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The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln

February 11, 2020

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February 12th is President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, so we’re sharing a program that dives into one of the most pivotal periods of his political life. Sidney Blumenthal discusses his book Wrestling with his Angel: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1849-1856—the years when Lincoln emerged from political defeat and began to build his career on the national stage—in conversation with National Constitution Center Scholar-in-Residence Michael Gerhardt.

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Sidney Blumenthal is the author of A Self-Made Man and Wrestling with His Angel, the first two volumes in his five-volume biography, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln. He is the former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton. He has been a national staff reporter for The Washington Post and Washington editor and writer for The New Yorker. His books include the bestselling The Clinton Wars, The Rise of the Counter-Establishment, and The Permanent Campaign. Born and raised in Illinois, he lives in Washington, DC.

​​​​​​Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.


This episode was engineered by David Stotz and produced by Jackie McDermott and Tanaya Tauber.

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