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All the powers of Earth : the political life of Abraham Lincoln, 1856-1860 / Sidney Blumenthal.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Blumenthal, Sidney, 1948- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.
- Lincoln, Abraham.
- Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865--Political and social views.
- Political and social views.
- Presidents--United States--Biography.
- Presidents.
- Lawyers.
- United States.
- Illinois--Springfield.
- Lawyers--Illinois--Springfield--Biography.
- United States--Politics and government--1815-1861.
- Politics and government.
- Illinois--Politics and government--To 1865.
- Illinois.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Physical Description:
- xxii, 758 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
- Edition:
- First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
- Other Title:
- Abraham Lincoln
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Simon & Schuster, 2019.
- Summary:
- "After a period of depression that he would ever find his way to greatness, Lincoln takes on the most powerful demagogue in the country, Stephen Douglas, in the debates for a senate seat. He sidelines the frontrunner William Seward, a former governor and senator for New York, to cinch the new Republican Party's nomination. All the Powers of Earth is the political story of all time. Lincoln achieves the presidency by force of strategy, of political savvy and determination. This is Abraham Lincoln, who indisputably becomes the greatest president and moral leader in the nation's history. But he must first build a new political party, brilliantly state the anti-slavery case and overcome shattering defeat to win the presidency. In the years of civil war to follow, he will show mightily that the nation was right to bet on him. He was its preserver, a politician of moral integrity."--Amazon.com.
- "A multi-volume history of Lincoln as a political genius--from his obscure beginnings to his presidency, assassination, and the overthrow of his post-Civil War dreams of Reconstruction. The first volume traces Lincoln from his painful youth, describing himself as 'a slave, ' to his emergence as the man we recognize as Abraham Lincoln. From his youth as a 'newsboy, ' a voracious newspaper reader, Lincoln became a free thinker, reading Tom Paine, as well as Shakespeare and the Bible, and studying Euclid to sharpen his arguments as a lawyer. Lincoln's anti-slavery thinking began in his childhood amidst the Primitive Baptist antislavery dissidents in backwoods Kentucky and Indiana, the roots of his repudiation of Southern Christian pro-slavery theology. Intensely ambitious, he held political aspirations from his earliest years. Obsessed with Stephen Douglas, his political rival, he battled him for decades. Successful as a circuit lawyer, Lincoln built his team of loyalists. Blumenthal reveals how Douglas and Jefferson Davis acting together made possible Lincoln's rise. Blumenthal describes a socially awkward suitor who had a nervous breakdown over his inability to deal with the opposite sex. His marriage to the upper class Mary Todd was crucial to his social aspirations and his political career. Blumenthal portrays Mary as an asset to her husband, a rare woman of her day with strong political opinions. He discloses the impact on Lincoln's anti-slavery convictions when handling his wife's legal case to recover her father's fortune in which he discovered her cousin was a slave. Blumenthal's robust portrayal is based on prodigious research of Lincoln's record and of the period and its main players. It reflects both Lincoln's time and the struggle that consumes our own political debate"-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- Things fall apart
- Vaulting ambition
- The spirit of violence
- War to the knife
- The puritan as prophet
- Cyclops
- A voice from the grave
- The harlot slavery
- The assassination of Charles Sumner
- Arguments of the chivalry
- Exterminating angel
- Democracy in America
- Creation
- Miss Fancy
- The forbidden word
- Vice president Lincoln
- The birther campaign
- The great awakening
- The white man
- All the powers of Earth
- The wizard of Mississippi
- The unmasking of the president
- A house divided
- The higher object
- The moral lights
- The phoenix
- Icarus
- This guilty land
- Witch Hunt
- Right makes might
- Walpurgisnacht
- The railsplitter
- The wigwam
- A fallen star
- Wide-awake.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 635-719) and index.
- ISBN:
- 9781476777283
- 1476777284
- OCLC:
- 1114308288
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