Todd Brewster will discuss his latest book Lincoln’s Gamble: The Tumultuous Six Months That Gave America the Emancipation Proclamation and Changed the Course of the Civil War at the Ridgefield Library on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m.
In his talk, as in his book, Mr. Brewster will focus on what he considers the most critical six months in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, when he penned the Emancipation Proclamation and changed the course of the Civil War. He will discuss whether it was through will or by accident, intention or coincidence, personal achievement or historical determinism that Lincoln freed the slaves. George Stephanopoulos said of Lincoln’s Gamble, “Brewster gets inside Abraham Lincoln’s mind, revealing his struggles with the limited powers of his office. Here is Lincoln, the man, surprisingly ambivalent about the decision for which he is most remembered. A masterful psychological portrait.”
Mr. Brewster has served as Don E. Ackerman director of oral history at the United States Military Academy, West Point, and is a longtime journalist who has worked as an editor for Time and Life and as senior producer for ABC News. He has written for Vanity Fair, Time, Life, The Huffington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times, and is the coauthor with the late Peter Jennings of the bestselling books The Century, The Century for Young People, and In Search of America. He lives with his wife and two sons in Ridgefield.
The program is co-sponsored by Books on the Common and copies of Lincoln’s Gamble will be available for sale and signing at the event.
To register and for more information visit ridgefieldlibrary.org or call 203-438-2282.