Wrestling With His Angel: The Political Lifetime of Abraham Lincoln Vol. II, 1849-1856 (2)

The “magisterial” (
The New York Occasions E book Evaluate) second quantity of Sidney Blumenthal’s acclaimed, landmark biography,
The Political Lifetime of Abraham Lincoln, reveals the longer term president’s genius throughout essentially the most decisive interval of his political life when he seizes the second, finds his voice, and helps create a brand new political social gathering.

In 1849, Abraham Lincoln appears condemned to political isolation and defeat. His Whig Celebration is damaged within the 1852 election, and disintegrates. His perennial rival, Stephen Douglas, forges an alliance with the Southern senators and Secretary of Warfare Jefferson Davis. Violent wrestle breaks out on the plains of Kansas, a prelude to the Civil Warfare.

Lincoln rises to the event. Solely he can tackle Douglas in Illinois. He lastly delivers the dramatic speech that leaves observers shocked. In 1855, he makes a race for the Senate towards Douglas, which he loses when he throws his assist to a rival to forestall the election of a proslavery candidate. In
Wrestling With His Angel, Sidney Blumenthal explains how Lincoln and his associates function behind the scenes to destroy the anti-immigrant social gathering in Illinois to clear the way in which for a brand new Republican Celebration. Lincoln takes command and writes its first platform and vaults onto the nationwide stage because the chief of a celebration that can launch him to the presidency.

The
Washington Month-to-month hailed Blumenthal’s Quantity I as, “splendid…nobody can come away from studying
A Self-Made Man with out eagerly anticipating the following volumes.” Pulitzer Prize–profitable writer Diane McWhorter hailed Quantity II as “dramatic narrative historical past, prophetic and intimate.”
Wrestling With His Angel brings Lincoln from the wilderness to the height of his profession as he’s decided to enter into the battle for the nation’s soul and to win it for democracy.