America's Original Sin
White Supremacy, John Wilkes Booth, and the Lincoln Assassination
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Donald Corren
-
By:
-
John Rhodehamel
About this listen
On April 14, 1865, after nearly a year of conspiring, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln as the president watched a production of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre. Lincoln died the next morning. Twelve days later, Booth himself was fatally shot by a Union soldier after an extensive manhunt. The basic outline of this story is well known even to schoolchildren; what has been obscured is Booth’s motivation for the act, which remains widely misunderstood nearly 160 years after the shot from his pocket pistol echoed through the crowded theater.
In this riveting new book, John Rhodehamel argues that Booth’s primary motivation for his heinous crime was a growing commitment to white supremacy. In alternating chapters, America’s Original Sin shows how, as Lincoln’s commitment to emancipation grew, so too did Booth’s rage and hatred for Lincoln, whom he referred to as “King Abraham Africanus the First.” Examining Booth’s early life in Maryland, Rhodehamel traces the evolution of his racial hatred from his youthful embrace of white supremacy to his final act of murder. Along the way, Rhodehamel considers and discards other potential motivations for Booth’s act, such as mental illness or persistent drunkenness, which are all, he writes, either insufficient to explain Booth’s actions or were excuses made after the fact by those who sympathized with him. Focusing on how white supremacy brought about the Civil War and, later, betrayed the conflict’s emancipationist legacy, Rhodehamel’s masterful narrative makes this old story seem new again.
The first book to explicitly name white supremacy as the motivation for Lincoln’s assassination, America’s Original Sin is an important and eloquent look at one of the most notorious episodes in American history.
©2021 John Rhodehamel (P)2021 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Every Drop of Blood
- Hatred and Healing at Lincoln's Second Inauguration
- By: Edward Achorn
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By March 4, 1865, the Civil War had slaughtered more than 700,000 Americans. After a morning of rain-drenched fury, tens of thousands crowded Washington’s Capitol grounds that day to see Abraham Lincoln take the oath for a second term. As the sun emerged, Lincoln rose to give perhaps the greatest inaugural address in American history, stunning the nation by arguing, in a brief 701 words, that both sides had been wrong, and that the war’s unimaginable horrors - every drop of blood spilled - might well have been God’s just verdict on the national sin of slavery.
-
-
New and fascinating
- By Clark Booth on 07-19-20
By: Edward Achorn
-
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
- By: Beverly Gage
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 36 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Jessica Armas on 12-06-22
By: Beverly Gage
-
Myth America
- Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past
- By: Kevin M. Kruse, Julian E. Zelizer
- Narrated by: Allan Aquino, Maleah Woodley, Todd Menesses, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts, making constructive dialogue impossible and imperiling our democracy. In Myth America, Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation.
-
-
Right Wing Bashing book!! Aka a History Book
- By amy on 02-08-23
By: Kevin M. Kruse, and others
-
Benjamin Franklin Butler
- A Noisy, Fearless Life
- By: Elizabeth D. Leonard
- Narrated by: Justin Price
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benjamin Franklin Butler was one of the most important and controversial military and political leaders of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Remembered most often for his uncompromising administration of the federal occupation of New Orleans during the war, Butler reemerges in this lively narrative as a man whose journey took him from childhood destitution to wealth and profound influence in state and national halls of power. Leonard's nuanced portrait peels away generations of previous assumptions and characterizations to provide a definitive life of a consequential man.
-
-
Much Needed Reexamination of Benjamin Butler
- By Zachary Miller on 02-13-23
-
And There Was Light
- Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Jon Meacham
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations. This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end.
-
-
A Winner
- By Diane Moore on 10-31-22
By: Jon Meacham
-
How the Word Is Passed
- A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
- By: Clint Smith
- Narrated by: Clint Smith
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the listener on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.
