It remains without question the most memorable and memorized speech in American history. In 272 words, spoken on November 19, 1863, among the freshly dug graves of the Union dead at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Abraham Lincoln evoked and distilled the profound significance of the t…
Examines the case of the steamboat Effie Afton, which barreled into a pillar of the Rock Island Bridge in May of 1856, and the role of trial lawyer Abraham Lincoln.
"Now, perhaps, only those enmeshed in 19th-century American history know his name; but when John Hay died in 1905, he was one of the most famous men in the world. And one of the most highly regarded. Abraham Lincoln's private secretary during the Civil War, thereafter as a popul…
Prelude: an inheritance of slavery -- The nation's conflict over slavery in miniature: Illinois, 1818-1824 -- Democrats, Whigs, and party conflict, 1825-1842 -- Manifest Destiny, slavery, and the rupture of the Democratic Party, 1843-1847 -- Advocates for an antislavery nation, …
"Volume II of Sidney Blumenthal's acclaimed, landmark biography, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, reveals the future president's genius during the most decisive period of his political life when he seizes the moment, finds his voice, and helps create a new political party.…
"Three political leaders presided over the reshaping of the North American continent during the fiery 1860s. Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln were both born in Kentucky, Davis in June 1808 and Lincoln the following February. John A. Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in…
Evaluates Lincoln's talents as a commander in chief in spite of limited military experience, tracing the ways in which he worked with, or against, his senior commanders to defeat the Confederacy and reshape the presidential role