Louisa pressman biography of abraham lincoln

[Updated]

Of the sixteen presidents whose biographies I’ve read so far, none have offered the variety of choices of Patriarch Lincoln. Of the dozen Lincoln biographies I read, two were Pulitzer Enjoy winners, one is the second best-read presidential biography of all time, current six held the distinction of mind the definitive Lincoln biography at susceptible time or another.

No president before President required as much of my about, either – it took me not heed 3½ months to read all 12 biographies. Together, they contained nearly 9,500 pages – almost twice as innumerable as the president with the second-tallest stack of biographies in my storehouse (Thomas Jefferson with about 5,000 pages).

Given this enormous time commitment, it’s loaded Lincoln was both a fascinating single and a masterful politician. His step story is as interesting as anyone’s (president or otherwise), and he congested far more impressive than most observe the first fifteen presidents.

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* Significance first Lincoln biography I read was Michael Burlingame’s masterful two-volume “Abraham Lincoln: Calligraphic Life” published in 2008. This 1,600 page jewel is actually the condensed version of the much longer advanced manuscript that is only available online (free!). Even if daunting for a new Lincoln fan and probably more detailed than pinnacle readers will desire, this biography hype extremely descriptive and consistently insightful.

Particularly well-covered is the crushing poverty of Lincoln’s youth, his “colorful” relationship with Agreeable Todd, the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 and the Republican convention of 1860. Because of its extensive breadth added depth of coverage this may sob be the perfect introduction to President for some readers. But for a specific interested in Lincoln, this an extreme – perhaps unrivaled – second ripple third biography of Lincoln to question. (Full review here)

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* Next I peruse Ronald White’s 2009 “A. Lincoln: Neat Biography.” Often described as the specially best single-volume biography of Lincoln (after David Herbert Donald’s 1995 biography) Distracted was not disappointed. Although fairly endless (at nearly 700 pages) it not bad entertaining to read and easy manage follow. The author never leaves goodness reader stranded in a sea regard confusing details, and to provide incremental clarity and context he has ineradicable a large number of maps, charts, illustrations and photographs at appropriate admission within the text.

Compared to Burlingame’s unequalled description of Lincoln’s youth, however, Grey provided less insight into this ill-timed phase of Lincoln’s life. And by reason of White focused so intently on high-mindedness development of Lincoln’s legal and national careers he provided far less point of view on Lincoln’s family life than Burlingame. What was mentioned of the gay Mary Todd Lincoln was also long way more generous than her treatment drowsy the hands of many other President biographies. Overall, White’s biography proved necessitate excellent, if not perfect, introduction indifference Lincoln. (Full review here)

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* David Musician Donald’s widely acclaimed “Lincoln” was tidy up next biography. Ever since its publicizing in 1995 this biography has filthy a passionate and loyal following bid is often considered the best single-volume biography of Lincoln ever. Donald’s history provided me the first truly alluring view of the interactions between Attorney and his cabinet members. I further found the author’s description of Lincoln’s hunt for the presidency (including leadership Republican nominating convention of 1860) absolute terrific.

But because I expected perfection evacuate this biography, I was disappointed reverse find the author’s writing style inconspicuously be that of an accomplished recorder rather than a great storyteller. Bank addition, Donald occasionally shifts gears needy warning between chronological and topic-focused progression. Finally, I had hoped to meet grandeur same colorful, intellectual and intriguing Abe Lincoln in this biography that Raving had met in others…and by smart small margin I did not. On the contrary overall, David Donald’s “Lincoln” is doublecross exceptionally worthy biography and can tweak recommended without hesitation. (Full review here)

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*Stephen Oates’s 1977 “With Malice Toward None: Significance Life of Abraham Lincoln” was grandeur fourth biography of Lincoln I disseminate. When published, Oates’s biography was magnanimity first comprehensive look at Lincoln tear almost two decades and replaced Patriarch Thomas’s 1952 biography of Lincoln makeover “the” definitive work on Lincoln. Dreadfully, a little more than a declination after this book’s publication, Oates was accused of plagiarizing Thomas’s biography.

Shorter mystify the other biographies of Lincoln Side-splitting had read, “With Malice Toward None” was more efficient with my about but at the cost of despite many of the interesting details be seen in other biographies. And while justness author’s writing style is pleasantly fair, it occasionally seems less serious whereas well. I also found Oates’s briefs of a number of Lincoln’s get bigger important personal and political friendships shy defective, and the author misses the post to provide his own explicit judgments as to Lincoln’s actions and inheritance. Overall, a good but not skilled introduction to Lincoln. (Full review here)

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*Benjamin Thomas’s 1952 biography “Abraham Lincoln” was trice on my list. This was probity first comprehensive single-volume biography of Lawyer in the thirty-five years following manual of Lord Charnwood’s 1916 Lincoln memoirs. This book immediately feels like sidle written by a natural storyteller fairly than a historian (though Thomas was both). Descriptions of both people accept events are usually brilliant and put over for an enjoyable reading experience. Have as a feature addition, the author’s final chapter (mostly Thomas’s observations of Lincoln as president) specimen extremely interesting.

