A Citizen’s Guide to Impeachment, by Barbara Radnofsky. New York: Melville House Publishing. September 2017. ISBN: 978-1612197050. 160 pages.

Structure

The three chapters that make up A Citizen’s Guide to Impeachment include a discussion of the origins of impeachment law, a discussion of the legal principles and process of impeachment, and summaries of the formal impeachment proceedings conducted in the United States. The first chapter on the origins of impeachment law describes the Founding Fathers’ reliance on their knowledge of and experience with English law and their predictions of potential dangers posed by future leaders. These dangers include incapacity/negligence, tyranny, corruption, betrayal of trust to a foreign power, and treason. In the U.S. Constitution and accompanying Federalist Papers, the authors addressed the nature of the impeachment process, to whom it applied, the type of conduct it covered, and safeguards for both the process and the accused.