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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
Martin Pengelly in Washington

‘Political cesspool’: Lincoln, Davis and a battle with echoes for the time of Trump

Abraham Lincoln Jefferson Davis Donald Trump Kamala Harris United States
an old sketch of two men boxing
Cartoon titled Caving In, or a Rebel ‘Deeply Humiliated’, by Ben Day, showing Abraham Lincoln getting the best of Jefferson Davis in a boxing match, 1863. Photograph: Interim Archives/Getty Images

Nigel Hamilton is a bestselling biographer, his major subjects including John F Kennedy, Franklin D Roosevelt and Bill Clinton. His new book, Lincoln vs Davis: The War of the Presidents, was published on Tuesday, the US presidential election day when Kamala Harris faced Donald Trump.

Late in his book, Hamilton notes a harsh 1862 verdict on Washington life by Adam Gurowski, a Polish emigre in the state department, anguished words that seem relevant and pungent today.

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