Product Description

This star-studded recording brings to life a history-changing political battle.The Lincoln-Douglas Debates made history and changed its course through seven legendary match-ups between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the 1858 Illinois senatorial race. Although he lost the election, Lincoln's gift for oratory and his antislavery stance made him a nationally known figure, and led to his election to the presidency in 1860. Never before presented in audio, these debates and great statesmen are brought to life by narrators Richard Dreyfuss (Douglas) and David Strathairn (Lincoln). The Lincoln-Douglas Debates provide a soundtrack to a nation discovering its better self.

About the Author

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the sixteenth president of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He led the US through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crises--the American Civil War--preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the national government, and modernizing the economy. Reared in a poor family in rural Indiana, he was a self-educated man. In the 1830s he became a country lawyer, a Whig Party leader, and Illinois state legislator. He later served as a one-term member of the House of Representatives during the 1840s.

Stephen Douglas (1813-1861) was a US Representative, Senator, and Democratic Party presidential nominee from Illinois. He lost the election to Abraham Lincoln.

Allen C. Guelzo is the dean of the Templeton Honors College at Eastern College, where he is also the Grace F. Kea Professor of American History. A former fellow of the Charles Warren Center at Harvard University, he is the author of Edwards on the Will: A Century of American Philosophical Debate, For the Union of Evangelical Christendom: The Irony of the Reformed Episcopalians, and The Crisis of the American Republic: A History of the Civil War and Reconstruction. He is also editor of Holland's Life of Lincoln and coeditor of Edwards in Our Time: Jonathan Edwards and the Shaping of American Religion.

David Strathairn was nominated for an Oscar for his 2005 performance as famed CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow in Good Night and Good Luck. He is well-known for memorable performances in stage and screen roles.

Richard Dreyfuss is an Academy Award-winning actor who has appeared in such blockbuster films as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws. In 1977 he became the youngest man to win the Oscar for Best Actor, which he won for his performance in The Goodbye Girl. He also appeared in Stand by Me, What about Bob?, The American President, and Mr. Holland's Opus, among many other films.

Richard Dreyfuss

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Books

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The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

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Books

Books

The Two Georges

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

The Day Reagan Was Shot

One Thought Scares Me...

Moon over Parador

American Graffiti [vhs]