{"product_id":"9781608193516","title":"Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election That Brought on the Civil War","description":"In early 1860, pundits across America confidently predicted the \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eelection of Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas in the coming \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003epresidential race. Douglas, after all, led the only party that bridged \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNorth and South. But the Democrats would split over the issue ofslavery,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e leading Southerners in the party to run their own presidential slate. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis opened the door for the upstart Republicans, exclusively Northern, \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eto steal the Oval Office. Dark horse Abraham Lincoln, not the first \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003echoice even of his own party, won the presidency with a record-low 39.8 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003epercent of the popular vote.\u003cp\u003e Acclaimed scholar Douglas R. Egerton\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e chronicles the contest with a historian's keen insight and a veteran \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003epolitical reporter's eye for detail. Vividly, Egerton re-creates the \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ecascade of unforeseen events that confounded political bosses, set North\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e and South on the road to disunion, and put not Stephen Douglas, but his\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e greatest rival, in the White House.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e We see Lincoln and his team \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eoutmaneuvering more prominent Republicans, like New York's grandiose \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWilliam Seward, while Democratic conventions collapse in confusion. And \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewe see the gifted, flawed Douglas marking his finest hour in defeat, as \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ehe strives, and fails, to save the Union. \u003cspan style='\"font-style:' italic\u003eYear of Meteors\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e delivers a teeming cast of characters, minor and major, and a breakneck\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e narrative of this most momentous year in American history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA brilliantly told prequel to \u003ci\u003eTeam of Rivals\u003c\/i\u003e-the first history\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e in six decades of the wild presidential contest that put Abraham \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLincoln in the White House and brought the United States to the brink of\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e civil war.\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47138933506288,"sku":"9781608193516","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781608193516_p0.jpg?v=1763834218","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781608193516","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}