and situations. Of course, with a cast this extensive, and numerous plots within plots, some characters are there to lend background and color, or to promote a larger connection. There are plots and subplots, romance, adventure, conspiracies, and even murder. How Carter tightly brings it all together in this capacious novel is superbly tight, with room for ambiguity, and he always remains a step ahead of the reader. Half of the fun was trying to catch up and tease out the disclosures before he did!

Abigail Canner is a twenty-one-year-old black graduate from Oberlin who lives with her aunt, a freed slave named Nanny Pork, in Washington City. She aspires to become a lawyer, and shrewdly procures a job as a clerk in the law office that represents Lincoln. It is a win-win, too, because the personnel know it looks good to practice what they preach. All too often, it is known that "like so many people of liberal persuasion, they value their own progressive opinions more than they value the people they hold those opinions about."

Abigail is the polestar of this book, and Carter has drawn her with an able and agile hand. Whatever a reader might fear could occur with a character like Abigail--such as too much PC, or implausibly heroic--those fears will be allayed by the subtle sharpness of Miss Canner. Yes, there's romance in the air, and it doesn't take the reader long to foresee its possibility, but Carter wins you over with his credible storyline and keen restraint. And, not all is as doubtless (or doubtful!) as it may initially seem.

The book was like a web, or a circle with vectors projecting in every direction. As the author demonstrates, there are no easy answers, and often, both sides imbibe elements of hypocrisy and criminal behaviors, as well as righteousness and nobility. At this time, during the impeachment proceedings, Lincoln states that he would be ready to step down, but doesn't feel that his work is finished until he brings the Union together. The radical Republicans--who are men of his own party who could be seen, on the one hand, as fanatical, or on the other, as dedicated and true--want to oust him now.

I was concerned that the story would be clumsy, with a ham-handed Lincoln and a heavy-handed story. It has to be difficult to portray an icon known as "Honest Abe," two years beyond his actual survival time, a president most known for freeing the slaves. But this isn't just the Lincoln we learned about in our history textbooks in high school. Here we have a troubled, complicated man, always at the ready with an amusing anecdote, a sometimes dour but witty and enigmatic presence. And a flawed human being who nevertheless understands the times he is facing.

There is nothing black and white in this racially charged novel of American history. Besides the conflict of race, there are the businessmen with greedy propositions about tariffs; egos; political ambitions; social issues of women and class; and more.

"The cost of war," says Lincoln in 1867, " is impossible to estimate in advance...wars continue long after one side surrenders. Every conflict plagues the peace that follows it."

"There is a tradition," says retired Union General Dan Sickles, one of Lincoln's staunchest supporters, "that once a great war has been won, the leader must at once be deposed. The Romans used to do it. The British, too."

In the Author's Note, a must-read at the end of the book, Carter provides important information regarding his source material, and a fascinating peek at how he braided fact and fiction together. Like his first novel, THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK, he slyly evinces the skullduggery in the chess games of politics, as well as the toll of personal loss to the cause and commitment of justice. Moreover, he doesn't forget that his story is, principally, to entertain, and seduce his readers into believers. He makes the most of his characters and their individual and shared passions, and renders a deeply felt and plausible history, back to the future.