Political caucus right after assassination

[Rob Wick]

I would recommend Annette Gordon-Reed's small biography of Johnson as a good place to start. Also, the late Hans L. Trefousse has done a great deal of work on the Radicals and Johnson.

However, I also have to say there's a reason Johnson is ranked as low as he is. He was a horrible president, especially for what the country needed after the war. Paul Bergeron has written a book attempting to rehabilitate Johnson called Andrew Johnson's Civil War and Reconstruction which I reviewed for the Fall 2012 edition of the Lincoln Herald. One of the problems that a president faces, especially when he succeeds a martyr, is the constant comparison to his predecessor. It isn't fair, but it's reality. What the country needed after the war, and Lincoln's murder, was someone who could unite the country instead of seeing every act of Congress as a personal slight, which Johnson did. Add to that Johnson's inept handling of Reconstruction and you get someone that's very hard to defend.

Best
Rob