Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography

Book Description

While the heart of the book focuses on the Civil War, Gienapp begins with a finely etched portrait of Lincoln's early life, from pioneer farm boy, to politician and lawyer in Springfield, to his stunning election as sixteenth president of the United States. We see how Lincoln grew during his years in office, how he developed a keen aptitude for military strategy and displayed enormous skill in dealing with his generals, and also how his strategy evolved from a desire to preserve the Union into one of emancipation and total war. A former backwoodsman and country lawyer, Abraham Lincoln rose to become one of America's greatest presidents. The biography offers a vivid account of Lincoln's dramatic ascension to the pinnacle of American history.

Customer Reviews:

Gienapp Let-Down.......2006-11-08

Bill Gienapp was a brilliant historian, and his work "The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852-1856" is a pillar of American political history. Unfortunately, his final work, "Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America," is a tremendous let-down. It is perhaps one of the worst examinations of Lincoln's life, and has almost nothing to do with "Civil War America." Essentially, it is an unqualified love poem to Lincoln, and strives only to prove his greatness -- there is no critical analysis at all. Lincoln is given credit for every political and military success 1861-1865 and is absolved from blame for all his mistakes. In reality, Lincoln was a complex personality and his public career was much more tumultuous than Gienapp proposes. It is disappointing that Gienapp, a man who dedicated his life to exhaustive, nearly flawless historical research would resort to such frivolous, uncritical "pop history" at the end of his tragically short life. Skip Gienapp's Lincoln and, instead, read Stephen Oates's "With Malice Toward None" or Don Fehrenbacher's "Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850s."

magnificent!.......2006-06-27

A short, but very well biography of Lincoln. It counts only 250 pages, but it gives an excellent overwiew and superb analyse of the life of AL. The bibliography is also very interesting. One of the best books about the 16th president. A must for a Lincolnhistorian.

My Captain!.......2005-04-04

A good short, solid political biography. While Lincoln and the Civil War is its focus, by no means is this a battle history: Gettysburg is described in one paragraph.

Professor Gienapp has written a book that will introduce one to, or remind one of, the long and trying path traveled by Abraham Lincoln toward ultimate greatness.

Abraham Lincoln And Civil War America.......2002-03-23

William Gienapp's Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America answers a longstanding need for a biography of Lincoln manageable in size, accessible in style, and wise and balanced in content. Lincoln appers on every page of the book and is never lost sight of in the welter of events. He emerges from the text a real believable person, an individual and persuasive assessment of Lincoln's leadership abilities, the finest such appraisal avilable anywhere.

Abraham Lincoln in one slim volume........2002-03-10

This book is a welcome addition ot the already crowded Lincolnia bookself. The author is the presumed successor to the retired David Herbert Donald at Harvard University. Gienapp has produced a highly readable and concise version of a Lincoln biography that can be completed on a moderately long airplane trip(and it's quite portable unlike most hardcover books). While relatively short,this book is a sufficiently thorough treatment of the Civil War Lincoln. I especially enjoyed the author's analysis of the politician Lincoln who mastered his rivals, both Republican and Democrat. This a good book for either a new Lincoln /Civil War "buff" or a good refresher for a scholar of the times.

Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America

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Not from the Land of Lincoln
Funny, informative Lincoln "log"
What Lincoln Means To You Says Little About Him, But Everything About You
Witty, Wistful Account of Today's Lincoln
great quick read

Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America
Andrew Ferguson
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0871139677

Book Description

Before he grew up and became one of Washington’s most respected reporters and editors, Andrew Ferguson was, of all things, a Lincoln buff — with the photos hung on his bedroom wall to prove it. Decades later, Ferguson’s latent buffdom is reignited. In Land of Lincoln, he embarks on a curiosity-fueled coast-to-coast journey through contemporary Lincoln Nation, encountering everything from hatred to adoration to opportunism and all manner of reaction in between. He attends a national conference of Lincoln impersonators; attends a leadership conference based on Lincoln’s “management style”; drags his family across the three-state-long and now defunct Lincoln Heritage Trail; and even manages to hold one of five original copies of the Gettysburg Address. Along the way he weaves in enough history to hook readers of presidential biographies and popular histories while providing the engaging voice and style of the best narrative journalism. This is an entertaining, unexpected, and big-hearted celebration of Lincoln and his enduring influence on the country he helped create.

