"Coup is the behind-the-scenes story of a day that was not supposed to happen in America--the abrupt transition from one Governor to the next--that did happen in Tennessee in January 1979. It was unprecedented in American history, made national headlines, and stunned the political power structure in the home state of Andrew Jackson, Estes Kefauver, Howard Baker, and Al Gore. The sudden transfer of power that surprised the sitting Governor, Ray Blanton, was deemed necessary because of what one F.B.I. agent called 'the state's most heinous political crime in half a century'--a scheme of selling pardons for cash. Senior Democratic leaders who were friends of the sitting governor, together with the Republican governor-elect (now U.S. Senator from Tennessee), agreed to oust Blanton from office before another night fell. It was a maneuver unique in American history. Coup is the true story of how that fateful day and evening unfolded, how the unprecedented decision was made, who made it, and the myriad paths they individually had traveled to be in their positions of power. The Expanded edition includes a newly unearthed first-person account of the coup by Senator Lamar Alexander himself, written only five years after the events occurred"--Provided by publisher.