YEAR OF METEORS: STEPHEN DOUGLAS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, AND THE ELECTION THAT BROUGHT ON THE CIVIL WAR by Douglas R. Egerton
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Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War by Douglas R. Egerton
In early 1860, pundits and political operatives across America confidently predicted the victory of Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas in the coming presidential election. Douglas, after all, led the Democrats, the only party that bridged North and South.
But the Democracy would splinter over the issue of slavery, opening the way for the upstart Republicans, exclusively Northern, to steal the Oval Office. Dark horse Abraham Lincoln, not the first choice even of his own party, won the presidency with a record-low share of the popular vote. Year of Meteors re-creates the cascade of events that confounded political bosses, set North and South on the road to disunion, and put not Stephen Douglas, but his lifelong rival, in the White House.
Douglas R. Egerton chronicles the contest with a historian's deep insight and a veteran political reporter's eye for detail. In Egerton's telling, we can smell the freshly sawed lumber of Chicago's Wigwam meeting hall and feel the tension as ballots are counted. We see Lincoln -- inexperienced, yet canny -- and his team outmaneuvering far more famous Republicans, like New York's renowned senator William Seward; we see Democratic conventions collapse in confusion (twice). And we see the gifted, flawed Douglas marking his finest hour in defeat, working to exhaustion to save the Union even as the presidency slips from his grasp.
Finally, we come to understand how a skein of decision, each one small enough in itself, turned civil war from a worst-case scenario into an inevitability. Year of Meteors delivers a memorable cast of characters and a breakneck narrative of this most momentous year in American history.
Bloomsbury Press, Hardcover, 2010
This is a BRAND NEW book.
In early 1860, pundits and political operatives across America confidently predicted the victory of Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas in the coming presidential election. Douglas, after all, led the Democrats, the only party that bridged North and South.
But the Democracy would splinter over the issue of slavery, opening the way for the upstart Republicans, exclusively Northern, to steal the Oval Office. Dark horse Abraham Lincoln, not the first choice even of his own party, won the presidency with a record-low share of the popular vote. Year of Meteors re-creates the cascade of events that confounded political bosses, set North and South on the road to disunion, and put not Stephen Douglas, but his lifelong rival, in the White House.
Douglas R. Egerton chronicles the contest with a historian's deep insight and a veteran political reporter's eye for detail. In Egerton's telling, we can smell the freshly sawed lumber of Chicago's Wigwam meeting hall and feel the tension as ballots are counted. We see Lincoln -- inexperienced, yet canny -- and his team outmaneuvering far more famous Republicans, like New York's renowned senator William Seward; we see Democratic conventions collapse in confusion (twice). And we see the gifted, flawed Douglas marking his finest hour in defeat, working to exhaustion to save the Union even as the presidency slips from his grasp.
Finally, we come to understand how a skein of decision, each one small enough in itself, turned civil war from a worst-case scenario into an inevitability. Year of Meteors delivers a memorable cast of characters and a breakneck narrative of this most momentous year in American history.
Bloomsbury Press, Hardcover, 2010
This is a BRAND NEW book.
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