Customer Reviews:

Not from the Land of Lincoln.......2007-10-10

Keenly written exploration of Lincoln's impact on popular culture and America. Enjoyable even to someone whose home state has not a single statue or public building painting of Old Abe.

Funny, informative Lincoln "log".......2007-09-08

When I picked "Land of Lincoln" off a bookshelf recently I thought Andrew Ferguson's book would be another dry, historical account of what remains of Lincoln sites today. What a surprise and a very pleasant one! Ferguson has offered up Abraham Lincoln in a way that is offbeat, nostalgic, serious and downright humorous.

"Land of Lincoln" is told from four time frames....the first and most recent, a trip he took with his family a few summers ago to visit Lincoln sites, second, the author's own parallel trip from the 1960s, third, a similar trip made by author Ida Tarbell in the 1920s and last, Lincoln's own days in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. First and foremost, Ferguson is a true and deep admirer of Lincoln as evidenced in the first chapter when he goes to Richmond to learn more about the placing of a Lincoln statue there...(in Richmond, of all places!) and finds that memories run long in the southern capital. It is here that he lets us know of the great animosity still felt in that part of the country toward Lincoln some 140 years after the end of the Civil War. Along the way we learn of how Chicago has adopted Lincoln (he visited there fourteen times) and how Springfield has created the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM) with its "new age" approach to Lincoln.

Humor comes to the forefront with two characters who own more Lincoln memorabilia than probably any others in the United States. Eccentric in their own ways, Louise lives in Beverly Hills and Frank, in Rhode Island. The chapters Ferguson devotes to these two are full of laughs. His best chapter is one called "A Sea of Lincolns" where he attends an Indiana get-together of Lincoln "presenters" (not imposters) as they share with one another their travels across the country dressing up as Lincoln and visiting schools and such. It's like listening to a crowd of Munchkins from "The Wizard of Oz", only these guys are three feet taller.

As Ferguson finshes up in Springfield and then Kentucky, a certain wistfulness befalls him. The Lincoln home in Springfield, now run by the National Park Service, has been all cleaned up and has a sterile look to it. His reflections about the docent there are worth the price of the book, however. But as he gets to Lincoln's birthplace (even the log cabin isn't the real one) we find a man who has seen the loss of how the country views Lincoln harking back to his own days traveling around forty years ago. But majestically, he closes with a look at the noble Daniel Chester French sculpture of the Lincoln Memorial. Grand as it may be, it reflects the backwoods and simple roots of our sixteenth president. I highly recommend "Land of Lincoln"....it's a well-paced narrative, informative and lots of fun to read.

What Lincoln Means To You Says Little About Him, But Everything About You.......2007-07-30

Andrew Ferguson is the kind of writer I delight in reading. He makes his points clearly without having to hit you over the head with them. His writing has a light style that is full of wonderful detail and a nice portion of humor. Even when he is making serious points he is able to pull it off without becoming ponderous or somber. Sure, he probably uses the word meatball too often, and he has the easy disdain for business types that is worn proudly by those who never had to scramble in the marketplace to pay the rent. But these smudges are all far outweighed by the many delights he provides.

It is hard to write a fresh book about Lincoln, but Ferguson has pulled it off with an approach to the subject I had not see before. It is very much about how Lincoln lives in so many different ways within us. You can easily fill a library with the books written about him, and as Ferguson demonstrates so ably, they all argue about who Lincoln was as a man, what his beliefs were, and even his true origins. While some biographical aspects of Lincoln's life are covered in the book, it is usually to show the contradictions in understanding people hold about them.

Really, this is a book about us. Just as your thoughts about Shakespeare or Turner say a lot less about them than it says about you, how we regard Lincoln says everything about us and reveals little about him. Ferguson tours the country and meets all kinds of people with a wider range of views than I had even suspected existed and then takes his family on a reverse tour of the Lincoln's life from Illinois through Indiana (Indiana?) to Kentucky and ends up at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. (where else could one end such a book?). Well, technically, there is a very moving postscript that takes place at the Springfield Hilton, but I will let you be moved by that on your own. To talk any more about it would require a spoiler alert.

