Lincoln's Last Speech
Wartime Reconstruction and the Crisis of Reunion
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Lincoln's Last Speech
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Paul Aulridge Jr.
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By:
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Louis P. Masur
About this listen
What did Abraham Lincoln envision when he talked about "reconstruction"? Assassinated in 1865, the president did not have a chance to begin the work of reconciling the North and South nor to oversee reconstruction as an official postwar strategy. Yet his final speech, given to thousands gathered in the rain outside the White House on April 11, 1865, gives a clear indication of what Lincoln's postwar policy might have looked like - one that differed starkly from what would emerge in the tumultuous decade that followed.
In Lincoln's Last Speech, renowned historian and author Louis P. Masur offers insight into this critical address and its vision of a reconstructed United States. Coming two days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox and a week after the fall of Richmond, Lincoln's speech was expected to be a victory oration. Instead he looked to the future, discussing how best to restore the seceded states to the national government and even endorsing limited black suffrage.
Delving into the language and arguments of Lincoln's last address, Masur traces the theme of reconstruction as it developed throughout his presidency, starting with the very earliest days of the war. Masur illuminates the evolution of Lincoln's thinking and the national debate around reconstruction, touching on key moments such as the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction on December 8, 1863, and Lincoln's pocket veto of the Wade-Davis bill in July 1864. He also examines social reconstruction, including the plight of freed men and the debate over the place of blacks in society, and considers the implications of Lincoln's speech after April 1865, when Andrew Johnson assumed office and the ground was laid for the most radical phases of the postwar policy.
A nuanced study of Lincoln's views on national reconciliation, this work gives us a better understanding of the failures that occurred with postwar reconstruction.
©2015 Louis P. Masur (P)2016 Wetware MediaListeners also enjoyed...
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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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President Lincoln
- The Duty of a Statesman
- By: William Lee Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 19 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
The American president has come to be the most powerful figure in the world. And back in the 19th century, a great man held that office. William Lee Miller's new book closely examines that great man in that hugely important office: Abraham Lincoln as president.
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2 out of 5 stars
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An analysis of Lincoln's life, not a history
- By D. Rairigh on 05-24-09
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James Madison and the Making of America
- By: Kevin R. C. Gutzman
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 145
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 130
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Story4 out of 5 stars 127
In James Madison and the Making of America, historian Kevin Gutzman looks beyond the way James Madison is traditionally seen - as "The Father of the Constitution” - to find a more complex and sometimes contradictory portrait of this influential Founding Father and the ways in which he influenced the spirit of today's United States.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Not a traditional biography
- By David on 12-14-12
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Ratification
- The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788
- By: Pauline Maier
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 149
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 110
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 111
When the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia adjourned late in the summer of 1787, the delegates returned to their states to report on the new Constitution, which had to be ratified by specially elected conventions in at least nine states. Pauline Maier recounts the dramatic events of the ensuing debate in homes, taverns, and convention halls, drawing generously on the speeches and letters of founding fathers, both familiar and forgotten, on all sides.
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4 out of 5 stars
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History Always Repeats
- By Howard on 08-27-11
By: Pauline Maier
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Freedom National
- The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865
- By: James Oakes
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
The consensus view of the Civil War - that it was first and foremost a war to restore the Union, and an antislavery war only later when it became necessary for Union victory - dies here. James Oakes’s groundbreaking history shows how deftly Lincoln and congressional Republicans pursued antislavery throughout the war, pragmatic in policy but steadfast on principle. In the disloyal South the federal government quickly began freeing slaves, immediately and without slaveholder compensation, as they fled to Union lines.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Excellent Book on an Important and little understood subject
- By Dee M on 12-22-22
By: James Oakes
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Salmon P. Chase
- Lincoln's Vital Rival
- By: Walter Stahr
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 27 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Salmon P. Chase is best remembered as a rival of Lincoln’s for the Republican nomination in 1860—but there would not have been a national Republican Party, and Lincoln could not have won the presidency, were it not for the groundwork Chase laid over the previous two decades. Starting in the early 1840s, long before Lincoln was speaking out against slavery, Chase was forming and leading antislavery parties. He represented fugitive slaves so often in his law practice that he was known as the attorney general for runaway negroes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very inspiring and insightful
- By Mike Haverty on 06-20-23
By: Walter Stahr
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Seward
- Lincoln's Indispensable Man
- By: Walter Stahr
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 22 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 131
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 130
From one of our most acclaimed new biographers - the first full life of the leader of Lincoln’s "team of rivals" to appear in more than 40 years. William Henry Seward was one of the most important Americans of the 19th century. Progressive governor of New York and outspoken U.S. senator, he was the odds-on favorite to win the 1860 Republican nomination for president. As secretary of state and Lincoln’s closest adviser during the Civil War, Seward not only managed foreign affairs but had a substantial role in military, political, and personnel matters.
