And There Was Light audiobook cover - Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle

And There Was Light

Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle

Jon Meacham

★ 4.6 / 5(77 ratings)
Start ListeningDownload App
Categories:
PoliticsHistoryBiography & Memoir

If You're Curious About These Questions...

You should listen to this audiobook

Listen to And There Was Light — Free Audiobook

Loading player...

Key Takeaways from And There Was Light

Learning Tools

Reinforce what you learned from And There Was Light

Mind Map

And There Was Light
Complex Legacy+
Early Life+
Political Ascent+
Civil War+
Emancipation+
Victory and Aftermath+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 9
Why do scholars and pundits often pull out seemingly contradictory quotes from Abraham Lincoln regarding racial equality?
  • A. He frequently changed his speeches depending on whether he was addressing Northern or Southern audiences.
  • B. His views were highly nuanced, and he sometimes expressed opposing messages about race and slavery in the same year.
  • C. He employed multiple speechwriters who held vastly different political ideologies and snuck them into his addresses.
  • D. He suffered from cognitive decline during the Civil War, leading to inconsistent public statements.
Question 2 of 9
How did Lincoln's early experiences with his father influence his later views on slavery?
  • A. His father was an outspoken abolitionist who instilled a deep moral hatred of slavery in him from a young age.
  • B. His father owned enslaved people, which caused a permanent moral and political rift between them.
  • C. His father hired him out to neighbors and took his wages, an experience Lincoln later compared to being a slave.
  • D. His father helped run a local station on the Underground Railroad, exposing Lincoln to the horrors of slavery.
Question 3 of 9
What incident from Lincoln's early adulthood demonstrates his willingness to suppress his private views for the sake of political pragmatism?
  • A. He publicly supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act to win his first election, even though he privately opposed it.
  • B. He joined the proslavery Democratic Party for a brief period to secure a position as postmaster.
  • C. He refused to represent Black clients in the courtroom to avoid alienating white voters in Illinois.
  • D. A friend burned an essay Lincoln wrote criticizing traditional Christianity to protect his political reputation.
Question 4 of 9
What was the 'scorpion’s sting strategy' that Lincoln subscribed to early in his political career?
  • A. A military tactic to split the Confederacy in half by controlling the Mississippi River.
  • B. A plan to surround the South with free states so that slavery would eventually collapse inward and die.
  • C. An aggressive abolitionist campaign to incite slave rebellions throughout the Southern states.
  • D. A legislative maneuver to heavily tax plantations until slaveholders were forced to emancipate their workers.
Question 5 of 9
How did Lincoln's 1858 Senate race against Stephen Douglas impact his political trajectory?
  • A. He won the Senate seat in a landslide, immediately making him the undisputed leader of the Republican Party.
  • B. He lost the election, but his highly publicized debates made him a national figure and led to his 1860 presidential nomination.
  • C. He was forced to resign from the Whig party after Douglas exposed his radical abolitionist ties.
  • D. He won the election but alienated Southern voters, directly causing the immediate secession of South Carolina.
Question 6 of 9
How did the death of Lincoln's eleven-year-old son, Willie, affect the president's worldview during the Civil War?
  • A. It caused him to abandon his Christian faith and adopt a purely secular view of the war.
  • B. It made him deeply bitter, leading him to immediately issue the Emancipation Proclamation out of revenge.
  • C. It distracted him so severely that he temporarily handed over control of the Union army to Congress.
  • D. It led him to view the events of the world and the war through the lens of God's providence and divine will.
Question 7 of 9
Why did Lincoln wait until September 1862 to move forward with the Emancipation Proclamation?
  • A. He was waiting for a Union victory at Antietam, which he had vowed to interpret as a divine signal to proceed.
  • B. He needed to secure a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate before he could legally sign the document.
  • C. He wanted to wait until the Confederate capital of Richmond fell so the proclamation could be enforced immediately.
  • D. He was waiting for Frederick Douglass to publicly endorse his presidency to ensure Black support.
Question 8 of 9
How did Lincoln react when a group of freed Black people rushed to kneel at his feet in the fallen capital of Richmond?
  • A. He accepted their gratitude and promised them immediate voting rights and land ownership.
  • B. He ignored them to avoid angering the defeated white Southerners watching nearby.
  • C. He told them it was not right and that they should kneel to God only.
  • D. He ordered his military escort to push them away for fear of an assassination attempt.
Question 9 of 9
Why was Andrew Johnson initially chosen as Lincoln's running mate for his second term?
  • A. Johnson was a renowned abolitionist whose presence guaranteed the support of radical Republicans.
  • B. Johnson was chosen for political reasons as an attempt to pacify white, antiblack Northerners.
  • C. Johnson was a brilliant military strategist who had orchestrated the capture of Richmond.
  • D. Johnson was the only Southern politician who had actively funded the Union army.

And There Was Light — Full Chapter Overview

And There Was Light Summary & Overview

And There Was Light (2022) is a biography of Abraham Lincoln that takes a nuanced look at a complex leader. Focusing especially on Lincoln’s evolving views on and actions around slavery, it’s a picture of a man who wrestled with his moral convictions while attempting to hold together a divided nation. Echoes of that struggle still ring out today, making it essential to keep Lincoln’s story at the forefront of American consciousness.

Who Should Listen to And There Was Light?

  • American history enthusiasts
  • People interested in controversial historical figures
  • Budding political pundits looking to add to their historical knowledge

About the Author: Jon Meacham

Jon Meacham is a historian, biographer, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion. He currently serves as the Canon Historian of the Washington National Cathedral and contributes to the New York Times Book Review as well as other publications. His numerous New York Times best-selling books include His Truth Is Marching On, The Soul of America, Thomas Jefferson, and Destiny and Power.

🎧
Listen in the AppOffline playback & background play
Get App