-
-
Sincerely grateful read
- By Kelvin Dixon on 06-08-21
By: Clint Smith
-
Every Drop of Blood
- Hatred and Healing at Lincoln's Second Inauguration
- By: Edward Achorn
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By March 4, 1865, the Civil War had slaughtered more than 700,000 Americans. After a morning of rain-drenched fury, tens of thousands crowded Washington’s Capitol grounds that day to see Abraham Lincoln take the oath for a second term. As the sun emerged, Lincoln rose to give perhaps the greatest inaugural address in American history, stunning the nation by arguing, in a brief 701 words, that both sides had been wrong, and that the war’s unimaginable horrors - every drop of blood spilled - might well have been God’s just verdict on the national sin of slavery.
-
-
New and fascinating
- By Clark Booth on 07-19-20
By: Edward Achorn
-
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
- By: Beverly Gage
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 36 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Jessica Armas on 12-06-22
By: Beverly Gage
-
Myth America
- Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past
- By: Kevin M. Kruse, Julian E. Zelizer
- Narrated by: Allan Aquino, Maleah Woodley, Todd Menesses, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts, making constructive dialogue impossible and imperiling our democracy. In Myth America, Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation.
-
-
Right Wing Bashing book!! Aka a History Book
- By amy on 02-08-23
By: Kevin M. Kruse, and others
-
Benjamin Franklin Butler
- A Noisy, Fearless Life
- By: Elizabeth D. Leonard
- Narrated by: Justin Price
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benjamin Franklin Butler was one of the most important and controversial military and political leaders of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Remembered most often for his uncompromising administration of the federal occupation of New Orleans during the war, Butler reemerges in this lively narrative as a man whose journey took him from childhood destitution to wealth and profound influence in state and national halls of power. Leonard's nuanced portrait peels away generations of previous assumptions and characterizations to provide a definitive life of a consequential man.
-
-
Much Needed Reexamination of Benjamin Butler
- By Zachary Miller on 02-13-23
-
And There Was Light
- Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Jon Meacham
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations. This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end.
-
-
A Winner
- By Diane Moore on 10-31-22
By: Jon Meacham
-
How the Word Is Passed
- A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
- By: Clint Smith
- Narrated by: Clint Smith
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the listener on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.
-
-
Sincerely grateful read
- By Kelvin Dixon on 06-08-21
By: Clint Smith
-
Manhunt
- The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
- By: James L. Swanson
- Narrated by: Richard Thomas
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history, the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild 12-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness.
-
-
Fascinating!
- By F. Elizabeth Hauser on 12-14-08
By: James L. Swanson
-
Battle Cry of Freedom
- The Civil War Era
- By: James M. McPherson
- 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
-
Jesus and John Wayne
- How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
- By: Kristin Kobes du Mez
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did a libertine who lacks even the most basic knowledge of the Christian faith win 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016? And why have white evangelicals become a presidential reprobate's staunchest supporters? Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping account of the last 75 years of white evangelicalism, showing how American evangelicals have worked for decades to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism.
-
-
Like reading a history of my evangelical life
- By Renee on 10-15-20
-
Grant
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 48 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Chernow reveals in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency.
-
-
Excellent Book (BUT WHERE IS THE PDF FILES)????
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-17
By: Ron Chernow
-
Salmon P. Chase
- Lincoln's Vital Rival
- By: Walter Stahr
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 27 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Salmon P. Chase is best remembered as a rival of Lincoln’s for the Republican nomination in 1860—but there would not have been a national Republican Party, and Lincoln could not have won the presidency, were it not for the groundwork Chase laid over the previous two decades. Starting in the early 1840s, long before Lincoln was speaking out against slavery, Chase was forming and leading antislavery parties. He represented fugitive slaves so often in his law practice that he was known as the attorney general for runaway negroes.
-
-
Very inspiring and insightful
- By Mike Haverty on 06-20-23
By: Walter Stahr
-
Waco
- David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage
- By: Jeff Guinn
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the first time in thirty years, more than a dozen former ATF agents who participated in the initial February 28, 1993, raid speak on the record about the poor decisions of their commanders that led to this deadly confrontation. Revelations in this book include why the FBI chose to end the siege with the use of CS gas; how both ATF and FBI officials tried and failed to cover up their agencies’ mistakes; where David Koresh plagiarized his infamous prophecies; and direct links between the Branch Davidian tragedy and the modern militia movement in America.
