Smithsonian curator Jon Grinspan discusses his dramatic new book about a spontaneous movement that helped elect Abraham Lincoln
Source: Wide Awakes: the young Americans who marched the north to civil war
fta; i am reminded reading something about how people we really engaged with politics, travelling many days to attend a rally or speech, and of course the pols that needed to travel from state to dc for elections and such.
When he learned how many Americans voted in 19th-century elections, particularly around the civil war, “that made me want to find more. Turnout over 80%? What’s the story behind it? And that kind of guided me into trying to find the human stories, and from there it just seemed so exciting.
