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ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times; The New York Times Book Review; NPR; Publishers Weekly “This absorbing and important book recounts the titanic struggle over the implications of the Civil War amid the impeachment of a defiant and temperamentally erratic American president.”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Soul of America When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Vice-President Andrew Johnson became “the Accidental President,” it was a dangerous time in America. Congress was divided over how the Union should be reunited: when and how the secessionist South should regain full status, whether former Confederates should be punished, and when and whether black men should be given the vote. Devastated by war and resorting to violence, many white Southerners hoped to restore a pre–Civil War society, if without slavery, and the pugnacious Andrew Johnson seemed to share their goals. With the unchecked power of executive orders, Johnson ignored Congress, pardoned rebel leaders, promoted white supremacy, opposed civil rights, and called Reconstruction unnecessary. It fell to Congress to stop the American president who acted like a king. With profound insights and making use of extensive research, Brenda Wineapple dramatically evokes this pivotal period in American history, when the country was rocked by the first-ever impeachment of a sitting American president. And she brings to vivid life the extraordinary characters who brought that impeachment forward: the willful Johnson and his retinue of advocates—including complicated men like Secretary of State William Seward—as well as the equally complicated visionaries committed to justice and equality for all, like Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Frederick Douglass, and Ulysses S. Grant. Theirs was a last-ditch, patriotic, and Constitutional effort to render the goals of the Civil War into reality and to make the Union free, fair, and whole. Praise for The Impeachers “In this superbly lyrical work, Brenda Wineapple has plugged a glaring hole in our historical memory through her vivid and sweeping portrayal of President Andrew Johnson’s 1868 impeachment. She serves up not simply food for thought but a veritable feast of observations on that most trying decision for a democracy: whether to oust a sitting president. Teeming with fiery passions and unforgettable characters, The Impeachers will be devoured by contemporary readers seeking enlightenment on this issue. . . . A landmark study.”—Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Grant

Carl Schurz was a larger-than-life public figure whose exploits, real and concocted appeared in newspapers nationwide during the nineteenth century. His letters to Fanny Chapman, his secret love, leave a picture of an age of turmoil, corruption, social graces, and artistic explosion. It took a renaissance man like Carl Schurz to travel among the greats in the literary, artistic and political arenas with grace and judgement. The tragedy of his life, if there was one, is that he is nearly forgotten in the modern world in the face of revisionist history. He was a fighter for human rights including all races and creeds and a pioneer muckraker in a corrupt city of a “Gilded Age”. Lost are his educational contributions, his unpopular and prophetic political stance for Civil Service reform and his fight against a trend toward national imperialism.

Following the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898, pro-war arguments in the American press led public opinion to favor engaging in the Spanish-American War--or so goes the popular version of events. Yet there was a substantial anti-imperialist segment of the public that tried to halt the advance towards conflict. Drawing on contemporary sources, the author analyzes the anti-war arguments that preceded the Spanish-American War and continued during the war in the Philippines. News articles, letters to editors, opinion pieces and the yellow journalism of the day show how anti-war groups ultimately failed to stop a war with Spain.