Edward McClelland’s illuminating new history Chorus of the Union: How Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Set Aside Their Rivalry to Save the Nation came out today from Pegasus Books. Dubbed “a wise examination of America’s divisive antebellum politics” by Publishers Weekly, it has also been praised by Harvard University professor John Stauffer as “beautifully conceived and deeply researched … a sheer pleasure to read” and by Lincoln scholar Thomas A. Horrocks, who has predicted that “this splendid book will become a classic source for understanding these two complicated men.” It is McClelland’s eighth book, along with a previous look at presidential politics in Young Mr. Obama (Bloomsbury, 2010) and his most recent release Midnight in Vehicle City (Beacon, 2021), about the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936, the most significant labor dispute in American history.
Update, June 26, 2024: In a lengthy review of Chorus of the Union published today, the Wall Street Journal observes that “McClelland vividly brings to life the drama” of the seven pivotal Lincoln-Douglas debates which led up to the 1860 presidential election.