The book begins with the public battle over a recent statue commemorating the visit of conquered Richmond, Virginia by Lincoln with his son, Tad. The statue, while ostensibly a historical and public good, had its origins in a commercial enterprise that wants to sell miniatures of the statue. What makes the whole think noteworthy is that the reaction against the statue isn't against the commercialization of one of our greatest presidents, but against Lincoln himself!

I remember when I met my first Lincoln hater way back in 1972. For this young man the war between the states (or whatever one wants to call it) was not over and he had all kinds of reasons why what the North did to the South was criminal, unjust, and should still be rectified. Ferguson heads out to meet a group of folks who think this way and who are centered around one Thomas DiLorenzo and his book "The Real Lincoln"

We are then taken into the morass of finding out who the real Lincoln was and what all the writings about him are based on. Much of it rests on the work done by Lincoln's law partner, Billy Herndon and the materials he collected after Lincoln was assassinated. We then get a tour of historical sites and how the change in historical values has actually changed the way history is presented and regarded. Ferguson never says so directly, but if you still regard the old values as important, it is easy to be horrified at the newly sterilized multimedia knowledge free content being used to sell nostalgia in place of history.

We also enter the world of Lincoln memorabilia and historical artifacts. The issues of what is real, what is fake, and what is kitsch are all very real and in many ways it doesn't matter to someone holding their Lincoln icon. Just beware, there is a lot of fake hair on the market.

One of my three favorite stories in the book is the immigrant couple who credit the success of their restaurant to Lincoln. They saw the slogan "Land of Lincoln", visited his tomb, and turned him into a deity. They pray to him, have an icon of him in their restaurant, and actually except for the prayer part, have more solid values about Lincoln than most of the curators at the various historical sites. When you read about the delight on the scholarly debunkers, well your blood will likely boil.

The world of "Lincoln Presenters" (think of the tribute Elvis trade) is explored by attending their annual convention. It is a fascinating aspect of this whole story and it is easy to like these guys (and gals who play Mary) while still being a bit troubled by the idea of people traveling around, living in their cars, to try and make a few bucks pretending to be a man whose memory they obviously love so much.

The whole family trip is great and it is wonderful how Ferguson compares what he learned from the trip when his family took the ride along the Lincoln trail when he was a boy, what he learned about the origins of the trail (the Petroleum Industry) and sharing what is left of it with his kids today. All fascinating.

And I think the way he shows us the power of the Lincoln Memorial, its critics, and what it can still mean to us is very very good. The postcript is about as powerful a few pages as you will likely read this year.

This is a very thoughtful book. It is surprisingly entertaining and funny, but has a rich payoff. So, get it, read it, and think about what Lincoln means to all of us, but particularly to you.

Witty, Wistful Account of Today's Lincoln .......2007-07-18

This is a journalistic report on Lincoln's current status in the popular culture. He examines old and new Lincoln statuary, Lincoln's haters and tepid defenders (e.g. Mr. Holzer, the author of the huffy review above), and Lincoln museums and private collections.

This is a generally, but not uniformily, interesting book. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Herndon, the Ferguson family's vacation on the Lincoln Heritage Trail (backwards from Illinois to Indiana to Kentucky), and the touching postscript about the dying Czech visitor to Springfield. Less interesting were the chapters on Lincoln impersonators and workshops.

Ferguson is a fine writer and perceptive observer of the passing scene. This book is less about Lincoln himself, than today's society--political correctness, historical illiteracy and neglect, and the general dumbing down of our heritage.

great quick read.......2007-07-14

With wry humor and tongue firmly in cheek, Andrew Ferguson takes us on a sentimental journey as he struggles to find the Lincoln he thought he knew. As a child in the 60s, I made a Lincoln journey similar to the one Ferguson made around the same time. Recently in Richmond, I made a special point to find the statue he writes about in Chapter 1. (can you believe it - a statue of Lincoln in Richmond???) Now a frequent visitor to Springfield, Illinois, I find that he captures the quirky personality of the community - and the changes to the Lincoln sites - in an eerily familiar fashion.

