Sidney Blumenthal, a senior advisor to President Bill Clinton and later an advisor to Hillary Clinton, continues to offer a fresh view of the great man who occupied the White House more than 130 years earlier.

In a discussion of Wrestling with His Angel, 1849-1856 - the second volume in his biography The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln - Blumenthal chronicles the actions and events marking the most decisive period of Lincoln’s political life. Years before becoming president, Lincoln was exiled back to Illinois to practice law when his single term in the U.S. House ended in 1849. He worked behind the scenes to help clear the way for a new Republican Party and took command, writing its first platform and vaulting onto the national stage.