Six Encounters with Lincoln: A President Confronts Democracy and Its Demons

by Elizabeth Brown Pryor

Winner of the Barondess/Lincoln Award from The Civil War Round Table of New York

"Fascinating reading. . .this book eerily reflects some of today's key issues." - The New York Times Book Review

From an award-winning historian, an engrossing look at how Abraham Lincoln grappled with the challenges of leadership in an unruly democracy

An awkward first meeting with U.S. Army officers, on the eve of the Civil War. A conversation on the White House portico with a young cavalry sergeant who was a fiercely dedicated abolitionist. A tense exchange on a navy ship with a Confederate editor and businessman.

In this eye-opening book, Elizabeth Brown Pryor examines six intriguing, mostly unknown encounters that Abraham Lincoln had with his constituents. Taken together, they reveal his character and opinions in unexpected ways, illustrating his difficulties in managing a republic and creating a presidency. Pryor probes both the political demons that Lincoln battled in his ambitious exercise of power and the demons that arose from the very nature of democracy itself: the clamorous diversity of the populace, with its outspoken demands. She explores the trouble Lincoln sometimes had in communicating and in juggling the multiple concerns that make up being a political leader; how conflicted he was over the problem of emancipation; and the misperceptions Lincoln and the South held about each other. Pryor also provides a fascinating discussion of Lincoln's fondness for storytelling and how he used his skills as a raconteur to enhance both his personal and political power.

Based on scrupulous research that draws on hundreds of eyewitness letters, diaries, and newspaper excerpts, Six Encounters with Lincoln offers a fresh portrait of Lincoln as the beleaguered politician who was not especially popular with the people he needed to govern with, and who had to deal with the many critics, naysayers, and dilemmas he faced without always knowing the right answer. What it shows most clearly is that greatness was not simply laid on Lincoln's shoulders like a mantle, but was won in fits and starts.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, American History, Civil War, Politics, Presidents

496 pages, Hardcover

First published February 7, 2017

About the author

Elizabeth Brown Pryor was an American historian and diplomat, in which capacity she served as senior advisor to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe of the U.S. Congress.

Pryor was born Mary Elizabeth Brown in Gary, Indiana. Her father worked for AT&T, and the family moved multiple times for his job. She finished her secondary school education in Summit, New Jersey and attended Northwestern University. Upon her graduation in 1973, Pryor began working for the United States Park Service. She also obtained a second bachelor's degree from the University of London and a masters in history from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1983, Brown joined the Department of State. She formulated the policy, known as the Pryor Paper, that eventually led the United States to rejoin UNESCO in 2003.

In 2008, Pryor was awarded the Lincoln Prize for 'Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee' through his Private Letters. She shared the honor with James Oakes, who won for 'The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics'. Pryor's book is notable for using hundreds of Lee's previously unpublished private letters to create a fresh biography of the Confederate general. Pryor is also the author of the biography 'Clara Barton: Professional Angel' about the founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton.

She was married and divorced twice, first to Anthony Pryor, then Frank Parker.

Sadly, Pryor was killed in a rear end vehicle accident caused by a speeding car driven by Robert Stevens Gentil in Richmond, Virginia on April 13, 2015. Gentil's long-term mental health issues led to episodes of manic delusions, including the belief on this occasion that his car was flying.

She was survived by her mother, Mary Brown Hamingson, and two sisters

Reviews

[Elizabeth George]

I found this book utterly fascinating. I did not read it straight through, however. Instead, I did what I also did with the biography of Hamilton: I read it in its designated sections, and after each section I paused and read a different book: either non-fiction of a novel.

Six Encounters with Lincoln offers, at least for this reader, a look at the 16th President that's new, fresh, and deeply researched. It exposes to the reader a heretofore unseen vision of Lincoln as he embarks on a Presidency for which he isn't fully prepared and enters a war he would vastly prefer not to fight. I learned so much about his marriage, his Presidency, his campaign strategies, his ambition, his fatherhood, his unease around women, end his determination to hold the country together. It's not a fast read, but the author's style and her ability to portray a vast cast of characters as real people make the book well worth reading. You will never look at Lincoln the same way. I promise.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could be kinder to Ms Pryor's final book (her sad death was a loss to the craft of history) but her tome here is plagued by 21st Century values being applied to the mid-19th Century. Instead of accepting Lincoln as a man of his time, she condemns his admitted male chauvinism as if he was born in 1980. Unfair not only to Lincoln, but to the craft of history itself. Was Lincoln an "enlightened male" by 1860's standards? Hardly but that no more dulls his genius and luster than if he couldn't grasp higher mathematics. I'm just sorry Pryor didn't judge him as a man of his era...not ours.

[Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading about 1/3 of the book on why the author thought Lincoln was not a good president, let alone the greatest, I gave up on the book.

[Marie (UK) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The audible version of this book is very well narrated and quite easy to listen to. However,I am not sure what the author means by "encounters" I had expected six accounts of meetings with Lincoln but the actuality was much more vague. i was disappointed in the almost exclusively negative view of Lincoln portrayed. Brown suggests he was a poor tactician and statesman, with "nepotistic" tendencies to promote those he owed favours to. A comic raconteur with inappropriate timing, incompetent, misogynist, possibly homosexual and not a great husband. She suggests he was irrespectful of his father, indulgent of his children and bad at communication particularly with women. There was obviously a huge amount of research that went into this book but i found the end product to be somewhat one-sided. Wikipaedia defines his presidency as follows " Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis.[2][3] In doing so, he preserved the Union, paved the way to the abolition of slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy." I am not sure you would get that from this book

[Kevin Christiansen · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing addition to the Lincoln canon. I knew when I began the book that it was going to be a critical analysis of Lincoln. Unfortunately, the author seemed to have a number of axes to grind that took away from her telling of the Lincoln story. At one point I seriously asked myself if the author was suggesting that Millard Fillmore was a more competent, articulate, and effective president than Lincoln. It probably goes without saying, but I would not recommend this book to those looking to learn more about Lincoln.

[Jay Hatch · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thesis of this book is the attempt to portray Abraham Lincoln in a more "realistic" light from the author's perspective. This is an interesting read. I disagree with the author on many of her conclusions but I believe it was worth the read!

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written and engaging, but mostly heavily footnoted malarkey. Through Lincoln's encounters with a (cherry-picked) handful of well- and not-so well known contemporaries, Pryor goes to great (repetitive) lengths to shatter the myth that he was either a great man or a great President. Her parting shot: "he was never, in his lifetime, truly the president of the entire Untied States," as if we should respect in any way the South's rejection of him as such. In fact, Lincoln was a fumbler, a bumbler and mumbler with numerous crass habits, in this telling.

The evidence does appear to show Lincoln was no military genius. He gets little slack for the speed with which war "happened" on his watch, or the fact that many of his key generals, i.e. Lee, scooted so fast to the other side, which might just explain a tiny bit of his hesitancy to trust the military in general. Then too, Native Americans fared especially poorly under Lincoln; the distraction of the Civil War was no excuse. A contemporary reader can buy this, up to a point. (Then again, Frederick Douglass, according to his biographer, had less empathy for the plight of Native Americans than Lincoln did.) Nor was Lincoln a fierce abolitionist or budding feminist. The Cs and Ds really pile up in these sections.

Lastly, Pryor argues that Lincoln seriously misread the South (though much of her evidence actually supports a contrary position) and, ludicrously, suggests he may have been able to avoid the war. To cap it all off, in a cursory, gratuitous epilogue, Pryor dings Lincoln for not being Shakespeare either. (She does concede that the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural were kinda good.)

What Pryor utterly fails to contend with is the question of which of Lincoln's clearly lesser contemporaries -- i.e. every other major politician of the time -- would have handled the impossible situation any more effectively.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The one thing you can't say is that this isn't well researched. 130 pages of notes!

Oh, wait. I'm supposed to thank Goodreads for getting to win this in a giveaway. Which I most profusely do.

Right. So, 130 pages of notes. That's essentially the same length as the first three chapters!

But it's nice to know that that the author doesn't just rely on being well researched. Of almost equal importance to me, is that it isn't hard to read. No one enjoys a dry history. It might be appreciated and given the scholarly nod, but no one actually enjoys plowing through one. No problems here. The author includes so many quotes and stories it's nigh impossible to call this dry.

It's a bit of a misnomer calling this Six Encounters. The initial Encounters are little more than springboards for the topic and many other encounters that follow that subject. Not a terrible way to set up the book, just somewhat misleading.

Having majored in history, I'm usually pleased to find new facts and details. 3 or 4 of the chapters really don't contain much in the way of surprise for me, except in the way of details. The chapter on Lincoln's relations with women disappointed me but didn't really surprise me too much, and Pryor's explanations ring true. The chapter on his dealings with Native Americans... made me feel ill. Pryor's purpose of showing Lincoln as he was instead of the whitewashed view often provided by history rings truest here. As much of my studying has been about this era, Indian relations were apparently always avoided, leaving that subject to lay with Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears. Alas.