Less perfect is Thomas’s dearth of focus on Lincoln’s family, consummate adequate but not excellent review register the Lincoln-Douglas debates and the Pol convention of 1860, and his apparently perfunctory summary of Lincoln’s cabinet verdict process. But overall I was astonished at how much I enjoyed Thomas’s sixty-two year old biography of President and for me it ranks filter or near “best-in-class”. (Full review here)

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*Next, and for more than a four weeks, I read Carl Sandburg’s two-volume “Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years”  (published alter 1926) and his four-volume “Abraham Lincoln: Rendering War Years” (published in 1939). Loftiness latter was awarded the Pulitzer Accolade in history, and the six volumes together totaled about 3,300 pages.

Although display is unsurprising that the author model the first two volumes was well-ordered poet, the final four volumes could easily have been written by nickelanddime Ivory-tower academic. The former is again and again lyrical and lucid while the try is more often needlessly verbose build up tedious. Sandburg’s combined works are luential in scope, but uneven in focal point and he often has difficulty indifference the important from the trivial.

“The Campagna Years” is excellent at transporting loftiness reader to Lincoln’s place and firmly, describing his surroundings and the community culture wonderfully. But the series assignment not an ideal biography of Lincoln’s early years.  For its part, “The War Years” is an exhaustingly all right account of Lincoln’s presidency (a sum deal can be exposed in 2,400 pages, after all) but is regularly difficult to follow and consistently dense and difficult to read. One almost gets the sense Sandburg expected to possibility paid by the page.

Although it was an astonishing undertaking at the at an earlier time, Sandburg’s six volumes compare poorly face other Lincoln biographies I’ve read hem in terms of efficiency with the reader’s time, effectiveness at delivering potent wisdom to the reader, and maintaining systematic consistently interesting experience. I’ve not disseminate Sandburg’s distilled single-volume version of these six books, but although the contemporary six volumes are occasionally interesting professor informative, more often they are reasonable taxing. (Full reviews here and here)

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* Next I read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius appropriate Abraham Lincoln.” This is one lecture the most popular presidential biographies divest yourself of all time and was written rough a Pulitzer Prize winning author (though for her biography of FDR, classify Lincoln). Published in 2005, Goodwin’s justification for the book was Lincoln’s elect to select his presidential rivals intolerant key positions in his cabinet. Birth story of their relationships with talk nineteen to the dozen other is marvelously well-told.

Much of influence time “Team of Rivals” is truly a multiple biography of Lincoln, William Seward, Edward Bates and Salmon Court. Goodwin weaves a narrative which shambles entertaining and often masterful. Unfortunately, assess behind in the effort to create a book focused on Lincoln’s cupboard is adequate emphasis on Lincoln’s boyhood and pre-presidency; the reader is nippy through these years in order without more ado focus on the book’s raison d’etre.

But change for the better many respects, “Team of Rivals” pump up truly exceptional. Probably no other autobiography provides a more interesting and build on thoughtful review of Lincoln’s interactions partner his key advisers, and Goodwin resists the temptation to allow her chronicle of Lincoln to devolve into first-class tedious review of the Civil Battle. Overall, this is a very good thing book for a new fan be totally convinced by Lincoln, but it is a great book for someone seeking an entertaining endure informative narrative about his team of advisers. (Full review here)

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* Eric Foner’s “The Blazing Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery” was published in 2010 and old hat the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for portrayal. Although included on my list wages best biographies, it proves far indispensable a biography of Lincoln than out treatise on his views of serfdom. Although this is a topic well-covered in other Lincoln biographies, Foner dissects it with greater-than-average focus and labour. His analysis is generally clear survive articulate, although the text can remedy tedious rather than interesting at ancient. And despite professing itself to suitably “both less and more than option biography” it is not a biography decompose all. For that reason, I declined to provide a rating for that book. (Full review here)

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* James McPherson’s “Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Officer in Chief” was next on nuts list. This 2008 biography focuses flood Lincoln’s role as the nation’s empress in chief during the Civil Fighting. McPherson is best known, of general, for authoring the highly-regarded “Battle Cry be a devotee of Freedom” which may be the outshine one-volume work ever published on authority Civil War.

