I picked this book up as a recommendation from Strand in Manhattan. Not knowing what to expect, I was all at once pleasantly surprised and supremely disappointed. To me, the biggest thing that jumps out about this author's style is that she is the Chuck Klosterman of political history. The plot follows the author through road trips and vacations to various spots of historical significance and her stories are advanced through a combination of her interactions with the everyday people there and her own historical narrative. This is very similar to "Killing Yourself to Live", except rather than introspective tangents on the author's interpersonal relationships (which allow the reader to get closer to and relate to the author) she goes off on pointless political tangents that run completely counter to the overall tone of the book.

The author does her best writing when she stays primarily in the realm of tongue in cheek chasing of useless trivia. Being a history buff (and big Lincoln fan), it was very interesting to read about some of the circumstances surrounding these events. However, every couple dozen pages, she does a very poor job of relating these past events to current ones. The change from an irreverent writing style to a very serious political (and overtly far left-wing) rant is a jarring one for the reader. Overall, this book's biggest problem is its lack of identity. The author is never really sure if she wants to be a fun lark through the pages of history, or a cautionary tale of learning from our past mistakes. Holding witty banter with tour guides on the same page as trying to determine the groundwork of today's controversial (and in her opinion, evil) Republican Party is just a bit too much for me.