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Lincoln's Pathfinder
- John C. Fremont and the Violent Election of 1856
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
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Publisher's summary
The 1856 presidential race was the most violent peacetime election in American history. War between proslavery and antislavery settlers raged in Kansas, a congressman shot an Irish immigrant at a Washington hotel, and another congressman beat a US senator senseless on the floor of the Senate.
But amid all the violence, the campaign of the new Republican Party, headed by famed explorer John C. Fremont, offered a ray of hope: a major party dedicated to limiting the spread of slavery. For the first time, women and African Americans actively engaged in a presidential contest, and the candidate's wife, Jessie Benton Fremont, played a central role in both planning and executing strategy and was a public face of the campaign. Even enslaved blacks in the South took hope from Fremont's crusade.
The 1856 campaign was also run against the backdrop of a country on the move, with settlers continuing to spread westward facing unimagined horrors, a terrible natural disaster that took hundreds of lives in the South, and one of the most famous Supreme Court cases in history, which set the stage for the Civil War. Fremont lost, but his strong showing in the North proved that a sectional party could win a national election, blazing the trail for Abraham Lincoln's victory four years later.
Critic reviews
"Bob Souer offers an engaging reading of this audiobook.... This often overlooked period of U.S. history is brought to life in Bicknell's book, and Souer translates it to audio effectively." (AudioFile)
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- Jean
- 06-26-17
Fascinating
The first presidential election to feature a Republican candidate was in 1856. General John C. Fremont was the first Republican candidate for president of the newly created Republican Party. His opponents were James Buchanan of the Democratic party and Millard Fillmore of the American Party, also known as the Know Nothing Party.
The author states this 1856 presidential election year was the most violent in our history. The hostility between the proslavery and antislavery was becoming violent. The Kansas-Nebraska act erupted into a what is called bleeding Kansas. A congressman shot an Irish immigrant at a Washington Hotel. Another Senator beat a fellow senator senseless on the floor of the Senate.
General Fremont was a very popular candidate. For the first time, his wife played a central role in the campaign. Usually the wife stayed in the background even if they were active in their husband’s campaign. The violence was building in the Dred Scott v Sandford case and the Supreme Court came out with its verdict in 1857. As the violence was building and in spite of Fremont’s popularity, the votes started to turn. There was widespread feeling that things were falling apart and the voters turned to who they thought would be the safer choice, James Buchanan. Recently, I read a biography of Buchanan and it was stated he was the worst president we have had to date.
The book is well written and researched. The book is easy to read and provides a lot of details about the 1856 election. Bicknell does an excellent job explaining how events got elevated into political symbols. My only complaint is Bicknell did not have much detail about Fremont even thought he was the key figure in the book. Bicknell calls it a year of passion and partisanship.
The book is ten and a half hours long. Bob Souer does a good job narrating the book. Souer is voice over artist and audiobook narrator.
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- bergsteiger98b
- 09-05-19
about politics
i did learn something about how politics was done in the time before the civil war.
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Story
The first of a multivolume history of Lincoln as a political genius - from his obscure beginnings to his presidency, his assassination, and the overthrow of his post-Civil War dreams of Reconstruction. This first volume traces Lincoln from his painful youth, describing himself as "a slave", to his emergence as the man we recognize as Abraham Lincoln.
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I Can't Wait for Volume II!
- By NC-N-NC on 06-14-16
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Impeached
- The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy
- By: David O. Stewart
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1868 Congress impeached President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, the man who had succeeded the murdered Lincoln, bringing the nation to the brink of a second civil war. Enraged to see the freed slaves abandoned to brutal violence at the hands of their former owners, distraught that former rebels threatened to regain control of Southern state governments, and disgusted by Johnson's brawling political style, congressional Republicans seized on a legal technicality as the basis for impeachment - whether Johnson had the legal right to fire his own secretary of war, Edwin Stanton.
