Lincoln and the Decision for War
The Northern Response to Secession
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Lincoln and the Decision for War
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Narrated by:
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David Zinn
About this listen
When Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860 prompted several Southern states to secede, the North was sharply divided over how to respond. In this groundbreaking audiobook, the first major study in over 50 years of how the North handled the secession crisis, McClintock follows the decision-making process from bitter partisan rancor to consensus. From small towns to big cities and from state capitals to Washington, D.C., McClintock highlights individuals both powerful and obscure to demonstrate the ways ordinary citizens, party activists, state officials, and national leaders interacted to influence the Northern response to what was essentially a political crisis. He argues that although Northerners' reactions to Southern secession were understood and expressed through partisan newspapers and officials, the decision fell into the hands of an ever-smaller handful of people until finally it was Abraham Lincoln alone who would choose whether the future of the American republic was to be determined through peace or a sword.
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John Tyler, the Accidental President
- By: Edward P. Crapol
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 184
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 167
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Story4 out of 5 stars 166
The first vice president to become president on the death of the incumbent, John Tyler (1790-1862) was derided by critics as "His Accidency." In this biography of the 10th president, Edward P. Crapol challenges depictions of Tyler as a die-hard advocate of states' rights, limited government, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. Instead, he argues, Tyler manipulated the Constitution to increase the executive power of the presidency. Crapol also highlights Tyler's faith in America's national destiny and his belief in boundless territorial expansion.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Terrible book :( Incredibly TEDIOUS.
- By Mike on 10-02-19
By: Edward P. Crapol
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James Madison
- America's First Politician
- By: Jay Cost
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 107
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
How do you solve a problem like James Madison? The fourth president is one of the most confounding figures in early American history; his political trajectory seems almost intentionally inconsistent. He was both for and against a strong federal government. He wrote about the dangers of political parties in the Federalist Papers and then helped to found the Republican Party just a few years later. This so-called Madison problem has occupied scholars for ages.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good listen
- By James Shannon on 06-27-22
By: Jay Cost
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The Broken Constitution
- Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America
- By: Noah Feldman
- Narrated by: Noah Feldman
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 74
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Story5 out of 5 stars 72
Abraham Lincoln is justly revered for his brilliance, compassion, humor, and rededication of the United States to achieving liberty and justice for all. He led the nation into a bloody civil war to uphold the system of government established by the US Constitution - a system he regarded as the “last best hope of mankind”. But how did Lincoln understand the Constitution?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Takes you to Lincoln’s time for a new understanding
- By Jason Cecil on 12-22-21
By: Noah Feldman
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Fears of a Setting Sun
- The Disillusionment of America's Founders
- By: Dennis C. Rasmussen
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 93
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
Americans seldom deify their Founding Fathers any longer, but they do still tend to venerate the Constitution and the republican government that the founders created. Strikingly, the founders themselves were far less confident in what they had wrought, particularly by the end of their lives. In fact, most of them - including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson - came to deem America's constitutional experiment an utter failure that was unlikely to last beyond their own generation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A different perspective on the founders
- By kpa on 03-04-24
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American Creation
- Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 270
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 149
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 148
From the first shots fired at Lexington to the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase, Joseph J. Ellis guides us through the decisive issues of the nation's founding, and illuminates the emerging philosophies, shifting alliances, and personal and political foibles of our now iconic leaders: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and Adams.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good But Not Quite There
- By Slide01 on 06-02-13
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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The Cabinet
- George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution
- By: Lindsay M. Chervinsky
- Narrated by: Janet Metzger
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
On November 26, 1791, George Washington convened his department secretaries - Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph - for the first cabinet meeting. Why did he wait two and a half years into his presidency to call his cabinet? Because the US Constitution did not create or provide for such a body. Washington was on his own.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An outstanding read
- By D. Littman on 04-19-20
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A Leap in the Dark
- The Struggle to Create the American Republic
- By: John Ferling
- Narrated by: Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff
- Length: 23 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 77
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 71
It was an age of fascinating leaders and difficult choices, of grand ideas eloquently expressed and of epic conflicts bitterly fought. Now comes a brilliant portrait of the American Revolution, one that is compelling in its prose, fascinating in its details, and provocative in its fresh interpretations.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved every minute!
