Lincoln in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Oct 15, 2012 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography, non-fiction, history, political, ultimate-reading-list

Ever since historians have been polled to rank United States Presidents, Abraham Lincoln has consistently landed in the top three; many consider him our greatest president. Which is not to say Lincoln doesn't have strong detractors. Many of my politically inclined friends have attacked him left and right: For his appalling record on civil liberties and violation of constitutional principles--and some claim that Lincoln should not be seen as a champion of equal rights and racial justice--I've eve Ever since historians have been polled to rank United States Presidents, Abraham Lincoln has consistently landed in the top three; many consider him our greatest president. Which is not to say Lincoln doesn't have strong detractors. Many of my politically inclined friends have attacked him left and right: For his appalling record on civil liberties and violation of constitutional principles--and some claim that Lincoln should not be seen as a champion of equal rights and racial justice--I've even known some to claim the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery at all. (I'd say this book--and every other reputable work of scholarship I've read--makes it idiotic to believe the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery. The South seceded precisely because of the election of Lincoln who had made clear his opposition to the further expansion of slavery.)

One could, at least if one quoted very selectively and out of context, find plenty of ammunition in this biography for that negative assessment. Lincoln's record on civil liberties is appalling. Suspension of habeas corpus leading to the arrest and imprisonment of political dissenters, opening of private mails, military tribunals trying civilians, censorship, even complete suppression of unfriendly newspapers, institution of the draft--even use of troops to suppress Democratic votes and threaten uncooperative state legislatures. Even Donald admits that Lincoln was responsible for "greater infringements on individual liberties than in any other period in American history." As for criticism of his racial policies, it's true that Lincoln famously wrote in a letter that the purpose of the war was to save the Union and, "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."

Despite that Donald doesn't omit any of that, his portrait of Lincoln still comes across as sympathetic and admiring. As Donald drew Lincoln, he was, above all, a pragmatist and canny politician who knowing the racist views of his fellow citizens tacked and maneuvered and steered a course towards emancipation as far and fast as the winds of public opinion would allow. Donald does well in giving you the context to understand why Lincoln would say the things he did and act the way he did. Indeed, that's the very purpose of the biography. In the Prologue Donald related that the one time he met President John F. Kennedy, the president told him that, "No one has a right to grade a President--not even poor James Buchanan--who has not sat in his chair, examined the mail and information that came across his desk, and learned why he made his decisions."

That's what Donald set out to do in this Lincoln biography and it hews close to Lincoln's point of view. It's a biography widely considered to be the best one-volume biography of Lincoln in print. It's exhaustive certainly, and sometimes exhausting. It's 600 pages in trade paperback in small font and, especially in those parts dealing with the minutia of Lincoln's law practice, I found myself less than riveted--but I had to admire Donald's research and scholarship throughout. About a third of the biography dealt with Lincoln's life before coming to national prominence in the Lincoln/Douglas debates, another third takes you through his campaign for president to the eve of the Emancipation Proclamation and the lowest point of the war, and the last third takes you through the rest of the war and Lincoln's assassination. No man up to that time of Lincoln's election had been "less prepared to be president" according to Donald--and maybe no man since. Lincoln had less than a year of formal schooling, no administrative experience upon taking office, and his political experience had been limited to 8 years as an Illinois State legislator and one very undistinguished term as a congressman. The personal and political challenge on his taking office were thus immense--but Donald believes he grew greatly in that office--and Donald certainly makes a strong case for that and makes you appreciate the crushing decisions Lincoln faced. ...more

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Aug 10, 2017 Christian Dibblee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: american-history, biography, presidents

Agreeing with most of the other reviews about this book, I'd say DHD's Lincoln is very scholarly and informative while not being particularly engaging from a prose perspective. I found DHD could have done a bit more to describe the relationship between the man and his wife, Mary. She is often given some attention in these biographies, but there was very little mention here about her issues.

That said, the book's discussion of the pre-presidency years was decently interesting. Donald presents a p Agreeing with most of the other reviews about this book, I'd say DHD's Lincoln is very scholarly and informative while not being particularly engaging from a prose perspective. I found DHD could have done a bit more to describe the relationship between the man and his wife, Mary. She is often given some attention in these biographies, but there was very little mention here about her issues.

That said, the book's discussion of the pre-presidency years was decently interesting. Donald presents a picture of Lincoln as an intellectual thought leader who consistently pushed for Whig and later Republican ideals on the campaign trail. It is somewhat fascinating to consider Lincoln's ascension with such a background, as parties today often eschew intellectual leaders for those with more charisma and heft in front of a TV camera. It is also amazing that he won the popular vote in the IL Senate race but lost the election, a fact which would reverse itself when the time came for the presidential election of 1860.

As for the presidency, DHD takes a different tack than more popular biographies. At points, he seems to downplay Lincoln's abilities. Early on he calls Lincoln out for not acting quickly enough on Fort Sumter, arguing that his caution contributed to the eventual crisis. Furthermore, he depicts Lincoln's Cabinet choices as merely him trying to assuage all groups of the Republican coalition. This is a marked argument from that of Doris Kearns Goodwin in Team of Rivals, which focused on this process as emblematic of Lincoln's political genius and willingness to accept rivals into his Cabinet for the good of the nation.

From there, it's tough to make of how DHD feels about Lincoln. He shows in great detail just how beset Lincoln was on all sides while in office. Not only was he prosecuting a war, but he had to withstand attacks and dislike from almost every faction in Congress. The Radicals even tried to oust him in favor of Chase at one point in the first term, and never gave up. For me, such impediments shows Lincoln was politically savvy and quite good at interpersonal relationships, though Donald never explicitly makes that point clear. He also emphasizes Lincoln's hesitancy on emancipation, highlighting letters and statements of Lincoln's both prior to and after the Proclamation. At one point in peace negotiations Lincoln even suggested compensated emancipation, something that I had not known prior to reading this.

As for the book's ending, it is a bit sudden but reinforces again how different things might have been had Lincoln been in office for the Reconstruction process. Interestingly, while DHD never takes any firm ground, he presents lots of evidence showing Lincoln didn't want to make social or political equality of blacks a condition for Southern reconstruction. His one-tenth plan also was fairly lenient, so I will be curious to explore that in my future reading.

Overall, a very informative book that will tell the reader everything they want to know about this man. At the same time, it's a bit slow and ponderous. But the scholarship is excellent. ...more

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