Woocast's Politics & Polls

As the country debates whether President Trump should be impeached, many are making comparisons to past presidencies like Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Less attention, however, is paid to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, the first president to be impeached by the House of Representatives. Brenda Wineapple, author of “The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation,” joins Julian Zelizer to discuss the components of the impeachment process of Johnson. Having begun “The Impeachers” six years ago, Wineapple talks about her book and demonstrates Johnson’s impeachment as a significant event in American history. Wineapple also wrote “Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877,” named a “Notable Book” by The New York Times and “White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson,” a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.