The Age of Impeachment: American Constitutional Culture since 1960

After a brief survey of the early history and historiography of impeachment in England and the United States, Kyvig launches his examination of the period since 1960 with an analysis of one extremist organization's effort, based on its disagreements with the Supreme Court's rulings on segregation and civil liberties, to impeach Chief Justice Earl Warren. By contrast, the Clinton impeachment arose in a cultural and political climate in which "impeachment came to be thought of not as a last resort against an otherwise uncontrollable abuser of official power but, rather, as an extension of the ordinary contest for control of the reins of government," which led to "the constitutional and political equivalent of a train wreck" (p. 312).