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4 out of 5 stars
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I Wish Doris Kearns Goodwin Had Written This
- By AR on 06-21-15
By: Walter Stahr
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Founding Rivals
- Madison vs. Monroe, the Bill of Rights, and the Election that Saved a Nation
- By: Chris DeRose
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
In 1789, James Madison and James Monroe ran against each other for Congress-the only time that two future presidents have contested a congressional seat. But what was at stake, as author Chris DeRose reveals in Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe, the Bill of Rights, and the Election That Saved a Nation, was more than personal ambition. This was a race that determined the future of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the very definition of the United States of America.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Must for Anyone Interested in the Constitution
- By Garshom L. Arkoff on 07-09-13
By: Chris DeRose
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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 Country of Vast Designs
- James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent
- By: Robert W. Merry
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 18 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 536
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 439
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 441
When James K. Polk was elected president in 1844, the United States was locked in a bitter diplomatic struggle with Britain over the rich lands of the Oregon Territory, which included what is now Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Texas, not yet part of the Union, was threatened by a more powerful Mexico. And the territories north and west of Texas---what would become California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and part of Colorado---belonged to Mexico.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A Decent Overview of Polk's Presidency
- By James on 06-20-10
By: Robert W. Merry
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The Summer of 1787
- By: David O Stewart
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
David O. Stewart presents this well-researched account of the U.S. Constitution's creation not as a dry analysis of events, but as a high-powered narrative filled with dramatic intensity and larger-than-life historical figures.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very well done!
- By Alan on 04-20-17
By: David O Stewart
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James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights
- By: Richard Labunski
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 220
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 127
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 127
Richard Labunski offers a dramatic account of a time when the entire American experiment hung in the balance, only to be saved by the most unlikely of heroes, the diminutive and exceedingly shy James Madison. Here is a vividly written account of not one, but several major political struggles that changed the course of American history.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Tedious
- By Adam Smith on 04-19-10
By: Richard Labunski
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Year of Meteors
- Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War
- By: Douglas R. Egerton
- Narrated by: Michael Scherer
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story5 out of 5 stars 33
In early 1860, pundits across America confidently predicted the election of Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas in the coming presidential race. Douglas, after all, led the only party that bridged North and South. But the Democrats would split over the issue of slavery, leading Southerners in the party to run their own presidential slate. This opened the door 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 39.8 percent of the popular vote.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent! Buy it today!
- By Anonymous User on 01-07-22
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James Madison
- A Life Reconsidered
- By: Lynne Cheney
- Narrated by: Eliza Foss
- Length: 18 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 722
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 651
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Story4 out of 5 stars 646
A major new biography of the fourth US president, from New York Times best-selling author Lynne Cheney. James Madison was a true genius of the early republic, the leader who did more than any other to create the nation we know today. This majestic new biography tells his story. Outwardly reserved, Madison was the intellectual driving force behind the Constitution. His visionary political philosophy was a crucial factor behind the Constitution’s ratification, and his political savvy was of major importance in getting the new government underway.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Great man, great ideas, muddling book
- By NDFletch on 06-13-15
By: Lynne Cheney
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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
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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