-
The Fiery Trial
- Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Politics & Activism
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $29.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Second Founding
- How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
- By: Eric Foner
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar, a timely history of the constitutional changes that built equality into the nation's foundation and how those guarantees have been shaken over time.
-
-
Excellent book - problematic narrator
- By Jennifer on 10-01-19
By: Eric Foner
-
Reconstruction
- America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877
- By: Eric Foner
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 30 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The period following the Civil War was one of the most controversial eras in American history. This comprehensive account of the period captures the drama of those turbulent years that played such an important role in shaping modern America.
-
-
Outdated edition!!
- By Bruce on 11-02-17
By: Eric Foner
-
The Internal Enemy
- Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832
- By: Alan Taylor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This searing story of slavery and freedom in the Chesapeake reveals the pivot in the nation’s path between the founding and civil war. Frederick Douglass recalled that slaves living along Chesapeake Bay longingly viewed sailing ships as "freedom’s swift-winged angels." In 1813 those angels appeared in the bay as British warships coming to punish the Americans for declaring war on the empire. Drawn from new sources, Alan Taylor's riveting narrative re-creates the events that inspired black Virginians, haunted slaveholders, and set the nation on a new and dangerous course.
-
-
This is everything historical nonfiction should be
- By Joe on 06-27-14
By: Alan Taylor
-
Empire of Liberty
- A History of the Early Republic
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 30 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Empire of Liberty, one of America's most esteemed historians, Gordon S. Wood, offers a brilliant account of the early American Republic, ranging from 1789 and the beginning of the national government to the end of the War of 1812. As Wood reveals, the period was marked by tumultuous change in all aspects of American life - in politics, society, economy, and culture.
-
-
Excellent historical writing
- By Joseph on 01-14-10
By: Gordon S. Wood
-
Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
- By: Allen C. Guelzo
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the acclaimed Civil War historian, a brilliant new history–the most intimate and richly readable account we have had–of the climactic three-day battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), which draws the reader into the heat, smoke, and grime of Gettysburg alongside the ordinary soldier, and depicts the combination of personalities and circumstances that produced the greatest battle of the Civil War, and one of the greatest in human history.
-
-
A Fresh Look at a Famous Battle
- By W. F. Rucker on 07-03-13
By: Allen C. Guelzo
-
Gateway to Freedom
- The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad
- By: Eric Foner
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom. They are little known to history: Sydney Howard Gay, an abolitionist newspaper editor; Louis Napoleon, a furniture polisher; Charles B. Ray, a black minister. At great risk they operated the Underground Railroad in New York, a city whose businesses, banks, and politics were deeply enmeshed in the slave economy.
-
-
Lincoln Rocky
- By Mohamed on 02-21-15
By: Eric Foner
-
The Second Founding
- How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
- By: Eric Foner
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar, a timely history of the constitutional changes that built equality into the nation's foundation and how those guarantees have been shaken over time.
-
-
Excellent book - problematic narrator
- By Jennifer on 10-01-19
By: Eric Foner
-
Reconstruction
- America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877
- By: Eric Foner
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 30 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The period following the Civil War was one of the most controversial eras in American history. This comprehensive account of the period captures the drama of those turbulent years that played such an important role in shaping modern America.
-
-
Outdated edition!!
- By Bruce on 11-02-17
By: Eric Foner
-
The Internal Enemy
- Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832
- By: Alan Taylor
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This searing story of slavery and freedom in the Chesapeake reveals the pivot in the nation’s path between the founding and civil war. Frederick Douglass recalled that slaves living along Chesapeake Bay longingly viewed sailing ships as "freedom’s swift-winged angels." In 1813 those angels appeared in the bay as British warships coming to punish the Americans for declaring war on the empire. Drawn from new sources, Alan Taylor's riveting narrative re-creates the events that inspired black Virginians, haunted slaveholders, and set the nation on a new and dangerous course.
-
-
This is everything historical nonfiction should be
- By Joe on 06-27-14
By: Alan Taylor
-
Empire of Liberty
- A History of the Early Republic
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 30 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Empire of Liberty, one of America's most esteemed historians, Gordon S. Wood, offers a brilliant account of the early American Republic, ranging from 1789 and the beginning of the national government to the end of the War of 1812. As Wood reveals, the period was marked by tumultuous change in all aspects of American life - in politics, society, economy, and culture.
