Lincoln Revisited: New Insights from the Lincoln Forum

by Harold Holzer (Editor), Dawn Vogel, John Y. Simon (Editor)

In February 2009, America celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, and the pace of new Lincoln books and articles has already quickened. From his cabinet’s politics to his own struggles with depression, Lincoln remains the most written-about story in our history. And each year historians find something new and important to say about the greatest of our Presidents.

Lincoln Revisited is a masterly guidePub to what’s new and what’s noteworthy in this unfolding story―a brilliant gathering of fresh scholarship by the leading Lincoln historians of our time. Brought together by The Lincoln Forum, they tackle uncharted territory and emerging questions; they also take a new look at established debates―including those about their own landmark works.

Here, these well-known historians revisit key chapters in Lincoln’s legacy―from Matthew Pinsker on Lincoln’s private life and Jean Baker on religion and the Lincoln marriage to Geoffrey Perret on Lincoln as leader and Frank J. Williams on Lincoln and civil liberties in wartime.

The eighteen original essays explore every corner of Lincoln’s world―religion and politics, slavery and sovereignty, presidential leadership and the rule of law, the Second Inaugural Address and the assassination.
In his 1947 classic, Lincoln Reconsidered, David Herbert Donald confronted the Lincoln myth. Today, the scholars in Lincoln Revisited give a new generation of students, scholars, and citizens the perspectives vital for understanding the constantly reinterpreted genius of Abraham Lincoln.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography

398 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2007

Reviews

[shane hampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything Harold Holzer writes is great, he is the preeminent Lincoln scholar today

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated this book's broad view of the history surrounding one of our nation's greatest leaders. The book is a compilation of essays written and presented by historians at the annual Lincoln Forum Symposium held in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I found all of my previous opinions of Lincoln solidified through these essays; he is a man of integrity, mercy and foresight. I also learned more of his human-ness, which made him palpable as a person in history. Especially impressing are the following essays, which I highly recommend:

The Campaign of 1860: Cooper Union, Mathew Brady, and the Campaign of Words and Images-by Harold Holzer

Varieties of Religious Experience: Abraham and Mary Lincoln-by Jean Baker

"I Felt It to Be My Duty to Refuse": The President and the Slave Trader-by William Lee Miller

Motivating Men: Lincoln, Grant, MacArthur, and Kennedy-by Geoffrey Perret

The Second Inaugural Address: The Spoken Words-by Ronald C. White, Jr.

[R.Friend · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting approach, as this book features a collection of various essays rather than a single narrative. Not only that, but they've been contributed by leading American historians--many of whom have already authored important books on Lincoln: Matthew Pinsker, Jr. on Lincoln's private life at the Soldier's Home; Edward Steers, Jr. on the assassination.