Charles Sumner [Paperback]

David Herbert Donald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 1996

Charles Sumner (1811–1874), U.S. Senator from Massachusetts for two decades, was an ardent abolitionist; a founder of the Republican Party; chairman of the powerful Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1861 to 1871; chief of the Radical Republicans during the Civil War and Reconstruction; Lincoln's friend and, later, Grant's nemesis; as well as an advocate for universal equality, international peace, women's suffrage, and educational and prison reform. This edition combines for the first time Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War and Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man into one monumental biography that brings into brilliant focus the character and impact of one of the most controversial and enduring forces in American history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A one-volume edition of Donald's two books on 19th-century radical reformer Donald.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1152 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (August 21, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306807203
• ISBN-13: 978-0306807206
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,700,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genuine Pulitzer Prize material, October 16, 2006

By 

Dennis Brandt (Red Lion, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Charles Sumner (Paperback)

This is a thorough biography of the stubborn Charles Sumner, once the toast of both aristocratic England and the Boston Brahmins alike, but who is best known for getting his head bashed by Preston Brooks right on the Senate floor in 1856. Donald's 1960 work is a good, although not great, read and better than his more recent Lincoln biography, another Pulitzer Prize winner. (Youthful exhuberance, perhaps?) If you need any evidence of its staying power, check out the price tag that mirrors much more recent work. The demand remains high for good material, and Donald's biography is just that.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Class, September 16, 2000

By 

Kevin Douglas - See all my reviews

This review is from: Charles Sumner (Paperback)

Harvard historian David Donald applies his keen intellect to the life of Charles Sumner and writes a worthy biography of a man Americans should know more about. Sumner might be described as the first "PC" politician. If you're interested in the Civil War, race relations, or the perils (and triumphs) of a public life devoted to principle, you'll learn much from this book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exhaustive Balanced Biography--extremely well researched, November 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Charles Sumner (Paperback)

David Herbert Donald's "Charles Sumner" is an exhaustive biography touching all areas of the man's life. Throughout, Donald is balanced in his treatment of a controversial man who was described, quite accurately by another reviewer, as the country's first "politically correct" politician. As a person I do not think I would have liked Charles Sumner nor agreed with his extremism in many of the positions he took (most other people in the government did not either), but his life is well worth reading about for a fuller understanding of the decades immedaitely prior to and immediately following the Civil War.

Donald goes into many speeches, newspaper reports, letters, personal opinions of others, and proposed legislation to give one a real feeling for the man. His controversial life and opinions give one much to think about regarding the complex issues of race, reconstruction, and society in mid-nineteenth century America. Although this is not the most lively written of biographies, it is judicious and scholarly. Well worth the time.