-
-
Excellent historical writing
- By Joseph on 01-14-10
By: Gordon S. Wood
-
Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
- By: Allen C. Guelzo
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the acclaimed Civil War historian, a brilliant new history–the most intimate and richly readable account we have had–of the climactic three-day battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), which draws the reader into the heat, smoke, and grime of Gettysburg alongside the ordinary soldier, and depicts the combination of personalities and circumstances that produced the greatest battle of the Civil War, and one of the greatest in human history.
-
-
A Fresh Look at a Famous Battle
- By W. F. Rucker on 07-03-13
By: Allen C. Guelzo
-
Gateway to Freedom
- The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad
- By: Eric Foner
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom. They are little known to history: Sydney Howard Gay, an abolitionist newspaper editor; Louis Napoleon, a furniture polisher; Charles B. Ray, a black minister. At great risk they operated the Underground Railroad in New York, a city whose businesses, banks, and politics were deeply enmeshed in the slave economy.
-
-
Lincoln Rocky
- By Mohamed on 02-21-15
By: Eric Foner
-
The Great Upheaval
- America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800
- By: Jay Winik
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 31 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is an era that redefined history. As the 1790s began, a fragile America teetered on the brink of oblivion, Russia towered as a vast imperial power, and France plunged into revolution. But in contrast to the way conventional histories tell it, none of these remarkable events occurred in isolation.
-
-
I was crazy addicted to this book.
- By Daniel R McCloy on 12-06-17
By: Jay Winik
-
The End
- The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945
- By: Ian Kershaw
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating and original exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able to fight to the bitter end of World War II. Countless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lost World War II, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the equally vital question of how and why it was able to hold out as long as it did.
-
-
Recommend
- By L-3EW on 10-03-14
By: Ian Kershaw
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Listen with Caution
- By Michellerose on 05-11-21
By: James Oakes
-
Team of Rivals
- The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
- By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 41 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry. Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war.
-
-
Lincoln Comes Alive Through His Realtionships
- By Wolfpacker on 06-22-15
-
The Wars of the Roosevelts
- The Ruthless Rise of America's Greatest Political Family
- By: William J. Mann
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 21 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on previously hidden historical documents and interviews with the long-silent "illegitimate" branch of the family, William J. Mann paints an elegant, meticulously researched, and groundbreaking group portrait of this legendary family. Mann argues that the Roosevelts' rise to power and prestige was actually driven by a series of intense personal contests that at times devolved into blood sport. His compelling and eye-opening masterwork is the story of a family at war with itself, of social Darwinism at its most ruthless.
-
-
Saddened by Truth
- By Sarah Hajduk on 01-01-20
By: William J. Mann
-
The Impending Crisis
- America Before the Civil War: 1848-1861
- By: David M. Potter, Don E. Fehrenbacher
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 22 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is the definitive history of antebellum America. Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern secession.
-
-
Great History Book
- By Jose on 10-07-17
By: David M. Potter, and others
-
Revolutionary Summer
- The Birth of American Independence
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The summer months of 1776 witnessed the most consequential events in the story of our country’s founding. While the thirteen colonies came together and agreed to secede from the British Empire, the British were dispatching the largest armada ever to cross the Atlantic to crush the rebellion in the cradle. The Continental Congress and the Continental Army were forced to make decisions on the run, improvising as history congealed around them. In a brilliant and seamless narrative, Ellis meticulously examines the most influential figures in this propitious moment, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Britain’s Admiral Lord Richard and General William Howe. He weaves together the political and military experiences as two sides of a single story, and shows how events on one front influenced outcomes on the other.
Revolutionary Summer tells an old story in a new way, with a freshness at once colorful and compelling.
