{"product_id":"9781639730643","title":"Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War","description":"\u003cb\u003e“Excellent.\"\u003c\/b\u003e-\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal * \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e“A must-read.”-The Civil War Monitor \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA propulsive account of our history's most surprising, most consequential political club: the Wide Awake anti-slavery youth movement that marched America from the 1860 election to civil war.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the start of the 1860 presidential campaign, a handful of fired-up young Northerners appeared as bodyguards to defend anti-slavery 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, torch-bearing brigades of their own. These Wide Awakes—mostly working-class Americans in their twenties—became 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 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 \u003ci\u003eLincoln on the Verge \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eField of Blood\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWide Awake \u003c\/i\u003ebears witness to the power of protest, the fight for majority rule, and the defense of free speech. At its core, \u003ci\u003eWide Awake\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates a question American democracy keeps posing, about the precarious relationship between violent speech and violent actions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47918082687216,"sku":"9781639730643","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781639730643_p0.jpg?v=1763683372","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781639730643","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}