A very in depth review of the who what and why of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. A bit dense and certainly not written like a thriller. Comes across as well researched and scholarly. Interesting how the president sought in many ways to ignore Congress and the plans they had passed into law and how that the president was brought to heel. ( )

1261 The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson, by Michael Les Benedict (read 17 Jan 1974) I read this book in preparation for a talk I gave at a local service club, which talk I entitled Impeachment Now? My thesis was that Nixon deserved to be impeached, as the essential basis for impeachment was present, but that he should not be till it became clearer to folk that he should be impeached. That position I think was right--impeachment in January 1974 would have been very divisive, but in August nearly all right-thinking folk agreed that Nixon should go.
I found the book helpful in understanding the impeachment process. ( )