So, no matter if you think you know ol' Abe or know you know nothing, there's something to learn. You'll enjoy alleviating your ignorance even if sometimes it leads to disappointment in a hero.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want a book that demonstrates in its clearest form the sort of chronological snobbery that tends to infect Progressives, especially of the kind who write frequently execrable histories, this book is one of the more tolerable examples of that genre [1].  This book is the work of someone who takes fault with Abraham Lincoln for being a practical politician and for not meeting the enlightened standards of the present age when it comes to women, a post-racial society, and the treatment of indigenous Americans.  And while some of the complaints are just, most of them come off as sour grapes on the part of the author.  After all, a great deal of Lincoln's problems with women came about as a result of being socially awkward with women even more than he was socially awkward in general, and I'm not the kind of person who is going to stand for people being subjected to ridicule simply for their awkwardness.  In addition to this, the author neglects that concerns about a just multiracial society of the kind dreamed by idealists are still present, and given the virulent anti-white racism of antifa and others like them, it may not be a reasonable goal if the black community or leftist academics cannot police their own radicals better.  If such matters can be an issue in our time, Lincoln deserves to be cut a lot of slack for being unable to see a way for racial justice and equity to work in the face of the feelings of his time.

As the book's subtitle suggests, this book looks at six encounters between Lincoln and others, along with a lot of other filler material to push the book past the 300 page mark and to show the author has researched a lot about Lincoln.  The first chapter looks at the wary relationship that Lincoln had with the military hierarchy.  After that the author looks at Lincoln's love of racy and sometimes inappropriate comic writing which served to make his points for him.  After this the author explores Lincoln's relationship with abolitionists, who he found rather irksome because of their impractical idealism--about the same way I feel about the late author and others of her ilk.  After that, the author examines Lincoln's relationship with the first peoples of the country and the tragic results of that, a case of the power of demography.  A chapter about Lincoln's testy relationship with feminists--something I happen to share--comes before a discussion of Lincoln's struggle for legitimacy with regards to his failure to be the president over the whole country.  A short but thoughtful epilogue follows that examines Lincoln's fondness for Shakespeare's political tragedies as offering insight into his own experience.

There is a great deal about this book to appreciate, as long as you can ignore the author's consistently progressive tone.  This book is worthwhile evidence to demonstrate that one can read a lot about Lincoln without getting the point.  The author seems to want to have it both ways by criticizing Lincoln both for being too hard on those poor misguided Southerners while not seeming to take the seriousness of their position seriously by undercutting some illusory middle ground while also simultaneously showing all of the strident idealism of the abolitionists that provided a lot of the pressure that Lincoln had to deal with as president.  It might be a good thing that a freak car accident prevented the author from having anything more to say about Abraham Lincoln or anything else, as this book is evidence of the sort of tired progressive thought that makes our own contemporary political scene such an unpleasant one.  About the best thing that can be said is that the author's interest in plumbing the depths of the "real Lincoln" allows her to uncover some worthwhile sources, even if she does not always seem to know what to do with them given her defective political worldview.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Six Encounters with Lincoln, by Elizabeth Brown Pryor, examines six times Lincoln met with various constituents during his presidency. These are not six meetings with six different individuals; rather, Pryor looks at encounters with various groups of constituents: his army, the audiences for his storytelling, abolitionists, Native Americans, women, and the vanquished southerners. In several cases, an individual or two represents an entire group. Sergeant Lucien P. Waters was an abolitionist; John Ross was a Native American Cherokee chief; Harriet Beecher Stowe represents the women; and Duff Green, a southerner but also a Unionist, warned Lincoln about the deep animosity of the Confederate States. In a kind of "bonus" chapter (Pryor calls it an epilogue), the author looks at Lincoln's relationship with Shakespeare.

Pryor's book challenges our perceptions of Lincoln as a humble, kindly man beloved by all except the evil southerners. Pryor does not shy from examining Lincoln's failings as a man and as a president. Lincoln was not a military man, and his handling of the Union Army prolonged the American Civil War. His dealings with Native Americans were mostly dishonest. Lincoln had difficulty with women, especially outspoken, independent women. Lincoln often disregarded words of wisdom from others, that, had he heeded them, might have shortened the Civil War or led to an easier and more complete reunion of the United States. Pryor implies that Lincoln's assassination made him a martyr whose faults we now refuse to see. We have elevated the man to a national myth, rather than seeing him as the imperfect human he was.