-
-
Excellent
- By Andrew on 12-18-18
By: Joseph J. Ellis
-
The Last 100 Days
- The Tumultuous and Controversial Story of the Final Days of World War II in Europe
- By: John Toland
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 27 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A dramatic countdown of the final months of World War II in Europe, The Last 100 Days brings to life the waning power and the ultimate submission of the Third Reich. To reconstruct the tumultuous hundred days between Yalta and the fall of Berlin, John Toland traveled more than 100,000 miles in twenty-one countries and interviewed more than six hundred people - from Hitler's personal chauffeur to Generals von Manteuffel, Wenck, and Heinrici.
-
-
More the sum of the parts
- By Mike From Mesa on 08-27-15
By: John Toland
-
Battle Cry of Freedom
- The Civil War Era
- By: James Macpherson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 39 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Battle Cry of Freedom vividly traces how a new nation was forged when a war both sides were sure would amount to little dragged for four years and cost more American lives than all other wars combined. Narrator Jonathan Davis powerful reading brings to life the many voices of the Civil War.
-
-
Excellent Book
- By J. Weston on 12-11-20
By: James Macpherson
-
To Hell and Back
- Europe 1914-1949
- By: Ian Kershaw
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 26 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The European catastrophe, the long continuous period from 1914 to1949, was unprecedented in human history - an extraordinarily dramatic, often traumatic, and endlessly fascinating period of upheaval and transformation.
-
-
Very good, well-educated reader/narrator.
- By M. MCCASKEY on 01-19-16
By: Ian Kershaw
-
The Enlightenment
- The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790
- By: Ritchie Robertson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 40 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magisterial history - sure to become the definitive work on the subject - recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit of practical means to achieve greater human happiness.
-
-
The quickest 40 hour audio book I’ve listen to
- By Joey Caster on 04-02-21
-
How the South Won the Civil War
- Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While the North prevailed in the Civil War, ending slavery and giving the country a "new birth of freedom," Heather Cox Richardson argues in this provocative work that democracy's blood-soaked victory was ephemeral. The system that had sustained the defeated South moved westward and there established a foothold. It was a natural fit. Settlers from the East had for decades been pushing into the West, where the seizure of Mexican lands at the end of the Mexican-American War and treatment of Native Americans cemented racial hierarchies....
-
-
A Concealed Story that Could Not be More Relevant
- By Ekim N. on 06-05-20
Publisher's Summary
Pulitzer Prize, History, 2011
In this landmark work of deep scholarship and insight, Eric Foner gives us the definitive history of Abraham Lincoln and the end of slavery in America. Foner begins with Lincoln's youth in Indiana and Illinois and follows the trajectory of his career across an increasingly tense and shifting political terrain from Illinois to Washington, D.C.
Although "naturally anti-slavery" for as long as he can remember, Lincoln scrupulously holds to the position that the Constitution protects the institution in the original slave states. But the political landscape is transformed in 1854 when the Kansas-Nebraska Act makes the expansion of slavery a national issue.
A man of considered words and deliberate actions, Lincoln navigates the dynamic politics deftly, taking measured steps, often along a path forged by abolitionists and radicals in his party. Lincoln rises to leadership in the new Republican Party by calibrating his politics to the broadest possible antislavery coalition. As president of a divided nation and commander in chief at war, displaying a similar compound of pragmatism and principle, Lincoln finally embraces what he calls the Civil War's "fundamental and astounding" result: the immediate, uncompensated abolition of slavery and recognition of Blacks as American citizens. Foner's Lincoln emerges as a leader, one whose greatness lies in his capacity for moral and political growth through real engagement with allies and critics alike. This powerful work will transform our understanding of the nation's greatest president and the issue that mattered most.
Critic Reviews
More from the same
What listeners say about The Fiery Trial
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- D. Littman
- 11-13-10
great book about slavery and lincoln
You would be justified if you thought there are too many books about the Civil War & about Lincoln. I believe there are more books about Lincoln than there are about any figure in the western canon. So I looked askance at yet another one. Since I had read 2 other excellent volumes by Foner, including one I highly recommend about reconstruction, I took the dive.
Foner has produced something unique here. He has followed the line of the history of antebellum racism and thought about slavery, in general, and Lincoln's thoughts and actions about it in particular. There may not be anything 100% new in the book, but the way it is all put in one place, chronologically and with ample evidence, is what makes it a valuable addition to history.
