Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War

Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War
Douglas R Egerton (Author)
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Review & Description

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 ofslavery,
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.

Acclaimed scholar Douglas R. Egerton
chronicles the contest with a historian's keen insight and a veteran
political reporter's eye for detail. Vividly, Egerton re-creates the
cascade of unforeseen events that confounded political bosses, set North
and South on the road to disunion, and put not Stephen Douglas, but his
greatest rival, in the White House.

We see Lincoln and his team
outmaneuvering more prominent Republicans, like New York's grandiose
William Seward, while Democratic conventions collapse in confusion. And
we see the gifted, flawed Douglas marking his finest hour in defeat, as
he strives, and fails, to save the Union. Year of Meteors
delivers a teeming cast of characters, minor and major, and a breakneck
narrative of this most momentous year in American history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #205 in eBooks
• Published on: 2010-10-04
• Released on: 2010-10-04
• Format: Kindle eBook
• Number of items: 1