“George Boutwell, one of the central political characters of his age, whose story charts the whole arc of the party of Lincoln, is at last brought vividly and brilliantly back to life―with vital lessons for our time about what it takes to defend democracy.”
In Boutwell: Radical Republican and Champion of Democracy, historian Jeffrey Boutwell tells the story of George S. Boutwell, a Massachusetts statesman whose career spanned the nation’s most transformative—and turbulent—decades. Rising from the Commonwealth’s youngest governor in the 1850s to a founding member of the Republican Party, Boutwell became a trusted ally of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War and Reconstruction. In Congress, he helped craft the 14th and 15th Amendments, led the impeachment effort against Andrew Johnson, and as Treasury Secretary under Grant, laid the foundation for the modern American economy. His Senate years saw him investigate white supremacist violence in the South, and at age 80, he joined Andrew Carnegie and Mark Twain in leading the Anti-Imperialist League against U.S. annexation of the Philippines. Drawing on extensive research and family ties to his subject, Jeffrey Boutwell offers a vivid portrait of a principled politician whose lifelong fight for equality and good governance remains strikingly relevant today.
Jeffrey Boutwell is a writer, historian, and public policy specialist whose forty-year career has included work in journalism, government, and international scientific research. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from MIT and a B.A. in history from Yale University, and has written widely on arms control, European politics, and Middle East security. A descendant of early Massachusetts settler James Boutwell, he grew up in Winchester and Concord, and now lives in Columbia, Maryland.
Our Speaker Series is free & open to the public! Light refreshments will be served.
This series is made possible by our generous sponsor, Christine Mayer, and is presented in partnership with the Wellesley Free Library.