- By Richard on 03-03-15
By: John Ferling
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Break It Up
- Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union
- By: Richard Kreitner
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 56
The novel and fiery thesis of Break It Up is simple: the United States has never lived up to its name - and never will. The disunionist impulse may have found its greatest expression in the Civil War, but as Break It Up shows, the seduction of secession wasn't limited to the South or the 19th century. With a scholar's command and a journalist's curiosity, Kreitner takes readers on a revolutionary journey through American history, revealing the power and persistence of disunion movements in every era and region.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Completely Partisan
- By Patrick Tobin on 11-06-22
By: Richard Kreitner
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The Three Lives of James Madison
- Genius, Partisan, President
- By: Noah Feldman
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 34 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 528
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 470
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 468
Over the course of his life, James Madison changed the United States three times: First, he designed the Constitution, led the struggle for its adoption and ratification, then drafted the Bill of Rights. As an older, cannier politician, he cofounded the original Republican party, setting the course of American political partisanship. Finally, having pioneered a foreign policy based on economic sanctions, he took the United States into a high-risk conflict, becoming the first wartime president and, despite the odds, winning.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Cogently organized, meticulously balanced
- By Diana Black Kennedy on 06-15-18
By: Noah Feldman
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Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America
- A Biography
- By: William E. Gienapp
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
In Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America, historian William Gienapp provides a remarkably concise, up-to-date, and vibrant biography of the most revered figure in United States history. While the heart of the book focuses on the Civil War, Gienapp begins with a finely etched portrait of Lincoln's early life, from pioneer farm boy to politician and lawyer in Springfield, to his stunning election as 16th president of the United States. Students will see how Lincoln grew during his years in office and much more.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A great man we could use in the current political climate.
- By dts67 on 01-30-24
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The Birth of Modern Politics
- Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828
- By: Lynn Hudson Parson
- Narrated by: Milton Bagby
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 85
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4 out of 5 stars 66
The 1828 presidential election, which pitted Major General Andrew Jackson against incumbent John Quincy Adams, has long been hailed as a watershed moment in American political history. It was the contest in which an unlettered, hot-tempered southwestern frontiersman, trumpeted by his supporters as a genuine man of the people, soundly defeated a New England "aristocrat" whose education and political resume were as impressive as any ever seen in American public life.
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4 out of 5 stars
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a very good popular history book
- By D. Littman on 01-29-10
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A Magnificent Catastrophe
- The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign
- By: Edward J. Larson
- Narrated by: John Dossett
- Length: 6 hrs
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4 out of 5 stars 46
A Magnificent Catastrophe tells the story of the most perverse, bizarre, nail-biting, and influential election battle ever in U.S. history: America's first true presidential campaign, and a contest so important to the future of the country that Jefferson referred to it as "the second American Revolution" because the outcome resolved so much unfinished business about just what kind of government we would have. This election in many ways determined just how democratic a country we would be.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Get this if you have to use it for a class!!!
- By Gabriel on 03-03-17
By: Edward J. Larson
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Congress at War
- How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America
- By: Fergus M. Bordewich
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story5 out of 5 stars 34
Building a riveting narrative around four influential members of Congress - Thaddeus Stevens, Pitt Fessenden, Ben Wade, and the pro-slavery Clement Vallandigham - Fergus Bordewich shows us how a newly empowered Republican party shaped one of the most dynamic and consequential periods in American history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating read!
- By Lisa Balestrini on 09-12-20
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Plain, Honest Men
- The Making of the American Constitution
- By: Richard Beeman
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 19 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 213
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 163
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 161
The Constitutional Convention affected nothing less than a revolution in the nature of the American government. Led by James Madison, a small cohort of delegates devised a plan that would radically alter the balance of power between state and national governments, and then sprung that idea on a largely unsuspecting convention.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Grand Narrative
- By Maddie49 on 10-12-11
By: Richard Beeman