Pryor's writing is quick-moving. Her analysis is insightful, and her research is commendable--she's documented several of Lincoln's meetings with others that were found only in private letters and diaries that have not been published. The organization of the book, however, is a bit disconcerting. Chapter 1, "A Wary Handshake," describes Lincoln's first encounter with his senior military officers, including General Winfield Scott, Colonel George Gibson, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Taylor, and Surgeon General Thomas Lawson. Then Pryor analyzes Lincoln's relationship with the military throughout his presidency. Essentially, Pryor's definition of "encounter" is not a single, revealing meeting with an individual, but a relationship with a group. In Chapter 2, "Pfunny Pface," Pryor begins with a little-known story about Lincoln's raising the flag at the inauguration of a Marine bandstand on the White House lawn. She then segues into a discussion of Lincoln's story-telling abilities and his impact on audiences. Pryor uses a broad definition of the word "encounter."

Pryor's assessment of Lincoln is harsh, and she cuts the man no slack. It's difficult to read about Lincoln's deep flaws and integrate that information with the mythology of the man. No doubt Six Encounters with Lincoln is a needed corrective, but potential readers should be ready to have their deepest beliefs about our sixteenth president shattered.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interestingly many of the other reviews here seem to think that Ms. Pryor is picking on Lincoln by discussing his social awkwardness or applying modern standards to his behavior. In fact, I read her intention in the exact opposite light. Fundamentally, she was trying to contextualize Lincoln's beliefs. she was neither papering over what the 21st-century reader might find objectionable nor explaining away those views with a simplistic "that's what people thought in those days." For example, she discusses how a number of factors probably influenced Lincoln's dismissive/ambivalent treatment of Native Americans, including: his frontier upbringing, the fact that a relative was killed by a Native American, and the fact that he fought in the Indian Wars. To me, what was especially interesting in that chapter was how she discussed the conflicts taking place between Native American groups, the fact that some Native Americans owned slaves, and the fact that Native Americans fought on both sides of the Civil War. Overall, the impression that I came away with was not that she was picking on Lincoln but, rather, trying to show the complexity of the issues surrounding the federal government's relationship with Native Americans. The progressive of the 21st-century might wish that Lincoln had handled things differently, but said progressive must admit that there was no clear, straightforward course of action and say "if only Lincoln had done X, all the Native Americans would have ended up so much better off." The situation just wasn't that simple and that comes through in Pryor's narrative.

She also examines how Lincoln could both call slavery a great evil but also hold the belief that whites and blacks probably couldn't really co-exist in American society. (She mentions that his early thinking was that it would be best if blacks returned to Africa, although his thinking evolved on that issue.) She does discuss the spectrum of beliefs held at that time-- both with regard to racial relations and with regard to the proper role of women in society-- and that examination seems to show that Lincoln fell somewhere in the middle.

She does discuss some of his flaws and mistakes-- places where his lack of experience or ambition may have hurt his effectivenes. Also, she discusses his relationship with the media, and the fact that many people were quite critical of his presidency. Again, I don't think that that was picking on his-- just showing that he was not always held with the high regard that he is now. And, in fact, I think this insight makes this book a really powerful reminder that great men (and women) have flaws and make mistakes-- and, in spite of this, do great things. Pryor's final image of Lincoln as a man willing to turn inward and grapple with his own shortcomings to be better and do better is, unltimately, much more inspiring than some two dimensional "honest Abe" charicature.

[Robert W. Piedrahita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book did not paint a complimentary portrait of Lincoln in his dealings with the Indians and women. I found each of the “encounters” utterly fascinating and revealing. I had no idea how reviled Lincoln was in the North and South. The author believed that Lincoln could have avoided the Civil War. I thought the chapter covering Lincoln’s fascination with Macbeth, Lear, Richard II, and Henry IV absolutely fascinating. Recommend highly!

This book did not paint a complimentary portrait of Lincoln in his dealings with the Indians and women. I found each of the “encounters” utterly fascinating and revealing. I had no idea how reviled Lincoln was in the North and South. The author believed that Lincoln could have avoided the Civil War. I thought the chapter covering Lincoln’s fascination with Macbeth, Lear, Richard II, and Henry IV absolutely fascinating. Recommend highly!

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presents some different views of the Lincoln of traditional history. It explores some of his deficiencies and how he dealt with them: his lack of military knowledge, his tendency to wander into rambling storytelling, his slow acceptance of emancipation, his faulty personal communication skills. One emerges with a more complex view of the Lincoln, a less than perfect leader coping in a remarkably difficult time.

[Montage Matt]

Lincoln sad, Lincoln bad, Lincoln mad and Lincoln funny too. The author gives us a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and his era through ‘encounters’ that others had with him. In some cases one time encounters but usually generalized encounters that explain who he was and how he made decisions. Encounters with women, with Native Americans, with Southerners and even a chapter on his preferred humor. Not a biography but in a roundabout way still a biography on his character.

