Thaddeus Stevens cover art

Thaddeus Stevens

Nineteenth-Century Egalitarian

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Thaddeus Stevens

By: Hans L. Trefousse
Narrated by: Tom Weiner
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

One of the most controversial figures in 19th-century American history, Thaddeus Stevens is best remembered for his role as congressional leader of the radical Republicans and as a chief architect of Reconstruction. Long painted by historians as a vindictive “dictator of Congress”, out to punish the South at the behest of big business and his own ego, Stevens receives a more balanced treatment in Hans L. Trefousse’s biography, which portrays him as an impassioned orator and a leader in the struggle against slavery.

Trefousse traces Stevens’ career through its major phases, from his days in the Pennsylvania state legislature, when he antagonized Freemasons, slaveholders, and Jacksonian Democrats, to his political involvement during Reconstruction, when he helped author the 14th Amendment and spurred on the passage of the Reconstruction Acts and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Throughout, Trefousse explores the motivations for Stevens’ lifelong commitment to racial equality, thus furnishing a fuller portrait of the man whose fervent opposition to slavery helped move his more moderate congressional colleagues toward the implementation of egalitarian policies.

©1997 the University of North Carolina Press (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Historical Politicians Politics & Activism American History War Suffrage

Listeners also enjoyed...

Abraham Lincoln: A Life 1864-1865 cover art
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers cover art
John Marshall cover art
The Birth of Modern Politics cover art
Reconstruction cover art
Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1861 cover art
The Liberty Amendments cover art
The Know Your Bill of Rights Book cover art
The Problem with Lincoln cover art
The Presidents and the Constitution cover art
Jefferson cover art
The Great Divide cover art
Thomas Jefferson cover art
The Long Game cover art
Drain the Swamp cover art
Fear Itself cover art

Critic reviews

“Thaddeus Stevens has long deserved a discerning, fair-minded, knowledgeable, meticulous biographer; he has finally found him.” (James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom)
“This book is well researched and engagingly written and is likely to become the standard biography.” ( Choice)
“An especially valuable addition to Civil War literature. This is now the definitive work on Stevens.” ( Library Journal)
No reviews yet