Synopses & Reviews
The first fully realized portrait of Abraham Lincoln’s ambitious and controversial early political career written by the “gifted young historian” (Richard Norton Smith) and author of
Founding Rivals. In 1847, Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington in near anonymity. After years of outmaneuvering political adversaries and leveraging friendships, he emerged the surprising victor of the Whig Party nomination, winning a seat in the House of Representatives. Yet following a divisive single term, he would return to Illinois with a damaged reputation, and no path forward in politics. Defeated, unpopular, and out of office, Lincoln now seemed worse off than when his journey began.
But what actually transpired between 1847 and 1849 revealed a man married to his political, moral, and ethical ideals. These were the defining years of a future president and the prelude to his singular role as the center of a gathering political storm. With keen insight into a side of Lincoln never so thoroughly researched, Chris DeRose explores this extraordinary, unpredictable, and oftentimes conflicted turning point in his career.
Drawing from the unpublished “Papers of Abraham Lincoln,” including 20,000 pre-presidential articles and a wealth of correspondence, and the secret diaries and private correspondence of Lincoln’s colleagues—many cited here for the first time—DeRose shows us a master strategist, a politician torn between principle and viability, and a man saddled with a tormented private life. Most vitally, he greatly expands our understanding of America’s greatest president in a biography as surprising, ambitious, and transcendent as its subject.
Synopsis
The first fully realized portrait of Abraham Lincoln s ambitious and controversial early political career written by the gifted young historian (Richard Norton Smith) and author of Founding Rivals.
Chris DeRose, the gifted young historian (Richard Norton Smith) who penned one of The Washington Post s Best Political Books with 2011 s Founding Rivals, draws from the unpublished Papers of Abraham Lincoln, and other rare sources, to deliver the first fully realized portrait of Lincoln s controversial early political career.
The years 1847 through 1849, though marked by defeat and divisiveness for Washington s newest arrival, ultimately defined Lincoln s future as president during America s darkest days. With keen insights sprung from his exhaustive research, DeRose portrays Congressman Lincoln as a leader torn between principle and viability, who once nearly dueled a political adversary; a master strategist and member of the Whig party; a reluctant husband saddled with a tormented private life; and more in a biography so timely and relevant that House Speaker John A. Boehner quoted Congressman Lincoln at length in a 2013 address to House Republicans, excerpting Lincoln s warnings about government debt growing with a rapidity fearful to contemplate. "
Synopsis
Chris DeRose, the “gifted young historian” (Richard Norton Smith) who penned one of
The Washington Post’s “Best Political Books” with 2011’s
Founding Rivals, draws from the unpublished “Papers of Abraham Lincoln,” and other rare sources, to deliver the first fully realized portrait of Lincoln’s controversial early political career.
The years 1847 through 1849, though marked by defeat and divisiveness for Washington’s newest arrival, ultimately defined Lincoln’s future as president during America’s darkest days. With keen insights sprung from his exhaustive research, DeRose portrays Congressman Lincoln as a leader torn between principle and viability, who once nearly dueled a political adversary; a master strategist and member of the Whig party; a reluctant husband saddled with a tormented private life; and more—in a biography so timely and relevant that House Speaker John A. Boehner quoted Congressman Lincoln at length in a 2013 address to House Republicans, excerpting Lincoln’s warnings about government debt “growing with a rapidity fearful to contemplate.”
About the Author
Chris DeRose is the author of Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe, the Bill of Rights, and the Election that Saved a Nation, named by The Washington Post as one of the “Best Political Books of 2011.” DeRose is an attorney and political strategist who, for the past fifteen years, has served in every capacity on campaigns up and down the ballot across five different states. Chris currently leads the Congressional efforts of Sheriff Paul Babeu, and has recently served Director of Election Day Operations for Bob McDonnell and the Virginia Republicans in their 2009 historic landslide victory, and as campaign manager for Congressman Sean Duffy.