
John C. Calhoun: American Portrait
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
3 months free
Buy for $39.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Charlton Griffin
-
By:
-
Margaret L. Coit
Author Margaret Coit's Pulitzer Prize winning biography of John C. Calhoun is a towering accomplishment in the writing of American history, powerful in the fullest sense of the word. This is no bland recital of dates and events. It is a searing, blinding, cascading roller coaster of emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and above all, human, history. The listener lives through hot, sleepy days on the South Carolina frontier of Calhoun's youth; goes with him to Yale in 1802 where the scent of the sea wafted in through his rooms; to the stern, New England town of Litchfield, Connecticut and its law school to study under Federalist mentors, and where students were expected to wear buckled breeches and ruffled stocks.
Muddy, primitive Washington, D.C. comes to life in the terrible years when our national tragedy of disunion was unfolding, with Jackson, Benton, Randolph, Webster, Clay, and Calhoun each struggling in his own way to avert catastrophe. When you have known the great South Carolinian at all the stages of his life; when you have lived through the events which determined his views; and when you have followed the path of his relentless logic - then you will finally understand our Civil War as few of us have ever been able to understand it before. In Miss Coit's brilliant story of Calhoun's personal life we discover a man of human frailties and human magnificence, much different from the image in those brooding photographs. And for the first time we understand how John C. Calhoun held the passionate loyalty of his people.
©1950 Estate of Margaret L. Coit (P)2014 Audio ConnoisseurListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
People who viewed this also viewed...


Well, I guess at least we still have History
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Perfect book on Calhoun
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An unusually gripping biography
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
fantastic throughout
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Wonderful if you like history.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A true must-listen for the history buff.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What made the experience of listening to John C. Calhoun: American Portrait the most enjoyable?
I knew little of John C. Calhoun and only had a superficial understanding of the old deep antebellum South apart from the lone issue of slavery. I found the subject extremely interesting and exotic. This is an excellent personal and cultural history. The writing style, which at first strikes one as archaic, takes on a life and character of its own and adds greatly to the experience. One of the finest political biographies I have encountered in years.Wonderful subject, beautifully told and narrated
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What a magnificent and illuminating...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Would you consider the audio edition of John C. Calhoun: American Portrait to be better than the print version?
NoWho was your favorite character and why?
CalhounWhat does Charlton Griffin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
A voiceWas there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The last chapter.Any additional comments?
This is a masterpiece. It is a shame Calhoun has been forgotten (deliberately) by mainstream American culture. He embodied true and authentic American character - something you rarely see in government anymore.A portrait of the man and the politician
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A man of insight who managed to be a friend of both his opponents and his followers, Calhoun's political theories are needed more than ever in a time where critical-thinking is hard to find and foreign interpretations of the Constitution are promulgated in the 21st-century public square.
It is clear to see why this book won a Pulitzer, yet I found the use of descriptive adjectives to be distracting at times, particularly in the first few chapters of the book. Coit is painting a picture of the man, but occasionally liberties taken to describe him made it hard to focus on how the man developed in his thinking.
I also found Charlton Griffin at times to be distracting as well in his narration (listening at 1.5-1.7 speed), but overall listening to him is much more enjoyable than other narrators I have come across.
Despite these few personal quibbles, I recommend this book as an excellent analysis on a controversial man for the 21st-century mind. Coit's undertaking and summation are a breath of fresh air in a time where everyone and everything is "politically incorrect." The book being written in a pre-civil rights era definitely helped prevent Coit from deconstructing a remarkable man's legacy to oblivion.
Something to be aware of is that J.F.K. believed Calhoun to be one of the five most important Senators in United States history - that he, "significantly shaped the role of the Senate and the destiny of the nation."
A Prize-Winning Portrayal of Calhoun
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.