The Wide Awakes: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War w/ Jon Grinspan
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jon Grinspan has done something remarkable: in his new book, Wide Awake, he tells a thoroughly researched and brilliantly crafted story that may change your understanding of the origins of the American Civil War. In this episode, Jon joins us for a conversation about the Wide Awakes, the anti-slavery youth movement that played an instrumental role in electing Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and took part in some of the first acts of violence between pro and anti-slavery Americans in 1861. Jon also discusses the ways that the past and present interact in powerful ways, and how politics can evolve, step-by-step, into violence.
To quote Jon's recent article in The Smithsonian: "The most consequential political organization in American history….began when a few working-class kids designed a costume, which grew into a movement and ultimately an army. And it ended with a civil war."
Dr. Jon Grinspan is a curator of political and military history at the National Museum of American History. His book Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War was released on May 14, 2024 from Bloomsbury Press. Click here to order your copy!
You can hear Jon's previous appearance on The Road to Now in episode #220 Processing the Past w/ John Grinspan.
This is a rebroadcast of RTN #306, which originally aired on May 13, 2024. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the road to now. |
| 0:07.8 | Today on the show, we're getting into the Civil War, the politics, and the first moments |
| 0:12.9 | of violence. |
| 0:13.7 | Our discussion is with John Grinspan, author of The Incredible Book, Wide Awake, the |
| 0:18.3 | Forgotten Force that elected Lincoln and spurred the Civil |
| 0:20.9 | War, which came out in May of 2024. We interviewed John Venn for this conversation, and we aired |
| 0:26.9 | it last year, but we're sharing it again because it's incredible. And boy, if you're |
| 0:33.3 | interested in the Civil War, you're going to love it. If you're interested in politics, |
| 0:36.6 | you're going to love it. If you're interested in politics, you're going to love it. If you're looking around saying, can things change quickly, you're going to love this, |
| 0:42.7 | but you're also going to struggle with it because sometimes the change comes and it comes hard |
| 0:46.9 | and fast. And when you finish this episode, you'll get what I mean by this. Thanks to everyone |
| 0:51.8 | for listening. Thanks to the patrons who support us, patreon.com slash |
| 0:55.6 | the road to now. Patrons keep us going. Hope you're all having a good week and you enjoy this |
| 1:00.3 | conversation with John Grinspan. Thank you. I'm Bob Crawford. I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the |
| 1:08.1 | road to now. Our guest today is John Grinspan. He's a curator of political history |
| 1:13.3 | at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. He's also the author of a book, |
| 1:19.6 | The Age of Acrimony, that we discussed last year. Before we get into your new book, John, |
| 1:25.9 | that we're really excited to talk about, I got to ask you |
| 1:29.0 | about this. A couple months ago, it's Sunday morning. I'm drinking my coffee. I'm watching |
| 1:34.6 | meet the press, which I do every Sunday morning, and Mitt Romney's on. And he's talking about |
| 1:40.8 | this book he is reading The Age of Acrimony. |
| 1:45.0 | Did you know he was reading the book? |
... |
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