Lincoln’s incredible ascent to power in a world of chaos is newly revealed in this “compelling, original, and elegantly written” (Michael Beschloss, New York Times bestselling author) third volume of the “magisterial” (The New York Times Book Review) Political Life of Abraham Lincoln series, following A Self-Made Man and Wrestling with His Angel. After a period of depression that he would ever find his way to greatness, Lincoln takes on the most powerful demagogue in the country, Stephen Douglas, in the debates for a senate seat. He sidelines the frontrunner William Seward, a former governor and senator for New York, to cinch the new Republican Party’s nomination.
All the Powers of Earth is the political story of all time. Lincoln achieves the presidency by force of strategy, of political savvy and determination. This is Abraham Lincoln, who indisputably becomes the greatest president and moral leader in the nation’s history. But he must first build a new political party, brilliantly state the anti-slavery case and overcome shattering defeat to win the presidency. In the years of civil war to follow, he will show mightily that the nation was right to bet on him. He was its preserver, a politician of moral integrity.
All the Powers of Earth is “as essential as any political biography is likely to be” and Sidney Bluementhal is “the definitive chronicler of Lincoln’s political career” (
Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
In All the Powers of Earth, Lincoln's incredible ascent to power in a world of chaos is newly revealed through the great biographer's extraordinary research and literary style.
Praise for
The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln “Magisterial...A vividly written, wide-ranging and often surprising account of the president-to-be.”
—The New York Times Book Review “
Wrestling With His Angel is a raucous and epic voyage through the turbulent political waters of the age that made Abraham Lincoln. Completely mesmerizing, a deeply serious meditation with the keen sense of humor that Lincoln so famously had.”
—John Witt, author of the Lincoln’s Code, winner of the Bancroft Prize “[A]n astute account of Lincoln the politician whose apprenticeship in that profession was a necessary prelude to his greatness as a statesman in the Civil War. [T]his book offers new insights into Lincoln's life and career.”
—James McPherson, author of The War that Forged a Nation “Blumenthal illuminates the path Lincoln hewed to greatness.”
—Allen Guelzo, author of Gettysburg, winner of the Lincoln Prize “Sidney Blumenthal has rescued the Lincoln most Americans know only as an icon, and turned him back into a real human being, revealing a clever and adroit politician, a fixer of conventions, and a political operator whose ambitions are surpassed only by his searing moral vision.”
—Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer 
