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I've been listening to Tony Horwitz's Midnight Rising on audiobook. It's about John Brown. For a popular, non-scholarly book it's quite well researched, but not as vivid or exciting as it could be.

I'd recommend reading David Potter's The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861, Allan Guelzo's The Crisis of the American Republic: A History of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era, and David Donald's Lincoln and The Civil War and Reconstruction for background.

Daniel Farber's Lincoln's Constitution and Gabor Boritt's Lincoln and the Economics of the American Dream might also be worth a look.

[Loud Mime]

Thank you - - and everybody else.

I’m going to be starting with the events that led up to the War. Someone pointed out that the stage was set by Jefferson’s presidency, which I find to be reasonable.

In Jefferson’s “Notes on Virginia,” Jefferson is worried about slavery from a spiritual perspective. He fears the wrath of God.