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The broken constitution : Lincoln, slavery, and the refounding of America / Noah Feldman.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021Copyright date: ©2021Edition: First editionDescription: 368 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780374116644
  • 0374116644
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction -- 1. The compromise constitution -- 2. The breaking constitution -- 3. The choice of war -- 4. Political prisoners -- 5. Emancipation and morals -- Conclusion.
Summary: "An innovative account of Abraham Lincoln, constitutional thinker and doer"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 973.7092 F312 Available 33111010752190
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

An innovative account of Abraham Lincoln, constitutional thinker and doer

Abraham Lincoln is justly revered for his brilliance, compassion, humor, and rededication of the United States to achieving liberty and justice for all. He led the nation into a bloody civil war to uphold the system of government established by the US Constitution--a system he regarded as the "last best hope of mankind." But how did Lincoln understand the Constitution?

In this groundbreaking study, Noah Feldman argues that Lincoln deliberately and recurrently violated the United States' founding arrangements. When he came to power, it was widely believed that the federal government could not use armed force to prevent a state from seceding. It was also assumed that basic civil liberties could be suspended in a rebellion by Congress but not by the president, and that the federal government had no authority over slavery in states where it existed. As president, Lincoln broke decisively with all these precedents, and effectively rewrote the Constitution's place in the American system. Before the Civil War, the Constitution was best understood as a compromise pact--a rough and ready deal between states that allowed the Union to form and function. After Lincoln, the Constitution came to be seen as a sacred text--a transcendent statement of the nation's highest ideals.

The Broken Constitution is the first book to tell the story of how Lincoln broke the Constitution in order to remake it. To do so, it offers a riveting narrative of his constitutional choices and how he made them--and places Lincoln in the rich context of thinking of the time, from African American abolitionists to Lincoln's Republican rivals and Secessionist ideologues.

Includes 8 Pages of Black-and-White Illustrations

Includes bibliographical references (pages [329]-350) and index.

Introduction -- 1. The compromise constitution -- 2. The breaking constitution -- 3. The choice of war -- 4. Political prisoners -- 5. Emancipation and morals -- Conclusion.

"An innovative account of Abraham Lincoln, constitutional thinker and doer"-- Provided by publisher.

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