-
-
Another excellent book by Guinn
- By Amazon Customer on 02-19-23
By: Jeff Guinn
-
Freedom's Dominion
- A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power
- By: Jefferson Cowie
- Narrated by: André Chapoy
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American freedom is typically associated with the fight of the oppressed for a better world. But for centuries, whenever the federal government intervened on behalf of nonwhite people, many white Americans fought back in the name of freedom—their freedom to dominate others. In Freedom’s Dominion, historian Jefferson Cowie traces this complex saga by focusing on a quintessentially American place: Barbour County, Alabama, the ancestral home of political firebrand George Wallace.
-
-
Very easily read and I learned a lot
- By Kev All on 02-05-23
By: Jefferson Cowie
-
Watergate
- By: Garrett M. Graff
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy, Garrett M. Graff
- Length: 25 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard named Frank Wills enters six words into the log book of the Watergate office complex that will change the course of history: 1:47 AM Found tape on doors; call police. The subsequent arrests of five men seeking to bug and burgle the Democratic National Committee offices—three of them Cuban exiles, two of them former intelligence operatives—quickly unravels a web of scandal that ultimately ends a presidency and forever alters views of moral authority and leadership.
-
-
Elucidating
- By J.B. on 02-23-22
By: Garrett M. Graff
-
American Midnight
- The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor
-
-
Disturbing yet Reassuring
- By Sams95 on 11-18-22
By: Adam Hochschild
-
Frederick Douglass
- Prophet of Freedom
- By: David W. Blight
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 36 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young man, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. He wrote three versions of his autobiography over the course of his lifetime and published his own newspaper. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence, he bore witness to the brutality of slavery.
-
-
The sound of rollerskating in sand
- By Rico X Ludovici on 02-06-19
By: David W. Blight
-
Don't Know Much About the Civil War
- Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned
- By: Kenneth C. Davis
- Narrated by: Dick Estell
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of Americans, bored by dull textbooks, are in the dark about the most significant event in our history. Now New York Times bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis comes to the rescue, deftly sorting out the players, the politics, and the key events—Emancipation and Reconstruction, Shiloh and Gettysburg, Generals Grant and Lee, Harriet Beecher Stowe—and much more.
-
-
Good Civil War book
- By Steven on 08-04-12
By: Kenneth C. Davis
-
Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Patriots
- By: Bill O'Reilly, David Fisher
- Narrated by: Holter Graham, Bill O'Reilly
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The must-have companion to Bill O'Reilly's historical docudrama Legends and Lies: The Patriots, an exciting and eye-opening look at the Revolutionary War through the lives of its leaders. The American Revolution was neither inevitable nor a unanimous cause. It pitted neighbors against each other as loyalists and colonial rebels faced off for their lives and futures. These were the times that tried men's souls: No one was on stable ground, and few could be trusted.
-
-
Couldn't stop listening!
- By Erin on 08-05-16
By: Bill O'Reilly, and others
Related to this topic
-
Don't Know Much About the Civil War
- Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned
- By: Kenneth C. Davis
- Narrated by: Dick Estell
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of Americans, bored by dull textbooks, are in the dark about the most significant event in our history. Now New York Times bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis comes to the rescue, deftly sorting out the players, the politics, and the key events—Emancipation and Reconstruction, Shiloh and Gettysburg, Generals Grant and Lee, Harriet Beecher Stowe—and much more.
