Lincoln on the Verge, Ted Widmer
Lincoln on the Verge, Ted Widmer
5 Rating(s)
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
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Lincoln on the Verge
Thirteen Days to Washington

Author: Ted Widmer, Ted Widmer

Narrator: Fred Sanders

Unabridged: 16 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/07/2020

Synopsis

WINNER OF THE LINCOLN FORUM BOOK PRIZE

“A Lincoln classic...superb.” ­—The Washington Post

“A book for our time.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin

Lincoln on the Verge tells the dramatic story of America’s greatest president discovering his own strength to save the Republic.

As a divided nation plunges into the deepest crisis in its history, Abraham Lincoln boards a train for Washington and his inauguration—an inauguration Southerners have vowed to prevent. Lincoln on the Verge charts these pivotal thirteen days of travel, as Lincoln discovers his power, speaks directly to the public, and sees his country up close. Drawing on new research, this riveting account reveals the president-elect as a work in progress, showing him on the verge of greatness, as he foils an assassination attempt, forges an unbreakable bond with the American people, and overcomes formidable obstacles in order to take his oath of office.

About Ted Widmer

Ted Widmer is Distinguished Lecturer at Macaulay Honors College (CUNY). In addition to his teaching, he writes actively about American history in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and other venues. He has also taught or directed research centers at Harvard University, Brown University, and Washington College. He grew up in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and attended Harvard University.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on June 23, 2022

I read Ted Widmer’s Martin Van Buren last year and, even accounting for the fact that it was supposed to be an accessible, easy-reading entry in the American Presidents series, I thought it was one of the worst presidential biographies I’d ever read. So, even though this seemingly more thoughtful and......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on September 11, 2020

I guess I picked up this book soon after I finished the Lincoln Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer. I figured more on the subject of Lincoln's journey to Washington was needed before I was fully willing to credit some scholarly scuttlebutt I had come across about threats to Lincoln on his journey. More scho......more

Goodreads review by Steven on May 05, 2020

The French writer, Alexis de Tocqueville described America as enduring a “quadrennial crisis” every four years as it held its presidential elections. The 1860 election was an exception because the artificial passions that were easily stoked reached unheard of levels. de Tocqueville remarked that “a......more

Goodreads review by Jon on December 06, 2020

It is said that outside of Jesus Christ and Napoleon, no one in western history has been written more about than that of Abraham Lincoln.  After thousands of books on the man and his life, what more can be said?  What new angles can be examined? Ted Widmer vividly focuses on just thirteen perilous d......more

Goodreads review by David on August 28, 2023

Distinguished lecturer and prolific writer Ted Widmer pens what is certainly one of the best Lincoln books of the year. The focus is on the thirteen days Abraham Lincoln traveled from Springfield, Illinois to Washington in time for his first inauguration. All told, Lincoln traveled 1,904 miles, taki......more

Quotes

"Using a thoughtful and measured cadence, narrator Fred Sanders invites the listener to climb aboard the Presidential Special—the train that in February 1861 carried President-Elect Abraham Lincoln and his family from Springfield, Illinois, across eight states and countless whistle-stops to Washington, DC, for his first inauguration. Drawing from the author's 10 years of painstaking research, the audiobook covers the good and the bad about Lincoln's psyche, closest friends, and most vicious foes, as well as a fast-growing country that could no longer ignore its most horrific failure—slavery. The author himself delivers the last chapter and notes that after making 101 extemporaneous speeches and avoiding an assassination attempt, by the time Lincoln arrived in the nation's capital, there was no question he was right where he belonged."

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