EPISODE · Jul 10, 2025 · 48 MIN
Jay Winik — 1861: The Lost Peace - with Evan Thomas
from Politics and Prose Presents · host Politics and Prose
1861: The Lost Peace is the story of President Lincoln's far-reaching, difficult, and most courageous decision, a time when the country wrestled with deep moral and political questions of epic proportions.Through Jay Winik's singular storytelling, readers will learn about the extraordinary Washington Peace Conference at the Willard Hotel to avert cataclysmic war. They will observe the charismatic and farsighted Senator JJ Crittenden, the tireless moderate seeking a middle way to peace. Lincoln himself called Crittenden "a great man" even as Lincoln jousted with him. They'll be inside and among Lincoln's cabinet--the finest in history--which rivaled the executive in its authority, a fact too often forgotten, and they will see a parade of statesmen frenetically grasping for peace rather than the spectacle of the young nation slowly choking in its own blood. A perfect read for the historically inclined, with haunting overtones to our current political climate. PURCHASE BOOK HERE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9781538735121?ic_referral=0tT-hsK6e2OOUee8DX7APHJJRtUkfMpzkHi9YmdqE5wwM5Ipy8okAQJQrwy5jeQBmpFuikm6Og85qlLCDTzkDfSAcLs8fyS5vbb_svs-i0LRvESVkibf28w3-zdua1CpROyFn0sJay Winik is an American historian and New York Times bestselling author, known for his award-winning April 1865: The Month That Saved America and celebrated for his innovative tellings of history. Winik is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sat on the board of trustees of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He graduated from Yale College with honors, and holds a Masters from the London School of Economics with distinction, as well as a Ph.D. from Yale University.Winik is in conversation with Evan Thomas. Thomas is the author of eleven books: The Wise Men (with Walter Isaacson), The Man to See, The Very Best Men, Robert Kennedy, John Paul Jones, Sea of Thunder, The War Lovers, Ike’s Bluff, Being Nixon, First, and Road to Surrender. John Paul Jones, Sea of Thunder, Being Nixon, and First were New York Times bestsellers. Thomas was a writer, correspondent, and editor for thirty-three years at Time and Newsweek, including ten years (1986–96) as Washington bureau chief at Newsweek, where, at the time of his retirement in 2010, he was editor at large. He wrote more than one hundred cover stories and in 1999 won a National Magazine Award. He wrote Newsweek’s fifty-thousand-word election specials in 1996, 2000, 2004 (winner of a National Magazine Award), and 2008. He has appeared on many TV and radio talk shows, including Meet the Press and The Colbert Report, and has been a guest on PBS’s Charlie Rose more than forty times. The author of dozens of book reviews for The New York Times and The Washington Post, Thomas has taught writing and journalism at Harvard and Princeton, where, from 2007 to 2014, he was Ferris Professor of Journalism.*recorded 6/21/2025
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Jay Winik — 1861: The Lost Peace - with Evan Thomas
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