-
-
Good Civil War book
- By Steven on 08-04-12
By: Kenneth C. Davis
-
Midnight Rising
- John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War
- By: Tony Horwitz
- Narrated by: Dan Oreskes
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Plotted in secret, launched in the dark, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a pivotal moment in U.S. history. But few Americans know the true story of the men and women who launched a desperate strike at the slaveholding South. Now, Midnight Rising portrays Brown's uprising in vivid color, revealing a country on the brink of explosive conflict. Brown, the descendant of New England Puritans, saw slavery as a sin against America's founding principles. Unlike most abolitionists, he was willing to take up arms, and in 1859 he prepared for battle at a hideout in Maryland....
-
-
Up from Obscurity
- By Lynn on 06-18-12
By: Tony Horwitz
-
Patriotic Treason
- John Brown and the Soul of America
- By: Evan Carton
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Brown is a lightning rod of history. Yet he is poorly understood and most commonly described in stereotypes, as a madman, martyr, or enigma. Not until Patriotic Treason has a biography or history brought him so fully to life, in scintillating prose and moving detail, making his life and legacy - and the staggering sacrifices he made for his ideals - fascinatingly relevant to today's issues of social justice and to defining the line between activism and terrorism.
-
-
A Jarring Reminder of Antebellum America
- By Ronald A. Nelson on 12-22-06
By: Evan Carton
-
City of Sedition
- The History of New York City During the Civil War
- By: John Strausbaugh
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No city was more of a help to Abraham Lincoln and the Union war effort - or more of a hindrance. No city raised more men, money, and matériel for the war, and no city raised more hell against it. It was a city of patriots, war heroes, and abolitionists but simultaneously a city of antiwar protest, draft resistance, and sedition. Without his New York supporters, it's highly unlikely Lincoln would have made it to the White House.
-
-
Read twice...post election antidote
- By Pianoman on 12-02-16
By: John Strausbaugh
-
Redemption
- The Last Battle of the Civil War
- By: Nicholas Lemann
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A century after Appomattox, the civil rights movement won full citizenship for black Americans in the South. It should not have been necessary: by 1870 those rights were set in the Constitution. This is the story of the terrorist campaign that took them away.
-
-
A good accouting of the post Civil War suffering
- By KMB Consumer on 08-10-07
By: Nicholas Lemann
-
Abraham Lincoln
- A Man of Faith and Courage: Stories of Our Most Admired President
- By: Joe Wheeler
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Joe Wheeler brings to this insightful audiobook the knowledge gleaned from over 10 years of study and more than 60 books on the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. Skillfully weaving his own narrative with direct quotes from Abraham Lincoln and poignant excerpts from other Lincoln biographers, Joe Wheeler brings a refreshingly friendly rendition Lincoln's life, faith and courage.
-
-
Retreads
- By J B Tipton on 04-22-09
By: Joe Wheeler
-
Don't Know Much About the Civil War
- Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned
- By: Kenneth C. Davis
- Narrated by: Dick Estell
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of Americans, bored by dull textbooks, are in the dark about the most significant event in our history. Now New York Times bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis comes to the rescue, deftly sorting out the players, the politics, and the key events—Emancipation and Reconstruction, Shiloh and Gettysburg, Generals Grant and Lee, Harriet Beecher Stowe—and much more.
-
-
Good Civil War book
- By Steven on 08-04-12
By: Kenneth C. Davis
-
Midnight Rising
- John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War
- By: Tony Horwitz
- Narrated by: Dan Oreskes
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Plotted in secret, launched in the dark, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a pivotal moment in U.S. history. But few Americans know the true story of the men and women who launched a desperate strike at the slaveholding South. Now, Midnight Rising portrays Brown's uprising in vivid color, revealing a country on the brink of explosive conflict. Brown, the descendant of New England Puritans, saw slavery as a sin against America's founding principles. Unlike most abolitionists, he was willing to take up arms, and in 1859 he prepared for battle at a hideout in Maryland....
-
-
Up from Obscurity
- By Lynn on 06-18-12
By: Tony Horwitz
-
Patriotic Treason
- John Brown and the Soul of America
- By: Evan Carton
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Brown is a lightning rod of history. Yet he is poorly understood and most commonly described in stereotypes, as a madman, martyr, or enigma. Not until Patriotic Treason has a biography or history brought him so fully to life, in scintillating prose and moving detail, making his life and legacy - and the staggering sacrifices he made for his ideals - fascinatingly relevant to today's issues of social justice and to defining the line between activism and terrorism.