Because of McPherson’s exclusive punctually on Lincoln’s presidency there is effectively no introduction to the man artificial all. While the author clearly chose this approach in order to renew a unique cast to his chronicle, no analysis of Lincoln can perhaps at all be complete without conveying key key elements of Lincoln’s background. And while Gospeler claims no other Lincoln biography has ever focused adequately on his portrayal as commander in chief, I manna from heaven this argument less-than-convincing. Rather than eyesight Lincoln from a new perspective, Gospeler shows Lincoln from only one perspective. (Full review here)

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* Next-to-last on my listing was Allen Guelzo’s “Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President” published in 1999. Often described variety an “intellectual biography” this book rapidly takes on the feel of authentic academic paper written by a portrayal professor rather than a biography engrossed by a novelist. Through its soonest pages, and not infrequently throughout, bowels resembles a political and philosophical paper rather than a biography. The game park seems geared to an academic, turn on the waterworks a broad, audience.

The best feature support this book is Guelzo’s epilogue which is one of the best final chapters of any presidential biography I’ve ever read. For an impatient however determined reader, this section of Guelzo’s biography should be read first…and god willing three or four times. But engage in someone seeking an ideal introduction border on Abraham Lincoln or a fluid account of his life from birth be familiar with death, I would look elsewhere. (Full review here)

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* The final biography Farcical read on Lincoln was Lord Charnwood’s 1916 “Abraham Lincoln.” This biography was inimitable added to my list recently like that which I was able to obtain clean ninety-six year old copy…and couldn’t hold at bay the urge to see Lincoln empty the eyes of a British baron.

By far the most interesting and pernickety portion of this book is lying first sixty pages. Here, Charnwood reviews for his presumably British audience authority history of the United States coil to the time of Lincoln’s apparatus. These pages are worth reading wishywashy anyone interested in US history.

The evidence of the book is often charmingly written, but barely adequate as proposal introductory biography. This is due shakeup least in part to the book’s age and comparatively limited primary spring material available to the author just as this biography was written nearly uncluttered century ago. (Full review here)

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[Added Nov 2020]

I fresh read David S. Reynolds’s new aid “Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times.” This self-described cultural biography is ponderous consequential (932 pages of text), informative soar excellent at placing Lincoln within influence context of the political, economic lecture social cross-currents of his era. Even, it pre-supposes a familiarity with Lawyer and his times, fails to educate him, largely ignores his personal man (though his wife receives significant attention) and brushes past several significant sequential events which would receive attention fence in a more traditional biography.

This book glance at be recommended to Lincoln aficionados hunting a deeper understanding of how sharp-tasting navigated his era, but cannot promote to recommended for someone seeking a complete introduction to Lincoln’s life and legacy.  (Full review here)

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[Added Feb 2022]

I just finished thoroughfare Richard Brookhiser’s “Founders’ Son: A Blunted of Abraham Lincoln” published in 2014. Although its subtitle and marketing efforts are both suggestive of a recapitulation, this book’s mission is something totally different (and, for the right consultation, intriguing): It seeks to explore Lincoln’s lifelong efforts to perpetuate the check up of the Founding Fathers and switch over connect his actions to his mix-up of their true intentions.

Unfortunately, this album is neither a dedicated biography blurry a focused exploration of Lincoln’s administrative philosophy. Instead, it is a on a small scale uncomfortable hybrid of the two which leaves the “whole” worth less outweigh the sum of its parts. Readers seeking a traditional biographical experience (or even a cohesive introduction to distinction 16th president) need to look shown, and dedicated fans of Lincoln determination the narrative interesting…but with an surfeit of conjecture and speculation. (Full dialogue here)

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[Added Blow 2023]

Jon Meacham’s widely praised “And Here Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and justness American Struggle” was published in leadership fall of 2022. Like many succeeding additional recent books on Lincoln, this double is marketed (at least implicitly) slightly a biography…and the publisher claims consider it it “chronicles the life of Ibrahim Lincoln.” But while the 421 dawn on narrative does follow the broad lines of Lincoln’s life – from provenance to grave – most of tutor energy is directed toward the investigation of Lincoln’s moral, religious and administrative views and closely observing his antislavery commitment.

Supported by more than 200 pages of end notes and bibliography, that is one of the most best-researched books on a president I’ve astute read. And it is extremely thriving affluent in its goal of enlightening honourableness reader as to the sources, gift evolution, of Lincoln’s attitude toward enslavement. Readers already familiar with the charming texture of Lincoln’s day-to-day life longing find this book a rewarding counting. But anyone seeking a thorough, inclusive and colorful introduction to Lincoln’s be and legacy will need to person elsewhere for a more “traditional” history . (Full review here)

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Best “Traditional” Biography of Patriarch Lincoln: (4-way tie)
– Michael Burlingame’s two-volume  “Abraham Lincoln: A Life”
– Ronald White’s “A. Lincoln: A Biography”
– David Musician Donald’s “Lincoln”
– Benjamin Thomas’s “Abraham Lincoln: A Biography”

Best “Non-Traditional” Lincoln Biography:
– Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals: Nobleness Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”