Harold Holzer has 5 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 11 narrators. The most-rated is The Presidents vs. the Press.
Lincoln at Cooper Union
Summary
Lincoln at Cooper Union explores Lincoln’s most influential and widely reported pre-presidential address—an extraordinary appeal by the Western politician to the Eastern elite that propelled him toward the Republican nomination for president. Delivered in New York in February 1860, the Cooper Union speech dispelled doubts about Lincoln’s suitability for the presidency and reassured conservatives of his moderation while reaffirming his opposition to slavery to Republican progressives. Award-winning Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer places Lincoln and his speech in the context of the times—an era of racism, politicized journalism, and public oratory as entertainment—and shows how the candidate framed the speech as an opportunity to continue his famous “debates” with his archrival, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, on the question of slavery. Holzer describes the enormous risk Lincoln took by appearing in New York, where he exposed himself to the country’s most critical audience and took on Republican Senator William Henry Seward of New York, the front-runner, in his own backyard. Then he recounts a brilliant and innovative public-relations campaign, as Lincoln took the speech “on the road” in his successful quest for the presidency.
©2004 Harold Holzer (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Presidents vs. the Press (Lecture)
Summary
One Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds of religion, government, literature, and social justice. Every president from George Washington to Donald Trump has tried to woo, win, evade, avoid, counter, and occasionally limit the power of the press. Media technology has of course changed radically - from the twice-weekly newspapers of the founding era to the age of Instagram and Twitter today. However, the battle by the White House to control and interpret official messaging, and journalism's fierce battle to interpret the news independently, has remained unchanged since the birth of America. This talk traces the evolution of this crucial relationship and includes subtle efforts presidents have made to court and befriend the press (Teddy Roosevelt and JFK), and moments of outright censorship (John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and Woodrow Wilson). Our last two presidents may be the only ones that used social media, but efforts to bypass the Press and reach the public directly with new technology go back over 150 years! This audio lecture includes a supplemental PDF. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Harold Holzer (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Hearts Touched by Fire
Summary
In July 1883, just a few days after the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, a group of editors at the Century magazine engaged in a lively argument: Which Civil War battle was the bloodiest battle of them all? One claimed it was Chickamauga, another Cold Harbor. The argument inspired a brainstorm: Why not let the magazine’s 125,000 readers in on the conversation by offering “a series of papers on some of the great battles of the war, to be written by officers in command on both sides.” The articles would be written by generals, Union and Confederate alike, who had commanded the engagements two decades earlier—“or, if he were not living,” by “the person most entitled to speak for him or in his place.” The pieces would present both sides of each major battle and would be fair and free of politics. Now, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the most enduring entries from the classic four-volume series Battles and Leaders of the Civil War have been edited and merged into one definitive volume. Here are the best of the immortal first-person accounts of the Civil War originally published in the pages of the Century magazine more than a hundred years ago. Hearts Touched by Fire offers stunning accounts of the war’s great battles written by the men who planned, fought, and witnessed them, from leaders such as General Ulysses S. Grant, General George McClellan, and Confederate captain Clement Sulivane to men of lesser rank. This collection also features new year-by-year introductions by esteemed historians, including James M. McPherson, Craig L. Symonds, and James I. Robertson, Jr., who cast wise modern eyes on the cataclysm that changed America and that would go down as the bloodiest conflict in our nation’s history. No one interested in our country’s past will want to be without this collection of the most popular and influential first-person Civil War memoirs ever published.
©2011 Harold Holzer; Compilation 2011 by Random House, Inc.; 1861 part introduction 2011 by Craig L. Symonds; 1862 part introduction 2011 by Stephen Sears; 1863 part introduction 2011 by James M. McPherson; 1864 part introduction 2011 by Joan Waugh; 1865 part introduction 2011 by James I. Robertson (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Lincoln and the Power of the Press
Summary
From his earliest days, Abraham Lincoln devoured newspapers. As he started out in politics, he wrote editorials and letters to argue his case. He spoke to the public directly through the press. He even bought a German-language newspaper to appeal to that growing electorate in his state. When war broke out and the nation was tearing itself apart, Lincoln authorized the most widespread censorship in the nation's history, closing down newspapers that were "disloyal" and even jailing or exiling editors who opposed enlistment or sympathized with secession. In Lincoln and the Power of the Press, Harold Holzer shows us an activist Lincoln through journalists who covered him from his start to the night of his assassination. In a wholly original way, Holzer shows us politicized newspaper editors battling for power and a masterly president who used the press to speak directly to the people and shape the nation.
©2014 Harold Holzer (P)2014 Tantor
The Presidents vs. the Press
Summary
An award-winning presidential historian offers an authoritative account of American presidents' attacks on our freedom of the press. "The FAKE NEWS media", Donald Trump has tweeted, "is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" Has our free press ever faced as great a threat? Perhaps not - but the tension between presidents and journalists is as old as the republic itself. Every president has been convinced of his own honesty and transparency; every reporter who has covered the White House beat has believed with equal fervency that his or her journalistic rigor protects the country from danger. Our first president, George Washington, was also the first to grouse about his treatment in the newspapers, although he kept his complaints private. Subsequent chiefs like John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama were not so reticent, going so far as to wield executive power to overturn press freedoms, and even to prosecute journalists. Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to actively manage the stable of reporters who followed him, doling out information, steering coverage, and squashing stories that interfered with his agenda. It was a strategy that galvanized TR's public support, but the lesson was lost on Woodrow Wilson, who never accepted reporters into his inner circle. Franklin Roosevelt transformed media relations forever, holding more than a thousand presidential press conferences and harnessing the new power of radio, at times bypassing the press altogether. John F. Kennedy excelled on television and charmed reporters to hide his personal life, while Richard Nixon was the first to cast the press as a public enemy. From the days of newsprint and pamphlets to the rise of Facebook and Twitter, each president has harnessed the media, whether intentional or not, to imprint his own character on the office. In this remarkable new history, acclaimed scholar Harold Holzer examines the dual rise of the American presidency and the media that shaped it. From Washington to Trump, he chronicles the disputes and distrust between these core institutions that define the United States of America, revealing that the essence of their confrontation is built into the fabric of the nation.
©2020 Harold Holzer (P)2020 Penguin Audio