The Failed Promise

Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

By: Robert S. Levine

Narrated by: Ryan Vincent Anderson

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Robert S. Levine foregrounds the viewpoints of Black Americans on Reconstruction in his absorbing account of the struggle between the great orator Frederick Douglass and President Andrew Johnson.

When Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the country was on the precipice of radical change. Johnson, seemingly more progressive than Lincoln, looked like the ideal person to lead the country. He had already cast himself as a “Moses” for the Black community, and African Americans were optimistic that he would pursue aggressive federal policies for Black equality.

Despite this early promise, Frederick Douglass, the country’s most influential Black leader, soon grew disillusioned with Johnson’s policies and increasingly doubted the president was sincere in supporting Black citizenship. In a dramatic and pivotal meeting between Johnson and a Black delegation at the White House, the president and Douglass came to verbal blows over the course of Reconstruction.

As he lectured across the country, Douglass continued to attack Johnson’s policies, while raising questions about the Radical Republicans’ hesitancy to grant African Americans the vote. Johnson meanwhile kept his eye on Douglass, eventually making a surprising effort to appoint him to a key position in his administration.

Levine grippingly portrays the conflicts that brought Douglass and the wider Black community to reject Johnson and call for a guilty verdict in his impeachment trial. He brings fresh insight by turning to letters between Douglass and his sons, speeches by Douglass and other major Black figures like Frances E. W. Harper, and articles and letters in the Christian Recorder, the most important African American newspaper of the time. In counterpointing the lives and careers of Douglass and Johnson, Levine offers a distinctive vision of the lost promise and dire failure of Reconstruction, the effects of which still reverberate today.

©2021 Robert S. Levine (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Levine's prose is often beautiful, but even more beautiful is his reliance on the truth of history.... The Failed Promise is an important book for anyone on a quest to deeply understand the racism in America's history." (DeNeen L. Brown, Washington Post)

"An engrossing account.... Levine poignantly captures a moment when the future of the United States was up for grabs.... In so doing, the author suggests the tragic consequences of failure and the way in which those consequences are still very much with us." (Randall Fuller, Wall Street Journal)

"Fascinating.... The Failed Promise looks closely at the perspective of Frederick Douglass and other Black leaders.... Levine nimbly narrates the road to Johnson's eventual impeachment." (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times)

A timely review of the threat to the nation of a President who is unlistening to the “better angels of our nature.”

The author provides us with a glimpse of the complexity of Andrew Johnson, and in the response of Frederick Douglass, the view of Johnson from someone who views the issues at hand as intensely moral issues.