Lincoln was both a man of his time and a professional politician. That has to be the starting point for any discussion of his views and actions about slavery in the United States. As Foner makes clear, Lincoln always had an abhorrence of slavery and unpaid servitude in general. Which does not mean he was not a racist by our 21st century standards. Lincoln was not the most anti-slavery man, or politician of his time ... had he been so, we would not know his name today, because he never could have become so prominent in politics nor become president.
Foner's accomplishment is to show how Lincoln's views changed over his career. From someone not terribly concern about slavery (in the 1840s, for instance) but still against it, to someone increasing concerned about it (in the 1850s) but mainly in the context of territorial expansion, to someone who gradually recognized it as the central cause of the war between the states. Along the way, Lincoln did drag along some of his cherished (and now repudiated) ideas, like the idea of colonization (which he held until late in his presidency in some fashion). And a habit of demeaning blacks in his manner of talking (like using the n-word and telling jokes). Highly recommended.
46 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John David
- 08-24-18
Terrific book; Painful narration
The Fiery Trial is a valuable and very comprehensive review of the evolution of Lincoln's attitudes and positions on the issue of slavery and, to a lesser degree, race. Lincoln definitely grew over time, often forced by events. Foner's meticulous scholarship presents this fascinating and important process in broad scope as well as historical and personal context. The book demonstrates the remarkable duration of Lincoln's erroneous view that compensated emancipation and colonization could be a big part of the solution to America's founding problem. It also shows how Lincoln used public letters much as modern politicians use Twitter. The narration is not nearly as good as the book, however. One irritant is the reader's mispronunciation of Chief Justice Taney's name as "Tay-nee" rather than "Taw-nee." An even bigger annoyance is the voice the narrator uses when reading Lincoln's speeches. It is so awfully bad that it more than once nearly caused me to discontinue the book. I am glad I persevered, but if I ever return to the book it will be the print version. Maybe Lincoln sounded like that but, if so, it is a good thing radio and television had not yet been invented!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cynthia
- 07-29-13
Great Book about a Monstrous Injustice
When my son was in third grade, the class project was either George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. My son chose Lincoln, and we read the Emancipation Proclamation together. He was surprised that the January 1, 1863 Executive Order didn't actually free all slaves - it only freed those in Confederate states and territories. Almost a million slaves in the border states (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri) were still in bondage.
At the same age, I had imagined that Lincoln had freed the slaves all at once; and that on that very Happy New Year's Day, slaves left the kitchens and fields and went to live on 40 acres given to them by the government, plowing fields with a mule they received on the same day; and that they all voted in the next election. In my eight year old imagination, women voted too. I didn't learn for another year that women weren't guaranteed the right to vote until the 1920.
I explained, as we rolled newspapers into logs, stuck them onto a shoe box, and painted them with brown tempura paint to make a one room log cabin, that Lincoln did not want to have the border states secede. My son, at 8, was satisfied with the explanation. I wanted to learn more, though, and I am really glad that I found Eric Foner's "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery" (2010) and took the time to listen.
Lincoln described himself as always antislavery, but until nearly the end of his life, he did not believe Blacks and Whites were equal. However, he was an ardent supporter of the constitution, and decided that the phrase in the preamble that "all men are created equal" did not mean all men were the same (people have different abilities, look different, and so on), but rather, all men were equal because all were given the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Slavery denied those rights.
Foner thoroughly discusses the federal and state laws on slavery, and how Lincoln strategized to use those laws and his presidential power to achieve total abolition of slavery, posthumously, when the 13th Amendment was adopted 8 months after his assassination. Lincoln's political and legal strategy began as a gradual, compensated freeing of slaves. The federal government freed slaves in the District of Columbia in 1862, paying owners about $400 a slave. Public opinion on slavery changed so rapidly by the end of the Civil War in 1865, the vast majority of the Union supported abolition; and owners were not compensated when it happened. Lincoln also addressed other concerns, including the important issue of what to do with the freed people. He initially supported deportation to Liberia or South America, but abandoned that position because Lincoln's understanding of Blacks grew to encompass totally equality.
I can't help but wonder what would have happened if he had lived through his second term - or if the Republican Party had selected a competent and moral Vice President instead of Andrew Johnson. Instead, Johnson was the first president to be impeached.
