This meticulously researched account of assaults on democracy by five presidents who imprisoned critics, spread a culture of white supremacy and committed crimes with impunity shows how citizens like Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells and Daniel Ellsberg fought back against presidential abuses of power. "In this propulsive and eminently readable history, constitutional law and political science professor Corey Brettschneider provides a thoroughly researched account of assaults on democracy by not one such president but five. John Adams waged war on the national press of the early republic, overseeing numerous prosecutions of his critics. In the lead-up to the Civil War, James Buchanan colluded with the Supreme Court to deny constitutional personhood to African Americans. A decade later, Andrew Johnson urged violence against his political opponents as he sought to guarantee a white supremacist republic after the Civil War. In the 1910s, Woodrow Wilson modernized, popularized, and nationalized Jim Crow laws. In the 1970s, Richard Nixon committed criminal acts that flowed from his corrupt ideas about presidential power. Through their actions, these presidents illuminated the trip wires that can damage or even destroy our democracy." -- Provided by publisher.

Section I: The right to dissent: the journalists who demanded it. John Adams versus Cooper, Bache, and Duane : a president's attempt to shut down the opposition -- Thomas Jefferson and the Editors' Campaign : the recovery begins -- James Madison and Hanson : protecting speech during war -- Section II: Legal personhood: Frederick Douglass and the promise of "We the people." James Buchanan versus Frederick Douglass : a fake neutrality -- Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass : the transformation of a president -- Andrew Johnson versus Frederick Douglass : a new threat in the midst of recovery -- Ulysses Grant and the Douglass constituency : securing the right to vote amid violence -- Section III: Equal protection: the long march against second-class citizenship. Woodrow Wilson versus Trotter and Wells : nationalizing white supremacy -- Harry Truman and Sadie Alexander : to secure these rights once more -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Martin Luther King Jr. : the road to recovery -- Section IV: The rule of law: the battle for presidential accountability. Richard Nixon versus Daniel Ellsberg and Grand Jury One : criminality in the Oval Office -- Coda: Our current crisis.