[Royal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this book is somewhat deceptive. The actual encounters with Abraham Lincoln play at relatively small role in the text. Mostly the author uses them as a vehicle to criticize Lincoln's decisions during the war/presidency. Some of these criticisms are quite legitimate, AKA the author's criticism of how Lincoln dealt with Native Americans. Others smack of modern value judgments and a misunderstanding of the pressures of a civil war.

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea to look at Lincoln through another lens. But I felt in her desire to use that lens, she strayed too far in the other direction (Lincoln was not good at this, he did not treat women or blacks fairly, he was uncouth, he had a sense of humor that was not appropriate, etc.). I would have preferred a little more balance

[Sandra Oldfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book but it was not what I thought it was going to be about. I thought it was going to focus on 6 actual encounters more in detail rather than a lot of back and side stories related to the encounters. It was a good book though overall

[Pat Carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This title makes you pull the halo off Lincoln and treat him like we do any modern president. Pryor brings up more newspaper and other coverage of Lincoln that was new to me.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting perspective on Lincoln. Not the heroic image commonly held about him. He was human and struggled. Very interesting read.

[Declan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Six essay about topics of interest. Other than the encounters happened the chapters aren’t descriptions of the event or Lincoln’s behavior at them.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very different look at Lincoln then in the History books.

[Andrea Engle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published posthumously, this masterpiece of scholarship examines six little-known encounters with President Lincoln ... each confrontation showcases Lincoln's relationship with segments of the American public: the American military; the comic press; the slave population; the troubled Native Americans; the womenfolk, particularly nascent feminists; and the rebellious Southerners ... concludes intriguingly with an essay on Lincoln's fascination with Shakespeare, particularly Macbeth ...

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received Six Encounters with Lincoln as part of a Goodreads giveaway.

In her final work before her untimely death, Elizabeth Brown Pryor uses six encounters between our sixteenth president and his constituents as a means of exploring Lincoln's complex attitudes towards a wide range of Americans, as well as his presidency at large. Unlike many biographies and popular images, Pryor does not flinch from criticizing Lincoln heavily, from his practice of hiring friends and political allies for jobs they were ill-suited or unqualified for to his thoughts on women, African Americans, Native Americans, and others, which were not the most enlightened (even by 1860s standards) despite popular belief to the contrary. Paraphrasing Pryor in the book's introduction, Lincoln is viewed as someone who always tried to do the right thing. But at what point is "trying" not merely enough, especially when mistakes from those tries cost hundreds of thousands of lives?

Being a historian myself, particularly one skeptical of the "great man" theory of history, I really enjoyed this more critical look at Lincoln's presidency, policies, and political views. The "six encounters" frame is a bit questionable, as the encounters are a very (very) small part of the narrative, merely used as a springboard to talk about larger issues. That said, Pryor's research is impeccable and the points she raises shouldn't be ignored, especially given the beloved place Lincoln now occupies in popular memory. History is almost always best viewed in shades of gray, and this is an excellent look at Lincoln's own struggles and shortcomings. Pryor doesn't despise Lincoln, it's clear--but she does ask the reader to look deeper, viewing him as a man often in over his head, overwhelmed by the demands of civil war and many different constituencies.

Definitely worth a read for Lincoln fans, novices, and historians alike.

[Jim Kuhlman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written. Remarkable perspectives.

[Laura Housley · Rating 4 out of 5]

She sees good in Lincoln, but is not enamored with him. . .which is an interesting premise to start the book. Six primary source accounts that are new.

[David Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the general premise of this book is similar to the author’s excellent work on Robert E. Lee, to see a historical figure as he was seen in his time before retrospective hagiography set in, it’s not nearly as good. Perhaps this is because the veneration of Lincoln was founded on the truth of his role as savior of the Union, while Lee’s idolators sought to create a false narrative of the unspotted servant of a virtuous cause.

To suggest that Lincoln was flawed does not undo his greatness. It s hard to see how a shorter war would have ended slavery, or how a war that failed to end slavery would not have led to future conflicts. To quote Lincoln’s contemporary critics does not prove that he was wrong, only that he was not uniformly popular.

[Beverly J. Harvey]

I love learning about history, but the writers of history tend to get into the weeds and they include way too much minutia. I finally gave up because it wasn't fun reading anymore.

[Robert Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have read 204 pages of 496.

[Amanda Davenport · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sorry I read it. It was quite well written and thought provoking regarding one of my favorite topics - how should we evaluate historical figures in reference to modern values? However, I reject most of its claims. I found the chapter on women to be the most compelling and the last chapter, on How Southerners saw Lincoln to be the least compelling.