-
-
A Jarring Reminder of Antebellum America
- By Ronald A. Nelson on 12-22-06
By: Evan Carton
-
City of Sedition
- The History of New York City During the Civil War
- By: John Strausbaugh
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No city was more of a help to Abraham Lincoln and the Union war effort - or more of a hindrance. No city raised more men, money, and matériel for the war, and no city raised more hell against it. It was a city of patriots, war heroes, and abolitionists but simultaneously a city of antiwar protest, draft resistance, and sedition. Without his New York supporters, it's highly unlikely Lincoln would have made it to the White House.
-
-
Read twice...post election antidote
- By Pianoman on 12-02-16
By: John Strausbaugh
-
Redemption
- The Last Battle of the Civil War
- By: Nicholas Lemann
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A century after Appomattox, the civil rights movement won full citizenship for black Americans in the South. It should not have been necessary: by 1870 those rights were set in the Constitution. This is the story of the terrorist campaign that took them away.
-
-
A good accouting of the post Civil War suffering
- By KMB Consumer on 08-10-07
By: Nicholas Lemann
-
Abraham Lincoln
- A Man of Faith and Courage: Stories of Our Most Admired President
- By: Joe Wheeler
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Joe Wheeler brings to this insightful audiobook the knowledge gleaned from over 10 years of study and more than 60 books on the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. Skillfully weaving his own narrative with direct quotes from Abraham Lincoln and poignant excerpts from other Lincoln biographers, Joe Wheeler brings a refreshingly friendly rendition Lincoln's life, faith and courage.
-
-
Retreads
- By J B Tipton on 04-22-09
By: Joe Wheeler
-
April 1865
- The Month That Saved America
- By: Professor Jay Winik
- Narrated by: Professor Jay Winik
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
April 1865 could have destroyed the nation. Instead it saved it. As April begins, the battered Confederate capital of Richmond falls to the Union Army. Robert E. Lee surrenders his forces to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox one week later. In good spirits and sensing the war's end, President Abraham Lincoln attends a comedic play - and is assassinated. Simultaneously, Secretary of State William Seward is brutally attacked but survives.
-
-
REALLY!
- By Jonah on 04-22-17
-
The Thin Light of Freedom
- The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America
- By: Edward L. Ayers
- Narrated by: James Edward Thomas
- Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the crux of America's history stand two astounding events: the immediate and complete destruction of the most powerful system of slavery in the modern world, followed by a political reconstruction in which new constitutions established the fundamental rights of citizens for formerly enslaved people. Few people living in 1860 would have dared imagine either event, and yet, in retrospect, both seem to have been inevitable. In a beautifully crafted narrative, Edward L. Ayers restores the drama of the unexpected to the history of the Civil War.
-
-
great history
- By Linda Sisco on 11-30-17
By: Edward L. Ayers
-
The Bloody Shirt
- Terror after Appomattox
- By: Stephen Budiansky
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 1866 to 1876, more than 3,000 free African Americans and their white allies were killed in cold blood by terrorist organizations in the South. Over the years, this fact would not only be forgotten, but a series of exculpatory myths would arise to cover the tracks of this orchestrated campaign of atrocity and violence.
-
-
Boring
- By W. Max Hollmann on 09-16-08
-
Lincoln and the Fight for Peace
- By: John Avlon
- Narrated by: John Avlon
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the tide of the Civil War turned in the spring of 1865, Abraham Lincoln took a dangerous two-week trip to visit the troops on the front lines accompanied by his young son, seeing combat up close, meeting liberated slaves in the ruins of Richmond, and comforting wounded Union and Confederate soldiers.
-
-
Gets a little repetitive.
