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Books : Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln |
List Price: $30.00Amazon.com's Price: $19.80 You Save: $10.20 (34%)Prices subject to change.
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 920.073
EAN: 9780446580090
ISBN: 0446580090
Label: Twelve
Manufacturer: Twelve
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 448
Publication Date: November 03, 2008
Publisher: Twelve
Studio: Twelve
Sales Rank: 18714
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln were the preeminent self-made men of their time. In this masterful dual biography, award-winning HarvardUniversity scholar John Stauffer describes the transformations in the lives of these two giants during a major shift in cultural history, when men rejected the status quo and embraced new ideals of personal liberty. As Douglass and Lincoln reinvented themselves and ultimately became friends, they transformed America.
Lincoln was born dirt poor, had less than one year of formal schooling, and became the nation's greatest president. Douglass spent the first twenty years of his life as a slave, had no formal schooling-in fact, his masters forbade him to read or write-and became one of the nation's greatest writers and activists, as well as a spellbinding orator and messenger of audacious hope, the pioneer who blazed the path traveled by future African-American leaders.
At a time when most whites would not let a black man cross their threshold, Lincoln invited Douglass into the White House. Lincoln recognized that he needed Douglass to help him destroy the Confederacy and preserve the Union; Douglass realized that Lincoln's shrewd sense of public opinion would serve his own goal of freeing the nation's blacks. Their relationship shifted in response to the country's debate over slavery, abolition, and emancipation.
Both were ambitious men. They had great faith in the moral and technological progress of their nation. And they were not always consistent in their views. John Stauffer describes their personal and political struggles with a keen understanding of the dilemmas Douglass and Lincoln confronted and the social context in which they occurred. What emerges is a brilliant portrait of how two of America's greatest leaders lived.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I've not yet finished reading this book, but I have already discovered a few problems with it. While the book is very well-written and a compelling read, the author's characterizations are based on little more than stereotypes that have already been discredited by other historians. His characterization of Lincoln as impoverished poor white trash is false. Yes, he was born in a log cabin, but ALL the social classes lived in log structures in Kentucky and Indiana at that time. Documentation has been ... Read More
Rating:  -
This book could have been two bios. It is joined together by the idea, a bit of a strain, that Lincoln and Douglass had parallel lives. But the book's somewhat artifical construct takes zero away from it value. The book works on several levels. It is full of information that you may not know: how Lincoln grew up in a culture of violence(eye gouging was the norm); how slaves in the border states could have their own home and jobs as long as they gave a cut of their wages to their owners; how the ... Read More
Rating: -
Written by: John Stauffer
Published by: Twelve
Reviewed by: Stephanie Rollins [...] 12/2008
ISBN: 978-0-446-58009-0
"Easy to Read" 4 stars
I do not like history books. My mind usually shuts off when a book takes a historical turn. This book actually held my attention. It reads like a novel.
Both Lincoln and Douglass were self-made and self-taught. It is mentioned in this book that Douglass raised himself from slavery. Douglass raised himself from white trash. ... Read More
Rating: -
John Stauffer has written a rather incredible book. And while it is not exactly the dual biography it has been touted as, the whole is still much larger than the sum of the parts: It is timely, well researched and nuanced; and accomplishes the tricky task of following the parallel lives of these two preeminent self-made men until they converge. And then it explores the importance of that convergence to the development of our democracy during the period surrounding the Civil War.
Stauffer whets ... Read More
Rating: -
With the hindsight that makes for history filled out and fully viewed, we can make linkages that, in their time, might not have been apparent or apropos. Such is the case with GIANTS, the linkage between two great men whose contemporaneous lives filled the stage with action, philosophy and legacy, but who, in their lifetimes, were neither close friends nor fellow travelers.
John Stauffer, a professor of English at Harvard and author of several noted history books (METEOR OF WAR: The John Brown Story, ... Read More
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