Congress at War: How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America by Fergus M. Bordewich (Knopf, 480 pages, $32.50) Most Civil War students realize that Congress was ahead of President Lincoln on matters such…

Nearly 20 years ago, in the wake of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, the masterful Wendell Berry wrote an impassioned essay. The “only result,” he wrote, of the wrenching confrontation, sponsored by the majority of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, was…

Trump critics increasingly compare him to Andrew Johnson, who, in 1868, was the first president to face impeachment. Like Trump, Johnson was easily provoked into unruly speech and considered morally inferior by his opponents, who regarded themselves to be sincere…