Tag Archives: stephen douglas

Civil War Podcast, Episode 36

SECESSION! PART DEUX

In which we talk about President Lincoln’s April 15th, 1861 call for 75,000 militia to suppress the rebellion, and the subsequent secession of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

Our ‘book’ recommendation for this episode is actually two articles in back issues of North & South magazine.

In Volume 5 Number 4 (May 2002) there’s an article titled, “Virginia’s Reluctant Secession.” And in Volume 12 Number 1 (February 2010) is an article titled, “Secession in the Upper South.”

Listen to Episode 36: SecessionPartDeux

Civil War Podcast, Episode 22

In which we discuss the reasons behind the collapse of the Democratic Party, the resulting four-way contest for the presidency, and Abraham Lincoln’s victory on Election Day, November 6, 1860.

Our book recommendation for this episode is Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought On the Civil War by Douglas R. Egerton.

“Well-informed, judicious, and lively political history. Douglas Egerton has a sharp eye for telling biographical details, and he deploys them to great analytical and narrative effect.” ~ Bruce Levine, author of Half Slave and Half Free

Listen to Episode 22: Election1860

Civil War Podcast, Episode 19

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES (Part the Second)

In which we continue our coverage of the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates in 1858.

Our book recommendations for this episode are:

Stephen A. Douglas by Robert Johannsen. About this book, Lincoln scholar David Herbert Donald said, “At once a work of enormous scholarship and of deep insight. Here, for the first time, is the full story of a great career, told with such skill that we can now understand why Abraham Lincoln found the ‘Little Giant’ the most formidable political rival he ever faced.”

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald. About this book, Pulitzer-Prize winning Lincoln historian Mark E. Neely Jr said, “The best biography of Lincoln I have ever read.”

Listen to Episode 19: LincolnDouglasDebatesPartSecond

Civil War Podcast, Episode 18

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES (Part the First)

In which we give the background to the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, and then we start in on our coverage of the debates.

Our book recommendation for this episode is Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America by Allen C. Guelzo.

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln was known as a successful Illinois lawyer. Two years later, he was elected president. What carried this one-term congressman from obscurity to fame was the campaign he mounted for the United States Senate against the country’s most formidable politician. As this brilliant narrative by the prize-winning Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo dramatizes, Lincoln would emerge a predominant national figure, the leader of his party, and the man who would bear the burden of the national confrontation.

Listen to Episode 18: LincolnDouglasDebatesPartFirst

Civil War Podcast, Episode 12

In which we talk about Stephen Douglas’ sponsorship of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the ensuing violence in “Bleeding Kansas,” and the rise of the Republican Party as a result of Northern outrage over the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Our book recommendation this time is Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era by Nicole Etcheson.

Few people would have expected bloodshed in the Kansas Territory. But civil war tore this territory apart in the 1850s, and “Bleeding Kansas” became a forbidding symbol for the national crisis over the expansion of slavery. Etcheson seeks to revise our understanding of this era by focusing on whites’ concerns over their political liberties. The first comprehensive account of the conflict in Kansas in more than thirty years, her study emphasizes the issue of popular sovereignty rather than slavery’s moral or economic dimensions. As Etcheson demonstrates, the struggle over the political liberties of whites may have heightened the territory’s turmoil, but it led eventually to a broadening of the definition of freedom to include African-Americans. Her insightful re-examination sheds new light on this era and is essential reading for anyone interested in the ideological origins of the Civil War.

** This episode of the podcast contains explicit language **

Listen to Episode 12: BleedingKansas

Civil War Podcast, Episode 8

In which we look at the Presidential Election of 1848 (Zachary Taylor wins!), the crisis over California’s admission to the Union as a free state (which nearly led to disunion & civil war), and how Henry Clay stepped into the breach and laid the groundwork that allowed Stephen A. Douglas to save the day with the Compromise of 1850.

Our book recommendation for this episode is At the Edge of the Precipice: Henry Clay and the Compromise that Saved the Union by Robert V. Remini. “In 1850, America hovered on the brink of disunion. Tensions between slaveholders and abolitionists mounted, as the debate over slavery grew rancorous. The addition of vast new territory in the wake of the Mexican war prompted Northern politicians to demand that new states remain free; in response, Southerners baldly threatened to secede from the Union. Only Henry Clay, America’s Great Compromiser, could keep the union together.”

Listen to Episode 8: Compromise1848