{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260417T232332Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1639730648?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1639730648","authors":["Jon Grinspan"],"book_id":"9781639730643","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/wide-awake-1639730648","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781639730643.jpg?v=20260417T232332Z%3A2026-04-17T23%3A23%3A32Z","description":"Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians * Winner of the Lincoln Forum Book Prize * Finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize A propulsive account of our history's most surprising, most consequential political club: the Wide Awake anti-slavery youth movement that marched America from the 1860 election to civil war. At the start of the 1860 presidential campaign, a handful of fired-up young Northerners appeared as bodyguards to defend anti-slavery stump speakers from frequent attacks. The group called themselves the Wide Awakes. Soon, hundreds of thousands of young White and Black men, and a number of women, were organizing boisterous, uniformed, torch-bearing brigades of their own. These Wide Awakes--mostly working-class Americans in their twenties--became one of the largest, most spectacular, and most influential political movements in our history. To some, it demonstrated the power of a rising majority to push back against slavery. To others, it looked like a paramilitary force training to invade the South. Within a year, the nation would be at war with itself, and many on both sides would point to the Wide Awakes as the mechanism that got them there. In this gripping narrative, Smithsonian historian Jon Grinspan examines how exactly our nation crossed the threshold from a political campaign into a war. Perfect for readers of Lincoln on the Verge and The Field of Blood , Wide Awake bears witness to the power of protest, the fight for majority rule, and the defense of free speech. At its core, Wide Awake illuminates a question American democracy keeps posing, about the precarious relationship between violent speech and violent actions.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781639730643","publication_date":"20240514","publisher":"Bloomsbury","slug":"wide-awake","subtitle":"The Forgotten Force That Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War","title":"Wide Awake"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036050","confidence_band":"high","label":"Civil War Era","score":0.8029,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"19th-Century America","score":0.7672,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027250","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Civil Wars","score":0.7589,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036050","confidence_band":"high","label":"Civil War Era","score":0.8029,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"19th-Century America","score":0.7672,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS027250","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Civil Wars","score":0.7589,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036040","confidence_band":"high","label":"19th-Century America","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036050","confidence_band":"high","label":"Civil War Era","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS054000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Social History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Civil War Era","score":0.8029,"slug":"civil-war-era"},{"label":"19th-Century America","score":0.7672,"slug":"19th-century-america"},{"label":"Civil Wars","score":0.7589,"slug":"civil-wars"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Civil War Era","Good for readers interested in history","Good for fans of History"],"related_lists":[{"intro":"","slug":"shelf-his027250-military-civil-wars-see-also-united-states-civil-war-period-1850-1877","title":"Military Civil Wars ( See Also United States Civil War (1850 1877 Books","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/lists/shelf-his027250-military-civil-wars-see-also-united-states-civil-war-period-1850-1877"},{"intro":"","slug":"shelf-his036050-united-states-civil-war-period-1850-1877","title":"United States Civil War (1850 1877) Books","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/lists/shelf-his036050-united-states-civil-war-period-1850-1877"},{"intro":"","slug":"shelf-his036040-united-states-19th-century","title":"United States 19th Century Books","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/lists/shelf-his036040-united-states-19th-century"}],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Samuel W. 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