Despite a political career spanning five decades, Andrew Johnson was one of the most unpopular and unsuccessful of all American presidents. He was the subject of considerable historical controversy, and his conservative stand on nearly every social and political issue altered the course of reconstruction following the Civil War.

This A–Z encyclopedia provides carefully selected entries covering the people, events, and concepts relevant to Andrew Johnson's life.

Andrew Johnson was—and is—an American paradox. He never attended school, yet fought for public education. He was a Southern slaveholder who opposed secession and enforced emancipation. Born into poverty, he became the 17th president of the United States—and the first U.S. president to be impeached.

This new volume thoroughly examines the troubled career of our most unpopular president—not to resuscitate his reputation, but because his personal contradictions reflected those of his country: a democratic nation conceived in liberty, yet existing half slave and half free; an economy of yeoman farmers and independent artisans being swept into industrialization and a market system; a country fond of tradition, but caught up in social, economic, and political revolution.

• More than 350 entries cover the five decades of Andrew Johnson's successful career, from 1828–1875
• Selected original documents include the Articles of Impeachment, speeches, proclamations, vetoes, and letters