The Avenger Takes His Place

The Avenger Takes His Place
Author: Howard B. Means
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2006
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780151012121

Brings to life one of the most critical moments in American history through the eyes of one of its most misunderestimated presidents--Andrew Johnson. Until now, books on Johnson have focussed exclusively on the impeachment trial (these books sold well during Clinton's impeachment proceedings). By contrast, 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. Means' book shows how the nation's future hung in the balance when a Southerner (a slave-holder at the start of the Civil War) and a Democrat was being called upon to replace the most famous Republican president in history. At a time that required the most delicate of political touches, Johnson had shown that he was perhaps the most obstinate man in America. He had been drunk at his own inauguration as vice-president only a month before. Not only did Mary Todd Lincoln detest him, she also thought he had been among the plotters that murdered her husband. How would Johnson lead the nation? Would he be a reconciler like Lincoln? Or would he, as the Radicals and much of the nation expected, side with them? (The Avenger takes his place comes from a poem by Herman Melville that appeared shortly after Lincoln's death.) For forty-five days the nation--including a deeply anxious South--waited. That crucial month and a half is the focus of this book.

Coming for to Carry Me Home

Coming for to Carry Me Home
Author: J. Michael Martinez
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2011-12-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442215003

Coming for to Carry Me Home examines the history of the politics surrounding U.S. race relations during the half century between the rise of the abolitionist movement in the 1830s and the dawn of the Jim Crow era in the 1880s. J. Michael Martinez argues that Abraham Lincoln and the Radical Republicans in Congress were the pivotal actors, albeit not the architects, that influenced this evolution. To understand how Lincoln and his contemporaries viewed race, Martinez first explains the origins of abolitionism and the tumultuous decade of the 1830s, when that generation of political leaders came of age. He then follows the trail through Reconstruction, Redemption, and the beginnings of legal segregation in the 1880s. This book addresses the central question of how and why the concept of race changed during this period.

Accidental Presidents

Accidental Presidents
Author: Jared Cohen
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2020-01-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501109839

This New York Times bestselling “deep dive into the terms of eight former presidents is chock-full of political hijinks—and déjà vu” (Vanity Fair) and provides a fascinating look at the men who came to the office without being elected to it, showing how each affected the nation and world. The strength and prestige of the American presidency has waxed and waned since George Washington. Eight men have succeeded to the presidency when the incumbent died in office. In one way or another they vastly changed our history. Only Theodore Roosevelt would have been elected in his own right. Only TR, Truman, Coolidge, and LBJ were re-elected. John Tyler succeeded William Henry Harrison who died 30 days into his term. He was kicked out of his party and became the first president threatened with impeachment. Millard Fillmore succeeded esteemed General Zachary Taylor. He immediately sacked the entire cabinet and delayed an inevitable Civil War by standing with Henry Clay’s compromise of 1850. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded our greatest president, sided with remnants of the Confederacy in Reconstruction. Chester Arthur, the embodiment of the spoils system, was so reviled as James Garfield’s successor that he had to defend himself against plotting Garfield’s assassination; but he reformed the civil service. Theodore Roosevelt broke up the trusts. Calvin Coolidge silently cooled down the Harding scandals and preserved the White House for the Republican Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. Harry Truman surprised everybody when he succeeded the great FDR and proved an able and accomplished president. Lyndon B. Johnson was named to deliver Texas electorally. He led the nation forward on Civil Rights but failed on Vietnam. Accidental Presidents shows that “history unfolds in death as well as in life” (The Wall Street Journal) and adds immeasurably to our understanding of the power and limits of the American presidency in critical times.

1865 Alabama

1865 Alabama
Author: Christopher Lyle McIlwain
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2017-09-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0817319530

