Originally published in 1979 by the Southern Illinois University Press, this volume is a narrative and interpretive account of the struggle between President Andrew Johnson and Congress over the nature of the Constitution and the Union, the meaning of Black freedom, and reconstruction policy during a crucial time in the early post-Civil War era. Written for both the specialist and the general reader in Reconstruction history, Riddleberger's clear narrative of national politics in 1866 and his synthesis and criticism of Beale's work and the works of such revisionist historians as Eric McKitrick, Lawanda and John Cox, W.R. Brock, and Stanley Coben make this book a solid contribution to the current reappraisal of the presidency of Andrew Johnson and the events of that critical year.