As to the 40 acres and a mule, it wasn't a myth - but the slaves entitled to that were freed from the Indian Nations.
This is the third Audible book on Lincoln I've listened to. The first was Delores Kearns Goodwins' "Team of Rivals" (2005) followed by Joshua Wolf Shenk's "Lincoln's Melancholy" (2005). Both are quite good, and they do address the issue of slavery - but not in the legal and cultural context that "The Fiery Trial" does. This book is a fresh study of Lincoln, not a compilation of old research.
[If you found this review helpful please let me know by clicking the helpful button. Thanks!]
85 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gary
- 04-06-15
Context is everything, growth is a strength
Politics is the art of the possible. A perfect piece of art is the one in which no item could be added or subtracted from the canvas without making the picture less perfect. The author of this book has made the development of Lincoln's understanding of slavery like a perfect painting.
Lincoln is always ready to grow and revise his understanding of the 'peculiar institution'. He realizes that he can't get too far ahead of the people or the politics without marginalizing his ultimate objectives. For example, Lincoln fully believes the border states are vital for the success of the Union, and realizes their importance, "We want God on our side, but we must have Kentucky". He'll make political compromises in order to secure the border states while at the same time refining how he sees the moving parts that make up the issues of the time.
I just recently read the book, "What Had God Wrought", a history of America 1815-1848. From the book, it's clear that Slavery is the main character for American History during that time period. I wanted a book that filled in the period from after 1848 through the Civil War. This book, "Fiery Trial", does that superbly by showing how one man handled the question and how he led the change for the country as a whole and was always willing to grow and learn as the times would permit.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sher from Provo
- 06-12-11
Not an easy read but worth it
This is not an easy read but I'm really glad I stuck with it . I learned so much about Lincoln and his journey through the events leading up to the emancipation of the slaves and his conclusion that all men are created equal. What seems obvious to us was not obvious to people in the 1850s. Lincoln did a lot of growing, something that made him so dear to so many people. Listening to this book not only gave me great insight into the problems of the time and their arrempted solution that still affects our country today, but it also made me love Abe Lincoln more than I already did.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Rick Surles
- 06-17-20
Lincoln's evolution of thinking on abolition.
For all those who claim the civil war had nothing to do with slavery. Lincoln may have said that early on, but it seems like pure political obfuscation by his second inaugural address. Foner's research is deep, and his narrative is clear. The narrator does a good job in the presentation. Highly recommend this book.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Peter Riley
- 09-17-19
Outstanding!
Excellent analysis of Lincoln’s growth and change regarding his attitude towards slavery and abolition during he civil war. Very listenable audiobook read by Norman Dietz. If you want to dig deeper into the greatness of President Lincoln, don’t pass this book by.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Danny M.
- 12-19-11
Candid, fair, and sympathetic
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I recommend this title to history teachers, history fans, civil rights advocates and lawmakers. This is a candid account of how brilliant people with good intentions struggle to implement liberty in an imperfect world.
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
There were some awkward pronunciations. I was distracted by the narrator's pronunciation of the
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
At 18 hours, there was no way I could listen to this in one sitting. As a high school History teacher, it was helpful to take breaks and reflect on the content.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adam
- 09-29-11
Very good
This is a very good book, written with an elegant prose. The basic facts of this topic aren't much of a mystery, but there is a nuance to Lincoln's views that developed over the course of his life. It is this that helps shed light on what made Lincoln great. It is also a window into a particular aspect of the decades that ended in the Civil War that is not easy to find elsewhere. My only complaint is that some of the details seem to be repeated several times, which makes the book a little longer than it needs to be.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- edchair
- 05-21-11
Outstanding Portrait of Lincoln's Struggle
The author not only traces the significant historical events surrounding Lincoln and slavery, but he deftly provides historical perspective to help the reader understand Lincoln's struggle. The issue of slavery is so easy for us to condemn today, but Lincoln had to deal with the issue in the context of a civil war, the racism of his day, and his own developing ideas on slavery and race. Tracing Lincoln's struggle helps us trace America's struggle with this cruel practice that nearly tore the nation apart. It is a very good book.
5 people found this helpful