Publisher Description
A vivid political history of the schemes, plots, maneuvers, and conspiracies that have attempted — successfully and not — to remove unwanted presidents
To limit executive power, the founding fathers created fixed presidential terms of four years, giving voters regular opportunities to remove their leaders. Even so, Americans have often resorted to more dramatic paths to disempower the chief executive. The American presidency has seen it all, from rejecting a sitting president’s renomination bid and undermining their authority in office to the more drastic methods of impeachment, and, most brutal of all, assassination.
How to Get Rid of a President showcases the political dark arts in action: a stew of election dramas, national tragedies, and presidential departures mixed with party intrigue, personal betrayal, and backroom shenanigans. This briskly paced, darkly humorous voyage proves that while the pomp and circumstance of presidential elections might draw more attention, the way that presidents are removed teaches us much more about our political order.
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Getting rid of presidents was never as entertaining as it is in David
Priess’s hands. He barnstorms through more than two centuries of American
history, showing all the ways-from impeachment to death-that presidents have
either left office prematurely or just barely avoided doing so. Dramatic and
instructive, his narrative has clear resonance for the present day as calls
grow for President Trump’s impeachment.—MaxBoot, Washington Post columnist and author of The Corrosion of Conservatism—
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