Annette Gordon-Reed: Andrew Johnson February 8, 2011

Andrew Johnson, a tragically accidental President, succeeded to the office after a mere six weeks as Lincoln's Vice President. Inheriting the monumental task of healing the country after the Civil War and implementing Reconstruction, he was impeached and came within one vote of being convicted and removed from office. Gordon-Reed, a 2010 MacArthur Fellow, joined the Harvard faculty in July of this year as a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She is the author of 'The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.'