Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice

Levine, Bruce

ISBN 10: 1476793379 / ISBN 13: 9781476793375

Published by Simon & Schuster, 2021

About this Item

The Civil War and Reconstruction wrought a political and social revolution in the United States, destroying the South's slave-labor system, promising equal civil and political rights to African Americans, and wrenching the federal government out of the hands of the southern elite and its friends. Pennsylvania congressman Thaddeus Stevens was one of that revolution's most important and impressive political leaders. Among the foremost abolitionists in Congress in the years leading up to the war, he became a leader of the Republican Party's radical wing in wartime, fighting for a broad range of anti-slavery and anti-racist policies -- including the abolition of slavery nationwide -- well before party colleagues like Abraham Lincoln endorsed them. After Lincoln's death and the war's end, Stevens continued to fight for equal rights for Black Americans, rights eventually embodied in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth constitutional amendments. He directed the impeachment of Andrew Johnson when Lincoln's successor sought to cripple Reconstruction. But while Stevens in many ways successfully pushed his party -- and America -- toward greater equality, he also championed ideas too visionary for his fellow congressmen ever to support, including confiscating large slaveholders' estates and dividing the land among a people who had worked that land under slavery. Impeccably researched, eloquently written, and more timely than ever before, Thaddeus Stevens is the definitive biography of a forgotten champion of racial and economic justice in America.

Seller Inventory # 001770

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1476793379
• ISBN 13: 9781476793375
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A “powerful” (The Wall Street Journal) biography of Thaddeus Stevens—one of the 19th century’s greatest statesmen—encompassing his decades-long fight against slavery and his postwar struggle to bring racial justice to America.

Thaddeus Stevens was among the first to see the Civil War as an opportunity for a second American revolution—a chance to remake the country as a genuine multiracial democracy. As one of the foremost abolitionists in Congress in the years leading up to the war, he was a leader of the young Republican Party’s radical wing, fighting for anti-slavery and anti-racist policies long before party colleagues like Abraham Lincoln endorsed them. These policies—including welcoming black men into the Union’s armies—would prove crucial to the Union war effort.

During the Reconstruction era that followed, Stevens demanded equal civil and political rights for Black Americans—rights eventually embodied in the 14th and 15th amendments. But while Stevens in many ways pushed his party—and America—towards equality, he also championed ideas too radical for his fellow Congressmen ever to support, such as confiscating large slaveholders’ estates and dividing the land among those who had been enslaved.

In Thaddeus Stevens, acclaimed historian Bruce Levine has written a “vital” (The Guardian) and “compelling” (James McPherson) biography of one of the most visionary statesmen of the 19th century and a forgotten champion for racial justice in America.

About the Author

Bruce Levine is the bestselling author of several books on the Civil War era, including The Fall of the House of Dixie and Confederate Emancipation, which received the Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship and was named one of the top ten works of nonfiction of its year by The Washington Post. He is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Illinois.