An excerpt from Kirkus‘s review of Impeachment: An American History
Kirkus Review
A set of scholarly essays introduced by presidential scholar Engel offers historical context and precedent to a sticky Constitutional issue very much in the current public debate.
“Only three times in American history has a president’s conduct led to such political outrage or disarray as to warrant his potential removal from office,” writes Engel (Founding Director, Center for Presidential History/Southern Methodist Univ.; When the World Seemed New: George H.W. Bush and the End of the Cold War, 2017, etc.) in his introduction. Here, Engel and three other notable scholars present and analyze the cases. Weary of the sins of tyrants, the framers of the Constitution recognized the need for a strong unifying leader yet had the prescience to know that the ballot box alone could not deter corruption. Moreover, impeachment guarded against the recourse to assassination, while the steep legislative hurdles to the impeachment process resisted removing a president solely due to unpopularity.