Contest Time--Win a Free Copy of America's Great Debate

My good friends at Simon and Schuster are offering  readers a chance to win a free copy of the new book by Fergus Bordewich, America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise that Preserved the Union.

Now for the good stuff: How do you win? Place a comment on the blog with why you would like to read the book. It's as simple as that. I will choose a winner and get back to you. You provide me with your shipping address (street address only) and Simon and Schuster will send you the book.

Please see some review excerpts and comments below. Comments are copied from the Simon and Schuster website.

“Long before the crisis of 1860 there was the crisis of 1850. With page-turning narrative skill, Fergus Bordewich re-imagines this threat to the Union not only in terms of Northerners and Southerners, slavery advocates and freedom champions, but as a rite of passage between the old lions of the Senate and Young America--a transformation that would at least postpone secession and civil war. Few writers have ever brought this neglected moment to life more vividly.” -- Harold Holzer, author of Lincoln: President-Elect 

 

"[A] vivid, insightful history of the bitter controversy that led to the Compromise of 1850 . . . Political history is often a hard slog, but not in Bordewich's gripping, vigorous account featuring a large cast of unforgettable characters with fierce beliefs."-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

 

“A peerless narrative of one of the most momentous--and ambiguous--episodes in American history: the compromise that both saved the Union and, ultimately, destroyed it.”-- Adam Goodheart, author of 1861: The Civil War Awakening

 

"Today's political differences pale in significance when compared with those that confronted Congress in the mid-19th century. What was at stake--as Fergus Bordewich reminds us in his stimulating, richly informed America's Great Debate--was nothing less than the survival of the nation."-- David S. Reynolds, The Wall Street Journal

 

“Anyone whose eyes have glazed over at the numbing details of the Compromise of 1850 should read this compelling narrative of that famous event. Focusing on the colorful personalities who fought out the issue of slavery on the floor of the Senate in 1850, Fergus Bordewich shows how they forged a settlement that avoided war but laid the groundwork for the Civil War that came a decade later.” -- James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era