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Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln Hardcover – November 3, 2008
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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.
- Print length448 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTwelve
- Publication dateNovember 3, 2008
- Dimensions6.5 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100446580090
- ISBN-13978-0446580090
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"In this stunning book, John Stauffer has given us the most insightful portrait of either Lincoln or Douglass in years. In graceful prose, he tells a moving story of the two men who dominated Nineteenth century American life -- as allies across the racial divide, friends who drew common inspiration from hard scrabble beginnings and a love of language, and fellow travelers on the road of American self-making. Giants is simply must reading!" (Richard S. Newman, author of Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers)
Like a daguerreotype, which nineteenth-century Americans thought captured not simply surface appearances, but peoples' souls, this book moves beyond biography to allow us to recover the inner lives of two utterly uncommon common men. This is the most insightful book about race and friendship in the nineteenth century that I have read. It's poignant and perceptive, a book to be savored, a book that will last. (Steven Mintz, Columbia University, author of America and Its Peoples: A Mosaic in the Making)
"John Stauffer's collective biography of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln stands apart from other biographies by focusing on how each man continually remade himself, with help from women, words, self-education, physical strength, and luck. In the process Stauffer gives us the texture and feel--a "thick description"--of the strange worlds that Douglass and Lincoln inhabited. The result is a path-breaking work that dissolves traditional conceptions of these two seminal figures (Lincoln the "redeemer" president, Douglass the assimilationist). He reveals how Douglass towered over Lincoln as a brilliant orator, writer, agitator, and public figure for most of his life. He shows us how words became potent weapons for both men. And he tells the poignant story of how these preeminent self-made men ultimately converged, despite their vastly different agendas and politics, and helped transform the nation." (Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University, author of The African American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century)
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Twelve; 1st edition (November 3, 2008)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 448 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0446580090
- ISBN-13 : 978-0446580090
- Item Weight : 1.53 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,225,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #342 in U.S. Abolition of Slavery History
- #3,317 in Presidents & Heads of State Biographies
- #5,722 in African American Demographic Studies (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
John Stauffer is the Sumner R. and Marshall S. Kates Professor of English and African and African American Studies at Harvard University
He is the author or editor of 19 books and over 100 articles focusing on antislavery and/or photography.
Two of his books ("GIANTS" and "State of Jones") were national bestsellers. "The Black Hearts of Men" was the co-winner of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize and the Lincoln Prize runner-up. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Picturing Frederick Douglass" were Lincoln Prize finalists.
His writings on photography have appeared in "21st Editions"; "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes," "WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY," "Aperture," "Beyond Blackface," and "Listening to Cement."
The paperback edition of his most recent book, "Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century's Most Photographed American," will be available in early 2018, in time for Douglass's 200th birthday.
His interest in visual culture extends to exhibitions and film. He consulted on the traveling exhibition "WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY" (2012-14). He advised and appeared in three award-winning documentaries ("God in America"; "The Abolitionists"; and "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross"); and he has been a consultant for feature films including "Django" and the forthcoming "Free State of Jones", directed by Gary Ross and starring Matthew McConaughey, which is based on his book.
His essays and reviews have appeared in "Time", "Wall Street Journal", "New York Times", "Washington Post", "Huffington Post", and in scholarly journals and books.
He has appeared on national radio and television shows, including "The Diane Rehm Show," "C-SPAN," and "Book TV with Susan Swain," and he has lectured throughout the United States and Europe.
In 2009 the U.S. State Department's International Information Programs hired him as one of its speakers.
That same year Harvard named Professor Stauffer the Walter Channing Cabot Fellow for "achievements and scholarly eminence in the fields of literature, history or art." He has also received two teaching awards from Harvard: the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award; and the Jan Thaddeus Teaching Prize.
He lives in Cambridge with his wife, Deborah Cunningham, and their two sons, Erik and Nicholas.
(August 2017)
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Seeing Lincoln in his own words opens your eyes to not only the self made man, but the racism and politics of the times. Reading Douglass in his own words and thoughts was just as enlightening. Many times as I read I thought of how much of this applies today in our society. The politics, the debating, the discourse, the press and how they were locked into one political party or the other.
Well played Mr. Staufer. I look forward to reading more about these two great men, the times, and other parallels in time. Thank you for making history readable. This book should be a must read on any history professors course on the Civil War, or Race in America.