What Really Happened: The Lincoln Assassination
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Narrated by:
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David Marantz
About this listen
After 150 years, many unsolved mysteries and enduring urban legends still surround the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by the popular stage actor John Wilkes Booth.
In a new look at the case, award-winning author Robert Hutchinson (The Dawn of Christianity) explores what we know, and don’t know, about what really happened at Ford’s Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865. In addition, he argues that the deep-seated political hatreds that roiled Washington, DC, in the final weeks of the Civil War are particularly relevant to our own polarized age.
Among the tantalizing questions Hutchinson explores are:
- Why Abraham Lincoln’s final day on earth was one of the happiest of his life
- Whether desperate Confederate political leaders, fearing for their lives, had a hand in the assassination plot
- How a talented family of actors, poets, and physicians opposed to slavery somehow produced a presidential assassin
- The mystery of Lincoln’s police bodyguard - why he disappeared at Ford’s Theatre when Lincoln had already been the subject of an assassination attempt the previous year
- What led Booth to give up on his original plan to kidnap Lincoln and decide on assassination instead
- Whether Lucy Hale, Booth’s secret fiancée and the daughter of a US senator, who once caught the eye of Lincoln’s son Robert, knew about Booth’s plans to kill Lincoln
- How Booth evaded the largest manhunt in US history for nearly two weeks despite being unable to walk
- Why the government insisted on the death penalty for Mary Surratt, who ran a boarding house where Booth used to visit, but allowed most of the Confederate sympathizers who aided his escape to get off scot-free
- Who gave the order to shoot Booth in the Garrett barn - and what happened to his body
- What became of the Booth and Lincoln families after the assassination
- Much more
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By: Stephen Harrigan
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Reveille in Washington
- By: Margaret Leech
- Narrated by: Grace Conlin
- Length: 21 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Margaret Leech’s Pulitzer Prize-winning history paints a wonderfully vivid and lively picture of Washington, DC, during the Civil War. In addition to the major events and figures such as Lincoln, Leech uses telling anecdotes and draws upon cameo players such as Louisa May Alcott, Walt Whitman, Andrew Carnegie, and a Confederate lady spy to create a living portrait of a sleepy, unfinished city as it struggles to become the strong capital of a united nation.
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Good book, poor read
- By JC on 08-10-20
By: Margaret Leech
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Midnight Rising
- John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War
- By: Tony Horwitz
- Narrated by: Dan Oreskes
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Plotted in secret, launched in the dark, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a pivotal moment in U.S. history. But few Americans know the true story of the men and women who launched a desperate strike at the slaveholding South. Now, Midnight Rising portrays Brown's uprising in vivid color, revealing a country on the brink of explosive conflict. Brown, the descendant of New England Puritans, saw slavery as a sin against America's founding principles. Unlike most abolitionists, he was willing to take up arms, and in 1859 he prepared for battle at a hideout in Maryland....
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Up from Obscurity
- By Lynn on 06-18-12
By: Tony Horwitz
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Revolver
- Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America
- By: Jim Rasenberger
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Brilliantly told, Revolver brings the brazenly ambitious and profoundly innovative industrialist and leader Samuel Colt to vivid life. In the space of his 47 years, he seemingly lived five lives: He traveled, womanized, drank prodigiously, smuggled guns to Russia, bribed politicians, and supplied the Union Army with the guns they needed to win the Civil War. Colt lived during an age of promise and progress, but also of slavery, corruption, and unbridled greed, and he not only helped to create this America, he completely embodied it.
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Sam Colt, but not the Revolver
- By Eggleston on 08-01-20
By: Jim Rasenberger
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The President and the Freedom Fighter
- Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Their Battle to Save America's Soul
- By: Brian Kilmeade
- Narrated by: Brian Kilmeade
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The New York Times best-selling author of George Washington's Secret Six and Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates turns to two other heroes of the nation: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In The President and the Freedom Fighter, Brian Kilmeade tells the little-known story of how two American heroes moved from strong disagreement to friendship, and in the process changed the entire course of history.
