Lincoln's Gamble
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| Author | Todd Brewster |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation |
| Genre | History |
| Publisher | Scribner |
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Publication date
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September 9, 2014 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 368 pp. |
| ISBN | |
Lincoln's Gamble: The Tumultuous Six Months that Gave America the Emancipation Proclamation and Changed the Course of the Civil War is a book by Todd Brewster, an American author, academic, journalist, and film producer.
The work explores six months of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency: the period between July 12, 1862 and January 1, 1863 when Lincoln penned the Emancipation Proclamation and changed the course of the Civil War. During this time Lincoln struggled with his strategy for the war, quarreled with his cabinet, and wrestled with how best to free the slaves.
Lincoln’s Gamble was published on September 9, 2014.
Lincoln’s Gamble is Brewster’s fourth book. Brewster previously collaborated with the late Peter Jennings to write The Century, The Century for Young People, and In Search of America.
"The Emancipation Proclamation is one of the three most important documents in American history, and yet it is by far the least known," Brewster said in an interview with dailyhistory.org:
… yet unlike either [the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution], the [Emancipation Proclamation] was really the work of one man, Abraham Lincoln. How is it, I wondered, that we do not know more about this document, about its origin and development and the history of its authorship? And why is it so different from anything else that Lincoln ever wrote? No stirring phrases, no poetry here, only dense legalese. How do we make sense of it with everything else we know about him?
Brewster’s quest led him to focus on the six months between July 1862 and January 1863 which "served as a neatly contained episode of Lincoln’s life in that they framed the time when he first mentioned the Proclamation and the date when he actually signed the document. More than that, those six months were some of the most turbulent for Lincoln, the nation, and the war."
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