Mr. Achorn will be discussing his latest book, The Lincoln Miracle, which details how Abraham Lincoln rose from backwoods politician, who had recently lost his bid for the Senate, to the Presidential candidate in six short days. The book is riveting and has wonderful insights, not only into that time period, but to our own political process today.

Lloyd Green in his review for the Guardian wrote: "Achorn deftly lays out the personas, demographics and rivalries that shaped the nominating contest and the 1860 election. The Whig party was spent, riven by slavery and nativism. Anti-Catholicism was a force. Anti-German sentiment too. The nation was buffeted by the competing pulls of abolitionism and preservation of the Union.  Republicans were divided, Democrats fractured. The Democratic convention was an abject failure. Compromise was not in the air. Three years earlier, the supreme court had issued its infamous Dred Scott decision, reading slavery into the constitution. Short of constitutional amendment or war, there was little to be done. Slavery had morphed into a right. At the Illinois Republican convention in 1858, Lincoln delivered what would come to be known as the House Divided speech. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand,'"

This presentation is expected to be very popular, so please RSVP to rayvandyke@aol.com by August 14th to reserve your place. The number of attendees we can link to is limited. 

Here is a link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Miracle-Republican-Convention-Changed/dp/080216062X

Here is a little about our presenter:

Edward Achorn is the author of two critically acclaimed books about Abraham Lincoln. His Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln was named one of the best books of 2020 by the Economist magazine. He is also the author of two classic baseball books, The Summer of Beer and Whiskey and Fifty-Nine in ’84. He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and recipient of the Yankee Quill Award for lifetime achievement in journalism.

We hope you will join us.