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Highly recommended
- By Eric on 12-12-19
By: David O. Stewart
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America's Great Debate
- Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise that Preserved the Union
- By: Fergus M. Bordewich
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 17 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The Mexican War introduced vast new territories into the United States, among them California and the present-day Southwest. When gold was discovered in California in the great Gold Rush of 1849, the population swelled, and settlers petitioned for admission to the Union. But the U.S. Senate was precariously balanced with 15 free states and 15 slave states. Up to this point, states had been admitted in pairs, one free and one slave, to preserve that tenuous balance in the Senate.
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Excellent. Very detailed. Entertaining.
- By Douglas on 03-03-18
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The First Congress
- How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government
- By: Fergus M. Bordewich
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The First Congress was the most important in US history, says prizewinning author and historian Fergus Bordewich, because it established how our government would actually function. Had it failed - as many at the time feared it would - it's possible that the United States as we know it would not exist today.
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Compelling
- By Jean on 03-05-18
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Henry Clay
- The Essential American
- By: David S. Heidler, Jeanne T. Heidler
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 30 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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He was the Great Compromiser, a canny and colorful legislator whose life mirrors the story of America from its founding until the eve of the Civil War. Speaker of the House, senator, secretary of state, five-time presidential candidate, and idol to the young Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay is captured in full at last in this rich and sweeping biography.
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"probably" "possibly" "maybe" "could have"
- By Thor Finn on 08-10-18
By: David S. Heidler, and others
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A Wicked War
- Polk, Clay, Lincoln and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico
- By: Amy S. Greenberg
- Narrated by: Caroline Shaffer
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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A Wicked War presents the definitive history of the 1846 war between the United States and Mexico - a conflict that turned America into a continental power. Amy Greenberg describes the battles between American and Mexican armies, but also delineates the political battles between Democrats and Whigs - the former led by the ruthless Polk, the latter by the charismatic Henry Clay and a young representative from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. Greenberg brilliantly recounts this key chapter in the creation of the United States authority and narrative flair.
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Rubbish Historical Work, Lots of Fake Stuff
- By Jose on 04-28-17
By: Amy S. Greenberg
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Jacksonland
- President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab
- By: Steve Inskeep
- Narrated by: Steve Inskeep
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Jacksonland is the thrilling narrative history of two men - President Andrew Jackson and Cherokee chief John Ross - who led their respective nations at a crossroads of American history. Five decades after the Revolutionary War, the United States approached a constitutional crisis. At its center stood two former military comrades locked in a struggle that tested the boundaries of our fledgling democracy. Jacksonland is their story.
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Fantastic and Thoughtful
- By Elizabeth Westbrook on 05-05-16
By: Steve Inskeep
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Seward
- Lincoln's Indispensable Man
- By: Walter Stahr
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 22 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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From one of our most acclaimed new biographers - the first full life of the leader of Lincoln’s "team of rivals" to appear in more than 40 years. William Henry Seward was one of the most important Americans of the 19th century. Progressive governor of New York and outspoken U.S. senator, he was the odds-on favorite to win the 1860 Republican nomination for president. As secretary of state and Lincoln’s closest adviser during the Civil War, Seward not only managed foreign affairs but had a substantial role in military, political, and personnel matters.
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I Wish Doris Kearns Goodwin Had Written This
- By AR on 06-21-15
By: Walter Stahr
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The Woman's Hour
- The Great Fight to Win the Vote
- By: Elaine Weiss
- Narrated by: Elaine Weiss, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, 12 have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state is needed. It all comes down to Tennessee, the moment of truth for the suffragists, after a seven-decade crusade. The opposing forces include politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and a lot of racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis" - women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation.
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Good book, poor choice of reader
- By Amazon Customer on 05-24-18
By: Elaine Weiss
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Team of Rivals
- The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
- By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 41 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Beautiful, Heartbreaking, and Informative
- By JJ on 09-10-12
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Year of Meteors
- Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War
- By: Douglas R. Egerton
- Narrated by: Michael Scherer
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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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 of slavery, 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.
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Excellent! Buy it today!
- By Anonymous User on 01-07-22