Learn more about our 17th president, Andrew Johnson – from the challenges he faced to his impeachment and acquittal.

Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy
By David O. Stewart
The author of The Summer of 1787 writes a dramatic re-creation of the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, which became the central battle of the struggle over how to reunite a nation after four years of war.

Grand Inquests: The Historic Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson
By William H. Rehnquist
Published in 1992, then Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist writes about the history and legal precedent set in the two impeachments of the nineteenth century.

The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
By Chester G. Hearn
While it is commonly known that Andrew Johnson was the first president to be impeached, less well known are the circumstances that led to the unsuccessful campaign to remove him from office. This account of Johnson's political life in Washington focuses on his conflict with the Radical Republicans who, after Lincoln's assassination, sought to dominate American government and punish the South as harshly as possible. Johnson's focus on healing the nation and his refusal to submit to the Radicals’ demands led to his impeachment. Though Johnson was acquitted, his impeachment clearly illustrates the danger when one branch of government tries to dominate the others. This chronicle of the first U.S. presidential impeachment covers in detail the political forces that nearly removed him from office.

The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson
By Michael Les Benedict
This book argues that although Johnson's impeachment did not succeed in ousting him, it was a justified step. It describes the critical issues and events leading up to the impeachment and then discusses the trial itself: what the grounds were, what the different sides' motivations were, why the attempt failed.

Andrew Johnson: A Biography
By Hans L. Trefousse
Trefousse provides a definitive life of the flawed man who succeeded to the American presidency after Lincoln's assassination and who presided, disastrously, over the tumultuous first years of Reconstruction.

The Avenger Takes His Place: Andrew Johnson and the 45 Days That Changed the Nation
By Howard Means
Means' book brings to life one of the most critical moments in American history through the eyes of Andrew Johnson. Award-winning journalist and novelist Howard Means focuses upon the first 45 days of Johnson's presidency, beginning with the assassination of Lincoln on April 14 and ending at the close of May 1865, when Johnson declared his terms of peace and set the nation on a course that still reverberates in our own time.

The Reconstruction Presidents
By Brooks D. Simpson
This book collectively examines the Reconstruction policies of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes and reveals how they confronted and responded to the complex issues presented during that contested era in American politics.

By David Stewart

The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution
By David O. Stewart
A true-life suspense story, The Summer of 1787 takes readers into the sweltering room in which delegates struggled for four months to produce the flawed but enduring document that defined the nation, then and now.

Book descriptions provided by BookLetters.