Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems, Enlarged Edition [Paperback]

Raoul Berger (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674444787 | ISBN-13: 978-0674444782 | Publication Date: January 1, 1999

The little understood yet volcanic power of impeachment lodged in the Congress is dissected through history by the nation's leading legal scholar on the subject. Berger offers authoritative insight into "high crimes and misdemeanors" He sheds new light on whether impeachment is limited to indictable crimes, on whether there is jurisdiction to impeach for misconduct outside of office, and on whether impeachment must precede indictment.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Originally published in 1974 at the time of the Nixon crisis, this erudite book by a legal scholar offers authoritative insight into all aspects of impeachment. (Washington Post Book Review )

An admirable and powerful work...valuable and illuminating.
--Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Review

An admirable and powerful work...valuable and illuminating. (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 359 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674444787
• ISBN-13: 978-0674444782
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,080,068 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a must read for the House Judiciary Committee., September 16, 1998

By 

Michael Day ([e-mail]) (Hagerstown, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems, First edition (Studies in Legal History) (Paperback)

It's hard to believe it's been nearly 25 years since Harvard Law Professor Raoul Berger wrote his treatise on impeachment. It was then, in those turbulent years of constitutional crisis, the definitive, stabilizing voice of reason. The rock-solid scholarly research allowed calmer minds to reach beyond the excitement of the moment, and to solemnly deliberate whether the actions of our President constituted "high crimes and misdemeanors" as that phrase was intended by the Constitution.

Today's crisis is no less susceptible to emotional conclusions, absent the foundations of law. Republicans and Democrats alike will form conclusions based upon political expediency, and upon what they perceive the will of the public to be. But those political winds have no place in Professor Berger's analysis. Here you will find the inescapable truth of sound legal research.

I had occasion to dine with both Professor Berger and his friend Archibald Cox some 13 years after the last attempt to impeach a sitting President. We talked about politics, and the law. Politics change from week to week, swirling like the wind. But the law gives us a rock to cling to in the most treacherous of storms. Professor Berger's work remains a rock of reason today.