Reviews for The presidency of Abraham Lincoln

The average rating for The presidency of Abraham Lincoln based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-08-11 00:00:00 Carles Millan Badals The Lincoln scholar James M. McPherson famously said that more things have been written about Lincoln than anyone other than Jesus and Shakespeare. Based on that, why would you ever want to read a book about Lincoln that was written more than 20 years ago? Because this one is so highly readable. This is the book you give someone who wants a super-focused look at the Lincoln presidency and the personality of the man. It’s the book you open to gain a better understanding of Lincoln and his time. Read about chaos in the House of Representatives that make today’s kerfuffle over a speaker seem tame and silly by comparison. To listen to the talking heads, you’d think the constitutional sky is falling where our current turbulent search for a House speaker is concerned. Indeed, one of the reasons you pick up this book is to gain a better perspective on history. Did I mention this is so highly readable that you’ll completely forget you’re reading history? Incidentally, this book has a tremendous amount of credibility with current Civil War scholars. Gerry Prokopovicz at East Carolina University, host of Civil War Talk Radio, one of the truly excellent Civil War podcasts currently available, speaks highly of this book. Indeed, it is because he referenced it a few times in his podcast that I decided to give it a go. It’s a book that’s part of a series written about various presidents by scholars who had expertise in the lives of those presidents. Paludan points out here areas where he disagrees with one scholar or another, and he always gives you good reasons for his disagreements. This is not a Civil War battle history; it’s not a compendium of generals, their successes or failings. Instead, it’s a history of the president and his thinking and the reasons he made some of the decisions he made. This is not a biography of Lincoln; instead, it’s a biography of the Lincoln presidency.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-03-30 00:00:00 Ron Mencel Paludan provides an excellent overview of the Lincoln administration. Beginning with the obvious, he notes that "No president had larger challenges than Abraham Lincoln," and that Lincoln met those challenges with two "enormous accomplishments," saving the Union and freeing the slaves. Paludan recounts Lincoln's efforts to create a cabinet and harness the talents of its disparate individuals, the challenge of leading the largest war effort in the nation's history to that point and of finding military officers who could carry the war to a successful conclusion. The author argues that the goals of saving the Union and freeing the slaves were inextricably linked in Lincoln's mind and he demonstrates how the President utilized his great political skills and his power as an orator to secure these objectives, often working against what seemed like very long odds. Without Abraham Lincoln, it is entirely possible that the United States would have shattered irreparably in the 1860s, with unimaginable consequences for the people who would later inhabit the North American continent and the world beyond. Looking back with the perspective of 145 years, we take for granted the rise of the United States to the pre-eminent position it holds in the world today. Phillip Shaw Paludan reminds us that, but for Abraham Lincoln, it might never have happened.