GREENEVILLE – President Andrew Johnson is the subject of a research fellowship and likely book by a Tusculum University professor, who is focusing on America’s perception of the man in the 150 years since he left the White House.
Dr. Jeffrey Perry, an assistant professor of history, has already researched the topic at the Old College on the Tusculum campus by reviewing material from Johnson’s family members and descendants. Dr. Perry has also read books dating to the 1920s and 1930s and magazine articles, all of which are expanding his knowledge of the 17th president.
Dr. Jeffrey Perry
Now, the University of Virginia has given him a fellowship to explore further how people have viewed Johnson since his presidency ended in 1869. The John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History has named him as one of its 2021 Library Fellows, which will give him access to even more research materials on Johnson. They include biographies, memorial addresses and manuscripts.
“I’m in the beginning stages of this project and mapping out the direction I will take,” Dr. Perry said. “Fortunately, there are a lot of sources of information in East Tennessee that provide the foundation for a great study of President Johnson. The University of Virginia’s materials will help supplement that and provide me with an even more complete picture of all facets of him.”
Johnson is best known in the country as the first president the House of Representatives impeached. The Senate acquitted him. He returned to the national spotlight in 1998 when the House impeached President Bill Clinton and again in 2019 and 2021 when that chamber impeached President Donald Trump.
Most people in East Tennessee remember the other highlights of Johnson’s life story. He became a tailor shop owner in Greeneville and served as the town’s mayor before his political career blossomed. Johnson served as military governor and governor of Tennessee, a congressman and twice as a U.S. senator. He became vice president in March 1865, but just six weeks later, he was sworn in as president after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
Johnson died in 1875, six years after the conclusion of his presidency and just five months after he began his second stint in the Senate. He is buried in Greeneville, and his hometown and the region have remembered him by naming items such as roads, banks, schools, golf courses and motels after him.
Dr. Perry said the revived focus on Johnson due to the recent impeachments led him to contemplate the way people have remembered the Civil War and Reconstruction era president. Another factor for him is the deep connection of Johnson to Greeneville, where Tusculum’s main campus is located.
His research will also benefit him in the classroom. Dr. Perry teaches a course at Tusculum on the Civil War and Reconstruction, and he will be able to share the additional information he gleans on Johnson with his students.
The UVA fellowship is the newest accomplishment for Dr. Perry. In 2019, he participated in a seminar at Yale University, led by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Blight, which explored the Civil War in American memory. He said that seminar helped plant the seed for today’s research on Johnson.
Wayne Thomas, dean of Tusculum’s College of Civic and Liberal Arts, said it is notable UVA and Yale have selected him for his continuing studies.
“Dr. Perry’s scholarship is impressive, and our students’ access to his growing expertise demonstrates the value of a Tusculum education,” Thomas said. “His selection of President Johnson as a research topic is germane to Tusculum because of our longtime connections to Greeneville and the rest of East Tennessee. We look forward to learning how the nation has viewed someone who had a front seat to some of the most significant events in our nation’s history.”
For more information about the university’s history program, please visit https://web.tusculum.edu/academics/programs/history/.