Interview w/ Sidney Blumenthal – Putting Lincoln in a Political Context, Stephen Douglas, Jefferson Davis, The Whigs and More

Posted by Bruce Carlson on

We are joined by Clinton adviser and the author of Wrestling With His Angel: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln Vol II, Sidney Blumenthal. In this cast, he talks about Lincoln in the 1850’s, as he emerges as a small-time lawyer to being ‘woke’ by the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Bill to make a stirring speech and come to a definite conclusion about the future of the nation.

In the process Sidney provides details on the passage of both the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska act, and the role that Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas plays in it, Zachary Taylor’s Presidency, the Whigs and Franklin Pierce.
We discuss:

  • The Middle Lincoln, Between the Young Lincoln and the President
  • How Kansas-Nebraska Was Crafted and Blew Up Politics
  • The Man Who Was the ‘Dick Cheney’ of the 1850’s
  • Was Lincoln a Liberal?
  • What Happened to the Whigs?

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Sidney Blumenthal’s book, Vol. 2 of his series on Lincoln’s Political Life, “Wrestling With His Angel” –