Book Club

Book Club’s next read is ‘The Great Abolitionist’ by Stephen Puleo

Join the live author discussion on May 22 at 6 p.m.

May 6, 2024

In the mid-19th century, Congress was not unlike it is today — polarized along partisan lines over the future of the nation. At the center of that era’s division was the issue of slavery and the debate was so fierce that it led to one of the most shocking moments in American history.

On May 22, 1856, Preston Brooks, a representative from South Carolina, walked onto the Senate floor and severely beat Senator Charles Sumner with a gold-capped cane in retaliation for an abolitionist speech Sumner had given days before.

Sumner, an outspoken abolitionist and Bostonian, would survive the attack and go on to champion civil rights through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and beyond. His life and political legacy is the subject of Boston.com Book Club’s next read, “The Great Abolitionist: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect Union” by Stephen Puleo.

Despite being a great civil rights champion and one of the great Bostonians of his time, few historians have done a deep dive into Sumner’s story. Our May book pick is the first major biography of the trailblazing politician to be published in half a century.

“Charles Sumner was a principled man of unshakable conviction, who fought the good, noble, and heroic fight against slavery, and he deserves to be remembered as a great statesman and one of the foremost champions of civil rights. He also deserves a compelling and wonderfully-written biography, which is what Stephen Puleo has provided,” Eric Jay Dolin, author of “Left for Dead” and “Black Flags, Blue Waters,” said in praise of the book.

Puleo is an author and historian who has written close to a dozen books, several of them on Boston history. You may know his name from “A City So Grand,” about Boston in the second half of the 19th century, or “Dark Tide,” his book on the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. He’s also previously written about Sumner in his 2012 book, “The Caning: The Assault That Drove America to Civil War.”

In the new book, Puleo pulls the lens back to examine Sumner’s life beyond that transformative event. He has written a detailed account of Sumner’s life before political office as well as his involvement in abolition, protecting the rights of emancipated people during Reconstruction, and other equal rights issues.

Kirkus Reviews said the new biography is “required reading for anyone with even a slight interest in Civil War-era U.S. history. A wonderfully written book about a true American freedom fighter.”

Puleo will be joined by Kathleen ‘Totsie’ McGonagle of Buttonwood Books and Toys. The Cohasset bookstore has served its community for more than three decades as an independent shop for everyone from young children to adults. McGonagle is a bookworm who has spread the joy of literacy as a librarian at Hingham Public Library and bookseller.

Join the conversation with Stephen Puleo and Totsie McGonagle as they discuss his new book “The Great Abolitionist” on May 22 at 6 p.m.

Buy “The Great Abolitionist” from: Bookshop | Buttonwood Books and Toys