Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War
The propulsive story of the Wide Awake antislavery youth movement, an overlooked but pivotal factor in Americas march to the Civil War.At the start of the 1860 presidential campaign, a handful of firedup young Northerners appeared as bodyguards to defend antislavery stump speakers from frequent attacks. The group called themselves the Wide Awakes. Soon, hundreds of thousands of young white and Black men, and a number of women, were organizing boisterous, uniformed, torchbearing brigades of their own. These Wide Awakesmostly workingclass Americans in their twentiesbecame one of the largest, most spectacular, and most influential political movements in our history. To some, it demonstrated the power of a rising majority to push back against slavery. To others, it looked like a paramilitary force training to invade the South. Within a year, the nation would be at war with itself, and many on both sides would point to the Wide Awakes as the mechanism that got them there.In this gripping narrative, Smithsonian historian Jon Grinspan examines how exactly our nation crossed the threshold from a political campaign into a war. Perfect for readers of Lincoln on the Verge and The Field of Blood, Wide Awake bears witness to the power of protest, the fight for majority rule, and the defense of free speech. At its core, Wide Awake illuminates a question American democracy keeps posing, about the precarious relationship between violent rhetoric and violent actions.
Description
The propulsive story of the Wide Awake antislavery youth movement, an overlooked but pivotal factor in Americas march to the Civil War.At the start of the 1860 presidential campaign, a handful of firedup young Northerners appeared as bodyguards to defend antislavery stump speakers from frequent attacks. The group called themselves the Wide Awakes. Soon, hundreds of thousands of young white and Black men, and a number of women, were organizing boisterous, uniformed, torchbearing brigades of their own. These Wide Awakesmostly workingclass Americans in their twentiesbecame one of the largest, most spectacular, and most influential political movements in our history. To some, it demonstrated the power of a rising majority to push back against slavery. To others, it looked like a paramilitary force training to invade the South. Within a year, the nation would be at war with itself, and many on both sides would point to the Wide Awakes as the mechanism that got them there.In this gripping narrative, Smithsonian historian Jon Grinspan examines how exactly our nation crossed the threshold from a political campaign into a war. Perfect for readers of Lincoln on the Verge and The Field of Blood, Wide Awake bears witness to the power of protest, the fight for majority rule, and the defense of free speech. At its core, Wide Awake illuminates a question American democracy keeps posing, about the precarious relationship between violent rhetoric and violent actions.
