The Puliter-Prize winning classic and national bestseller returns! In this brilliant biography-a Pulitzer Prize-winning national bestseller-David Herbert Donald, Harvard professor emeritus, traces Sumner's life as the nation careens toward civil war. In a period when senators often exercised more influence than presidents, Senator Charles Sumner was one of the most powerful forces in the American government and remains one of the most controversial figures in American history. His uncompromising