American eBook

Though Abraham Lincoln is often considered the United States’ most legendary politician, he wasn’t the only country lawyer out of Illinois to change the face of the nation. John Peter Altgeld fought for Lincoln as a foot soldier in the Union Army, then followed in his footsteps from law to politics, eventually becoming governor of Illinois in 1896. Howard Fast’s dazzling fictional account of Altgeld’s life offers an inspirational example of a man who made great sacrifices for quintessentially American ideals. Inspired by Altgeld’s social reforms, such as his fight against the dehumanizing economic injustice of the Gilded Age and his trailblazing implementation of some of the nation’s first child labor laws, Fast celebrates the compelling life of an unsung American luminary.