Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), the inventor of dynamite, was a chemist, engineer, businessman and, most memorably, philanthropist; he was also a scholar, fluent in Russian, French, English and German. Above all, he loved poetry.
With a friend like the United States, what freedom-loving people – from the native tribes of New England to the self-liberated people of the Philippines – needed an enemy?
The election of 1856 did all three of the things: the membership of the extant party changed; one party was destroyed and another created, and exposed were the social and cultural conditions that produce a critical election.