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Great Story and Research
- By Marla O'Halloran on 11-06-21
By: Brian Kilmeade
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Lincoln's Spies
- Their Secret War to Save a Nation
- By: Douglas Waller
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Veteran CIA correspondent Douglas Waller delivers a riveting account of the heroes and misfits who carried out a shadow war of espionage and covert operations behind the Confederate battlefields. Lincoln’s Spies follows four agents from the North - three men and one woman - who informed Lincoln’s generals on the enemy positions for crucial battles and busted up clandestine Rebel networks.
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Review of Lincoln’s Spies
- By William on 01-16-20
By: Douglas Waller
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The Patient Assassin
- A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge, and India's Quest for Independence
- By: Anita Anand
- Narrated by: Anita Anand
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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The “compelling [and] vivid” (The New York Times Book Review) true story of a man who claimed to be a survivor of a 1919 British massacre in India, his elaborate 20-year plan for revenge, and the mix of truth and legend that made him a hero to hundreds of millions.
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more interesting history
- By Autodidact on 09-07-19
By: Anita Anand
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Tombstone
- The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell
- By: Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The true story of the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the famous Battle at the OK Corral, by the New York Times best-selling author of Dodge City and Wild Bill. On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, nine men clashed in what would be known as the most famous shootout in American frontier history. Thirty bullets were exchanged in 30 seconds, killing three men and wounding three others. The fight sprang forth from a tense, hot summer.
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Great fun read, western history.
- By Dennis on 06-03-20
By: Tom Clavin
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Master Slave Husband Wife
- An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
- By: Ilyon Woo
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards, Leon Nixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North.
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Necessary story well told!
- By Marc W Rhoades on 01-19-23
By: Ilyon Woo
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Bloody Crimes
- The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse
- By: James L. Swanson
- Narrated by: Richard Thomas
- Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, received a telegram from General Robert E. Lee. There is no more time - the Yankees are coming, it warned. Shortly before midnight, Davis fled the capital, setting off an intense and thrilling chase in which Union cavalry hunted the Confederate president. Two weeks later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was convinced that Davis was involved in the conspiracy that led to the crime.
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Not as good as manhunt
- By mr kieran j murphy on 01-19-11
By: James L. Swanson
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Lee
- The Last Years
- By: Charles Bracelen Flood
- Narrated by: Michael Anthony
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert E. Lee, one of the most famous figures in American history, vanished after his dramatic surrender at Appomattox. In fact, he lived only another five years, during which time he did more than any other American to heal the wounds between North and South during the tempestuous postwar period.
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An incredible leader
- By David on 11-17-06
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Life of a Klansman
- A Family History in White Supremacy
- By: Edward Ball
- Narrated by: Edward Ball
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Life of a Klansman tells the story of a warrior in the Ku Klux Klan, a carpenter in Louisiana who took up the cause of fanatical racism during the years after the Civil War. Edward Ball, a descendant of the Klansman, paints a portrait of his family’s anti-Black militant that is part history, part memoir rich in personal detail.
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Thought Provoking, But . . .
- By William G. Stuart on 09-01-20
By: Edward Ball
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Manhunt
- The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
- By: James L. Swanson
- Narrated by: Richard Thomas
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
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The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history, the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild 12-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness.
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Fascinating!
- By F. Elizabeth Hauser on 12-14-08
By: James L. Swanson
What listeners say about What Really Happened: The Lincoln Assassination
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- jim sharkey
- 03-26-24
Great story
Very well structured and sourced. The story is relevant to divisions in the country today. Very good.
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- Dr. Rob
- 04-12-20
The Erratic Behavior of a Murderer
The book is a good account of an infamous event in US history. Details facts as well as unknowns, especially, of John Wilkes Booth's behavior up to and including President Lincoln's murder. Was Booth a tool of the Confederate Secret Service? Did Booth act in concert? From what sources did he receive funds? Was Mary Surrat an active, fully participating conspirator?
Overall, an account worth reading.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Kenneth Stasiak
- 03-28-23
Not so good
this piece was a lot of historical information seemingly randomly assembled.
Poor editing, poor arrangement of chapters, and in many cases, repetitive information.
although one of my favorite subjects. this was difficult to finish.
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