This isn't an objective book; the author states early on that she believes that Johnson was our worst president. I didn't mind this too much, since it's difficult to make a case for Johnson in the first place, and since several books in this series try to rehabilitate poor presidents without telling you, and I find the stealth approach more annoying. In any case, the bias doesn't matter too much, as Johnson's presidency is squished into about forty pages; the author's focus is much more on the formation of his character and political career. The one argument she makes which I didn't care for is that she makes a convoluted case that the Tenure of Office Act, the violation of which Johnson was largely impeached for, applied to Johnson's dismissal of his Secretary of War, and I find it hard to find that on the face of the law, which was a pretty crazy law anyway, though that shouldn't matter to officials, such as the president, who are sworn to uphold the nation's laws. Ultimately the book was informative and entertaining, with good command of facts and an eye for the telling anecdote or underaired historical sidelight. ( )

"Just because Andrew Johnson was a bad president doesn't mean he was unimportant" said, Annette Gordon-Reed in her speech at Chautauqua. Her new biography of Andrew Johnson, part of The American Presidents series, not only takes the reader through Johnson's early life and political career but explains why his actions as president had negative impacts that were felt until very recently.

Starting from a poor family with a father who died young, Johnson was very ambitious and fought his way slowly up the political ladder with a combination of firebrand speeches and good timing. He was a racist who nevertheless remained in the Senate even though the majority in his state voted to seceed. He ultimately supported the end of slavery, probably because he realized he had burned so many bridges with the South that he would need northern votes to win future elections. He made strange arguments while stubbornly holding fast to his original positions. For example, when he realized he was going to have to support the end of slavery, he argued that it (slavery) facilitated race mixing. He claimed that "the South's 'once pure' blood had 'been contaminated' by the blood of black people.

While hating the planter class of the South, because it had oppressed him as a child, he believed that the slaves cooperated in this oppression and, hence, he hated them too.

The book is brief largely because Johnson, who didn't learn to write until he was taught by his wife when he was a young man, never became comfortable with writing and left few letters and no journals. Using other sources, however, Gordon-Reed provides a good sense of the man as well as the analysis of his actions as president. ( )

This is a vicious attack on Johnson; a very negative assessment of his character. It should be read together with other biographies, such as Stryker's and Lomask's. ( )

Gordon-Reed's biography of Andrew Johnson shows us succinctly that a president can do harm. She shows that character of a president might be a key to how a president performs. But, how can we judge the character of a president? ( )