Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War
By David Donald
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
The Puliter-Prize winning classic and national bestseller returns!In this brilliant biography—a Pulitzer Prize—winning national bestseller—David Herbert Donald, Harvard professor emeritus, traces Sumner's life as the nation careens toward civil war. In a period when senators often exercised more influence than presidents, Senator Charles Sumner was one of the most powerful forces in the American government and remains one of the most controversial figures in American history. His uncompromising moral standards made him a lightning rod in an era fraught with conflict.
Sumner's fight to end slavery made him a hero in the North and stirred outrage in the South. In what has been called the first blow of the Civil War, he was physically attacked by a colleague on the Senate floor. Unwavering and arrogant, Sumner refused to abandon the moral high ground, even if doing so meant the onslaught of the nation's most destructive war. He used his office and influence to transform the United States during the most contentious and violent period in the nation's history.
Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War presents a remarkably different view of our bloodiest war through an insightful reevaluation of the man who stood at its center.
"A truly perceptive study."
American Heritage
"Few books can be recommended wholeheartedly to the specialist and the general reader alike. This one can."
New York Times Book Review
"[Full of] Donald's unparalleled knowledge and provocative interpretations."
James M. McPherson, New York Times Book Review
David Donald
David Herbert Donald, who has twice been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, is Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of American Civilization Emeritus at Harvard University. His many books include Lincoln's Herndon, Lincoln Reconsidered, The Politics of Reconstruction, Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man, and Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe.
Related to Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War
Related ebooks
Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5General James Longstreet: The Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Day Dixie Died: The Battle of Atlanta Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Great Task Remaining: The Third Year of Lincoln's War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPatriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Battle of Hubbardton: The Rear Guard Action that Saved America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Aachen Memorandum Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoger B. Taney: Jacksonian Jurist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Republic in the Ranks: Loyalty and Dissent in the Army of the Potomac Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gale Researcher Guide for: The Lost Cause Mythology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World the Civil War Made Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51812: War and the Passions of Patriotism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Liberty's First Crisis: Adams, Jefferson, and the Misfits Who Saved Free Speech Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Master of War: The Life of General George H. Thomas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Populist: The Defiant Life of Andrew Jackson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All Roads Led to Gettysburg: A New Look at the Civil War's Pivotal Battle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAbraham Lincoln, 2nd Edition: Redeemer President Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Contested Loyalty: Debates over Patriotism in the Civil War North Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThrough the Heart of Dixie: Sherman's March and American Memory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWade Hampton III Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Struggle for a vast future: The American Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The American Republic: The Fourth Form Government Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNorthern Men with Southern Loyalties: The Democratic Party and the Sectional Crisis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWilliam F. Buckley Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Religion in America: A Political History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCampaigning With Grant [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
United States History For You
Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5U.S. History 101: Historic Events, Key People, Important Locations, and More! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5947 Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, by David Donald (read 17 Mar 1968) (Pulitzer Biography prize for 1961) This is a scholarly historical study. It takes Sumner from his birth in Boston in 1811 up to the beginning of the Civil War. I had recalled the assault on Sumner by Preston Brooks always horrified me and was incomprehensible. This book shows the context and makes it seem less hard to understand. Sumner was given to provocative speeches, and while essentially right, when I read this book I was getting conservative enough so as to feel his means extreme. Actually, the book is very objective and does not show Sumner in an exactly favorable light. I read the second volume of this two-volume biography on July 25, 1971.