{"product_id":"9781451697285","title":"Congressman Lincoln","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA biography of the early years and personal struggles of the famous frontier politician who led the United States during its darkest hours, centering on his little-known congressional years.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe “gifted young historian” (Richard Norton Smith) who gave us \u003ci\u003eFounding Rivals\u003c\/i\u003e, Chris DeRose delivers the first fully realized portrait of Abraham Lincoln’s ambitious and controversial early political career, and his surprising ascendancy that was both historic and far from inevitable. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1847, Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington in near anonymity. After years of outmaneuvering political adversaries and leveraging friendships, he emerged the surprising victor of the Whig Party nomination, winning a seat in the House of Representatives. Yet following a divisive single term, he would return to Illinois a failed job applicant with a damaged reputation in his home state, and no path forward in politics. Defeated, unpopular, and out of office, Lincoln now seemed worse off politically than when his journey began. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut what actually transpired between 1847 and 1849 revealed a man married to his political, moral, and ethical ideals. These were the defining years of a future president and the prelude to his singular role as the center of a gathering political storm. With keen insight into a side of Lincoln never so thoroughly investigated or exhaustively researched, Chris DeRose explores this extraordinary, unpredictable, and oftentimes conflicted turning point in his career. This is Congressman Lincoln as: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e• A leader for the first time, not just a vote, on questions of slavery \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e• Unpopular opponent of the “unconstitutional” Mexican War \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e• A Whig party leader and presidential kingmaker, one of the first supporters of Zachary Taylor, a southern slave-owning general \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e• Reluctant husband in an abusive, deeply troubled marriage \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e• The first future president to argue before the Supreme Court and the only president to be awarded a patent. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing from the unpublished “Papers of Abraham Lincoln,” including 20,000 pre-presidential articles and a wealth of correspondence, and the secret diaries and private correspondence of Lincoln’s colleagues—many cited here for the first time—DeRose shows us a master strategist, a politician torn between principle and viability, and a man saddled with a tormented private life. Most vitally, he greatly expands our understanding of America’s greatest president in a biography as surprising, ambitious, and transcendent as its subject.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Threshold Editions","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47047239172336,"sku":"9781451697285","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781451697285_p0.jpg?v=1763842089","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781451697285","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}