Trump plays only a minor role in Jeffrey A. Engel, Jon Meacham, Timothy Naftali, and Peter Baker's examination of presidential removal, Impeachment: An American History. Yet his presence looms over every sentence. The book breaks no new ground – that's not its purpose – but it reminds readers, from the perspective of 2018, what the nation's three prior flirtations with mid-term forced retirement entailed ... Impeachment reminds us that the most important question when that happens will not be whether Donald Trump's administration falls apart. It will be whether the rest of us hold our republic together.
Four scholars plumb the meaning and mechanics of presidential impeachments past—and, possibly, future—in this illuminating historical study ... Well researched, thoughtful, and engagingly written, this is one of the best of the current books mulling this suddenly fraught question.
With the quite real possibility of Trump being impeached in the not-so-distant future, it’s instructive to consider the history of impeachment in this country. As Jeffrey Engel notes, in the new book Impeachment: An American History, 'the time is ripe to renew our understanding of the thing that binds even divided Americans most – our shared past.' ... Jon Meacham does a fine job discussing the fascinating and highly complex case against Andrew Johnson...and Timothy Naftali’s essay on Nixon reads like a page-turner, even though we know how it all turned out.
... Pulitzer-winning historian Meacham points out, in the precedent-setting case of Andrew Johnson, impeachment became 'a weapon of politics' that could be used during a time of 'great political passion but without clear violation of law.' As Naftali notes, for Richard Nixon, whose Saturday Night Massacre 'awoke presidential impeachment from a century-long slumber,' the subsequent impeachment hearings proceeded in a nonpartisan fashion; the attempt to hide the tapes exposed 'the ugliness of Nixon’s approach to power.' Nixon clearly demonstrated what the framers decreed high crimes and misdemeanors.' In the case of Bill Clinton, as astutely delineated by New York Times chief White House correspondent Baker , impeachment became an 'out-of-control coup d’état by prurient Republicans who sought to exploit personal failings for partisan gain.' While Engel does not offer as much speculation about Donald Trump as many readers would like, he reminds us that 'one need not act illegally in order to act treasonably.' ... An important book: impeccably researched and well-presented.
