The Present Crisis: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Present Crisis, credited to James Russell Lowell, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox volunteers bring you 7 recordings of The Present Crisis by James Russell Lowell. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for November 22, 2015. Read in English by Bruce Kachuk; Brian Darby; Newgatenovelist; Greg Giordano; Leonard Wilson; Maria Kasper and Son of the Exiles. James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets. These poets usually used conventional forms and meters in their poetry, making them suitable for families entertaining at their fireside. "Lowell's poem "The Present Crisis," an early work that addressed the national crisis over slavery leading up to the Civil War, has had an impact in the modern civil rights movement. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People named its newsletter The Crisis after the poem, and Martin Luther King, Jr. frequently quoted the poem in his speeches and sermons. The poem was also the source of the hymn Once to Every Man and Nation."( Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Present Crisis
• Author credits: James Russell Lowell
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 7
• Listed recording duration: 1:00:08

Catalogue topics

• poetry
• history
• epic
• conflict

Track guide

1. 01 - The Present Crisis - Read by BK — 8:57
2. 02 - The Present Crisis - Read by BSD — 7:15
3. 03 - The Present Crisis - Read by EL — 7:16
4. 04 - The Present Crisis - Read by GG — 9:17
5. 05 - The Present Crisis - Read by LLW — 9:48
6. 06 - The Present Crisis - Read by MK — 7:59
7. 07 - The Present Crisis - Read by SOTE — 9:36

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.