- By John on 03-06-22
By: John Avlon
-
A Disease in the Public Mind
- A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War
- By: Thomas Fleming
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the time his body hung from the gallows for his crimes at Harper’s Ferry, abolitionists had made John Brown a "holy martyr" in the fight against Southern slave owners. But Northern hatred for Southerners had been long in the making. Northern rage was born of the conviction that New England, whose spokesmen and militia had begun the American Revolution, should have been the leader of the new nation. Instead, they had been displaced by Southern "slavocrats" like Thomas Jefferson. And Northern envy only exacerbated the South’s greatest fear: race war.
-
-
Listen skeptically, but still listen
- By David on 04-01-21
By: Thomas Fleming
-
366 Days in Abraham Lincoln's Presidency
- The Private, Political, and Military Decisions of America's Greatest President
- By: Stephen Wynalda
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the first time ever, the intimate thoughts and political decisions of Abraham Lincoln’s entire presidency - day by day. In a startlingly innovative format, journalist Stephen A. Wynalda has constructed a painstakingly detailed day-by-day breakdown of president Abraham Lincoln’s decisions in office - including his signing of the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862; his signing of the legislation enacting the first federal income tax on August 5, 1861; and more personal incidents like the day his 11-year-old son, Willie, died.
-
-
Great for listening!
- By J. R. Davis on 02-12-18
By: Stephen Wynalda
-
1861: The Civil War Awakening
- By: Adam Goodheart
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of our defining national drama, 1861 presents a gripping and original account of how the Civil War began. 1861 is an epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields. Early in that fateful year, a second American revolution unfolded, inspiring a new generation to reject their parents' faith in compromise and appeasement, to do the unthinkable in the name of an ideal.
-
-
Not what I expected
- By Sol on 07-01-11
By: Adam Goodheart
-
Capital Dames
- The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868
- By: Cokie Roberts
- Narrated by: Cokie Roberts
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the outbreak of the Civil War, the small, social, Southern town of Washington, DC, found itself caught between warring sides in a four-year battle that would determine the future of the United States. After the declaration of secession, many fascinating Southern women left the city, leaving their friends - such as Adele Cutts Douglas and Elizabeth Blair Lee - to grapple with questions of safety and sanitation as the capital was transformed into an immense Union army camp and later a hospital.
-
-
Enlightening
- By Jean on 05-07-15
By: Cokie Roberts
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Rubbish Historical Work, Lots of Fake Stuff
- By Jose on 04-28-17
By: Amy S. Greenberg
-
Madness Rules the Hour
- Charleston, 1860, and the Mania for War
- By: Paul Starobin
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1860, Charleston, South Carolina, embodied the combustible spirit of the South. No city was more fervently attached to slavery, and no city was seen by the North as a greater threat to the bonds barely holding together the Union. And so, with Abraham Lincoln's election looming, Charleston's leaders faced a climactic decision: They could submit to abolition - or they could drive South Carolina out of the Union and hope that the rest of the South would follow.
-
-
Madness Rules The Hour ...once more
- By Anonymous User on 05-06-21
By: Paul Starobin
-
The American Miracle
- Divine Providence in the Rise of the Republic
- By: Michael Medved
- Narrated by: Michael Medved
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The history of the United States displays an uncanny pattern: At moments of crisis, when the odds against success seem overwhelming and disaster looks imminent, fate intervenes to provide deliverance and progress. Historians may categorize these incidents as happy accidents, callous crimes, or the products of brilliant leadership, but the most notable leaders of the past 400 years have identified this good fortune as something else - a reflection of divine providence.
-
-
Amazing Book
- By Larry on 12-01-16
By: Michael Medved
-
Frederick Douglass
- Prophet of Freedom
- By: David W. Blight
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 36 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young man, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. He wrote three versions of his autobiography over the course of his lifetime and published his own newspaper. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence, he bore witness to the brutality of slavery.
-
-
The sound of rollerskating in sand
- By Rico X Ludovici on 02-06-19
By: David W. Blight