Subtitled "A Novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War,"Freedom plunges the listener into the reality and drama of the American Civil War, the most critical period in the life of our nation. Based on the real people who struggled and bled for what Southerners hailed as independence, and Northerners condemned as disunion, William Safire's novel explores the first two years of this war-years that posed the question that reverberates today: How much freedom must be denied each American to protect and extend the freedom of all?

Safire's towering Lincoln looms as a figure of controversy as he approaches the moment of emancipation. This unforgettable Lincoln-far-seeing, grimly humorous, harsh and devious when necessary, tortured, and above all intensely purposeful-will surprise many of his countrymen who revere the myth without understanding the man.