A detailed history of a vitally important year in Alabama history The year 1865 is critically important to an accurate understanding of Alabama's present. In 1865 Alabama: From Civil War to Uncivil Peace Christopher Lyle McIlwain Sr. examines the end of the Civil War and the early days of Reconstruction in the state and details what he interprets as strategic failures of Alabama's political leadership. The actions, and inactions, of Alabamians during those twelve months caused many self-inflicted wounds that haunted them for the next century. McIlwain recounts a history of missed opportunities that had substantial and reverberating consequences. He focuses on four factors: the immediate and unconditional emancipation of the slaves, the destruction of Alabama's remaining industrial economy, significant broadening of northern support for suffrage rights for the freedmen, and an acute and lengthy postwar shortage of investment capital. Each element proves critically important in understanding how present-day Alabama was forged. Relevant events outside Alabama are woven into the narrative, including McIlwain's controversial argument regarding the effect of Lincoln's assassination. Most historians assume that Lincoln favored black suffrage and that he would have led the fight to impose that on the South. But he made it clear to his cabinet members that granting suffrage rights was a matter to be decided by the southern states, not the federal government. Thus, according to McIlwain, if Lincoln had lived, black suffrage would not have been the issue it became in Alabama. McIlwain provides a sifting analysis of what really happened in Alabama in 1865 and why it happened--debunking in the process the myth that Alabama's problems were unnecessarily brought on by the North. The overarching theme demonstrates that Alabama's postwar problems were of its own making. They would have been quite avoidable, he argues, if Alabama's political leadership had been savvier.

Presidents and Place

Presidents and Place
Author: Thomas Cobb
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2023-03-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1666913731

Presidents and Place: America's Favorite Sons highlights the interrelationship between America's leading political icons and various facets of space and place, including places of birth and death as well as regional allegiances, among others. The chapters examine the legacy of relationships between presidents and place in a variety of social and cultural forms, ranging from famous political campaigns to television series to developments in tourism. Beginning with the political iconography of New York's Federal Hall in early eighteenth-century America and ending with a focus on the Republican Party's electoral relationship with the South, the interdisciplinary and methodologically diverse nature of the chapters reveals that place has more than a biographical significance in relation to US presidents.

Take Up Your Pen

Take Up Your Pen
Author: Graham G. Dodds
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2013-05-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0812245113

Graham G. Dodds explores the constitutional and historical development of unilateral presidential directives—the ability of presidents to bypass the legislative process and set public policy via their own executive orders—and how such a practice fits Americans' conception of democracy.

The Million-Dollar Man Who Helped Kill a President

The Million-Dollar Man Who Helped Kill a President
Author: Christopher McIlwain
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2018-07-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1611213959

George Washington Gayle is not a name known to history. But it soon will be. Forget what you thought you knew about why Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. No, it was not mere sectional hatred, Booth’s desire to become famous, Lincoln’s advocacy of black suffrage, or a plot masterminded by Jefferson Davis to win the war by crippling the Federal government. Christopher Lyle McIlwain, Sr.’s Untried and Unpunished: George Washington Gayle and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln exposes the fallacies regarding each of those theories and reveals both the mastermind behind the plot, and its true motivation. The deadly scheme to kill Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward was Gayle’s brainchild. The assassins were motivated by money Gayle raised. Lots of money. $20,000,000 in today’s value. Gayle, a prominent South Carolina-born Alabama lawyer, had been a Unionist and Jacksonian Democrat before walking the road of radicalization following the admission of California as a free state in 1850. Thereafter, he became Alabama’s most earnest secessionist, though he would never hold any position within the Confederate government or serve in its military. After the slaying of the president Gayle was arrested and taken to Washington, DC in chains to be tried by a military tribunal for conspiracy in connection with the horrendous crimes. The Northern press was satisfied Gayle was behind the deed—especially when it was discovered he had placed an advertisement in a newspaper the previous December soliciting donations to pay the assassins. There is little doubt that if Gayle had been tried, he would have been convicted and executed. However, he not only avoided trial, but ultimately escaped punishment of any kind for reasons that will surprise readers. Rather than rehashing what scores of books have already alleged, Untried and Unpunished offers a completely fresh premise, meticulous analysis, and stunning conclusions based upon years of firsthand research by an experienced attorney. This original, thought-provoking study will forever change the way you think of Lincoln’s assassination.

Congressional Lions

Congressional Lions
Author: J. Michael Martinez
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2019-10-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 149855945X

In some periods of American history, members of the legislative branch have been as influential, and sometimes more influential, than a particular president in crafting public policy and reacting to world events. Congressional Lions examines twelve influential members of Congress throughout American history to understand their role in shaping the life of the nation. The book does not focus exclusively on the biographical details of these lawmakers, although biography invariably plays a role in recalling their triumphs and tragedies. Instead, the book highlights members’ legislative accomplishments as well as the circumstances surrounding their congressional service.