Hans Louis Trefousse (1921–2010)

The cover blurb calls this "A readable new biography..." which seemed a strange blurb to me....was readable the best, the most flattering adjective that could be found for this work? It turns out, maybe it was. It is readable, but at times it can be a bit of a slog; it never really sings the way the best histories do. That being said, it is packed with information about Andrew Johnson, and it seems to be trying to impart that information without taking sides regarding his effectiveness as a show more politician. In the end, it seems he was more effective as president than is often thought, but unfortunately one of his main goals was to maintain a culture of white supremacy, so it might have been better had he not been so effective. But its the most detailed look I've ever seen at our 17th president, and worth reading to better understand not just the man, but how his presidency affected American culture for over a century. show less

I would like to give this book a higher rating, and were I an avid student of history perhaps I would. As a layman who became interested in Thaddeus Stevens after watching Spielberg's "Lincoln" I was underwhelmed by this biography. There were two drawbacks that made the book incredibly dry reading. First, virtually nothing is told of Stevens personal life. It is purely a political biography. Two or three sentences are given here and there for a brief anecdote, but no more. The other is its show more absolute focus on Stevens. I would have appreciated more side-story of what was happening around the country, before during and after the Civil War, in the White House, in the Senate... But anything that didn't directly involve Thaddeus Stevens was ignored completely. In the end, I have a good understanding of his politics, and certainly a great deal about the man can be gleaned from that, but I was hoping for a book that would let me into his life, and wouldn't assume that I already knew everything about history of his era, but would enlighten me on that as well. show less

Take any list of the worst presidents in American history, and Andrew Johnson's name will feature prominently at the top of it. On one level, this is hardly surprising. Succeeding as he did the assassinated Abraham Lincoln, he faced the formidable challenge of restoring the peace after the bloodiest and most divisive conflict in American history. Given the task at hand and laboring as he did in the shadow of the martyred president, criticism was inevitable. Yet as Hans Trefousse shows in show more this book, Johnson's own rigid adherence to his beliefs prevented the sort of compromising that might have smoothed the path toward his goals and forestalled the impeachment that forever distinguishes his term in office.

The irony in Trefousse's account is that such rigidity was uncharacteristic in his youth. As a budding politician in antebellum Tennessee, Johnson often shifted positions as he sought to define his political identity to voters. His impoverished background, however, served as the foundation for his unwavering support for the rights of the poor, and his admiration of Andrew Jackson ensured that the would be identified with the Democratic Party. Trefousse makes the interesting case that Johnson was in many respects an adherent not as much to Jacksonian Democracy but to the Old Republican ideas of Thomas Jefferson. Such views would put him increasingly at odds with the industrializing nation that emerged in his lifetime, yet this proved less of an issue in his home state than it would when he became president later on.

As an ambitious border-state politician, the outbreak of the Civil War posed the greatest challenge of Johnson's career, and in terms of his ambitions he made what would turn out to be the correct choice. But Trefousse makes it clear that Johnson decision to stay with the union did not entail any reconsideration of his views on race. This became an issue once he became president, as he supported generous terms of reunification that left the freedmen in a legal position little different from slavery. Johnson's stubborn commitment to his views alienated the Republicans in Congress, empowering the Radicals among their ranks to push for impeachment. Trefousse shows the impeachment as a rushed affair, as the trial quickly demonstrated the hollowness of the prosecution's case. Johnson's victory proved a Pyrrhic one, though, as he found himself reduced to irrelevance in the aftermath of his acquittal. Hungering for a return to a national stage, he saw his election to the Senate in 1875 as a vindication by the people, albeit one cut short by a series of strokes that killed him soon afterward.

Trefousse's book serves as a solid account of the political career of America's 17th president. Having written biographies of some of the other key figures in the impeachment controversy, he brings considerable insight to bear on the central act of Johnson's political career, showing it as a far messier and more muddled affair than might otherwise appear to be the case. Yet his description of Johnson's pre-presidential career suffers from an absence of similar insight, and provides little more than a chronicle of his career and achievements. Nonetheless, his book stands as the best biography available of this controversial figure, one that makes a convincing argument that his place in history was ultimately defined by his inability to practice that central skill of a successful politician — the art of compromise. show less

Andrew Johnson is one of the more intriguing characters in US history - at least for me. He was a Democrat, albeit a Unionist Democrat, that served as Vice President under Republican Abraham Lincoln. He professed to be concerned for black freedmen to the point of even referring to himself as their "Moses", yet repeated expressed white supremacist views and implemented Reconstruction policies seemingly without regard for the effect on freedmen in the South. He's the first US president to be show more impeached, with precident-setting results for executive-legislative relations ever since. My hope with Hans Trefousse's Andrew Johnson: A Biography - the first full biography of Johnson I've read - was to better understand this complex man, especially where he impacted post-Civil War events.

Johnson is presented here as the classic self-made man - humble beginnings, self assurance and hard work leading to material success, the desire to excel in politics to validate his success. He presented himself as a populist and Jacksonian Democrat his whole political career, and in fact on many occasions was able to translate that persona into real support from the people, at least some segments of the populace. Yet the same determination that led to his success turned into sheer pig-headedness when the country needed the president and Congress to put the nation back together again after the Civil War. While more than one factor was in play, it's clear that without some compromise, the southern states were given latitude to put a de facto slave culture back in place.

Trefousse's work is a functional biography - it presents the man and attempts to understand him - but it was a bit of a long slog. Frankly, the first half of the book was rather dry and throughout the whole book, I never felt I really got Andrew Johnson in the way other authors have made other presidents come alive. The second half of the book certainly picked up more interest, with all the drama associated with the conflict between Johnson and those with more radical ideas about how to reconstruct the Union. I suppose part of my reaction to the book came from my dislike of the man presented here and the things he stood for. However inappropriate that might be for historical study, it certainly made it hard for me to connect with the work. show less