Lincoln's War: The Untold Story of America's Greatest President as Commander in Chief

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More Brilliant Civil War History!
Second hand review
Poetic evocation of Lincoln's character as tried by war
An Engaging Popular Biography of Lincoln
A disgrace to the Historical Tradition

Lincoln's War: The Untold Story of America's Greatest President as Commander in Chief
Geoffrey Perret
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375507388
Release Date: 2004-04-20

Book Description

Drawing on newly discovered documents in the National Archives, Lincoln’s War is the only full-length account to date on Abraham Lincoln as Com-mander in Chief. For the first time, readers will see the war unfold as Lincoln saw it.

This wide-ranging account casts new light on Lincoln and his generals, his admirals, his controversial Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and his outspoken confidant Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy. The reader will also learn the true story of Lincoln’s experiences as a soldier and encounter Lincoln as amateur strategist, Lincoln in his relationship with black servicemen, Lincoln in his dealings with the Committee on the Conduct of the War, and Lincoln in his friendship with weapons pioneer Christopher Spencer, the creator of the Spencer repeater. And Lincoln’s War is filled with myriad illuminating anecdotes—including how the President, a frustrated inventor, liked to conduct his own hands-on weapons tests on waste ground near the White House.

It was Lincoln who, over the course of four years, created the role of Commander in Chief as we know it today. In doing so he saved the Union and changed the nation. This was the most important of his duties, and his greatest success. In Lincoln’s War, Geoffrey Perret—the acclaimed biographer of Ulysses S. Grant, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy, and the author of four well-received works of military history, including A Country Made by War—offers an original, vivid portrait of both a great leader and a tumultuous conflict.

Customer Reviews:

More Brilliant Civil War History!.......2007-04-17

Historian and author Geoffrey Perret has succeeded in writing yet another brilliant book!

This work brings together one of my favorite military historians and my favorite President. Perret can always be counted on to write great history. His works are always well written, researched and compelling.

In "Lincoln's War" Perret shows how Lincoln seized war powers, reserved for Congress by the Constituation, and made them his own. By the end of the war, the President evolved into an effective Commander and Chief who controlled all aspects of national strategy - political, economic, military and even informational - in his hands. The President was driven, as no other American politician was, to first preserve the Union and then to abolish Slavery throughout the United States.

Lincoln succeeded in both, due mostly to his talents as Commander and Chief and the backing of the Union Army. As a result, the modern Presidency owes its war powers to Abraham Lincoln.

This is truly a great read!

Second hand review.......2007-01-09

Despite some of the previous reviews. My husband is thoroughly enjoying this book. He is a Civil War buff and says that this book is tying together much of what he has read in the past regarding the Civil War.

Poetic evocation of Lincoln's character as tried by war.......2007-01-08

I found this a very moving account of Lincoln's presidency which focused
on his wartime decisions and his relationships with his cabinet, generals, soldiers in the field, and more. For a longtime reader of books on Lincoln and the Civil War it brought several new insights and anecdotes. The author obviously did a great amount of research into correspondence of the time, newspapers, diaries, etc. He is obviously well read in his subject because he doesn't repeat the accounts offered so often in other works.

I don't understand the many uncharitable reviews here of this book, and the poor rating. It sounds like part professional jealousy from other historians, part just plain churlishness. It may be that the title has attracted statistical students of troop movements, constitutional law analysts, who may well find some factual mistakes. Certainly there are NOT errors on every page, poor man!

A very astute, even astonishing work from a learned writer (who sent me quite often to my dictionary) who has not forgotten how to feel.

An Engaging Popular Biography of Lincoln.......2006-08-05

Geoffrey Perret's _Lincoln's War: The Untold Story of America's Greatest President as Commander in Chief_ tells the story of Lincoln's presidency in a readable, entertaining style. As a prelude to Lincoln's presidency, the early chapters describe Lincoln's formative experiences first as a volunteer soldier during the Black Hawk War, then as a successful country lawyer, and finally as a Illinois Congressman. Establishing this background, the biography develops the following thesis: Lincoln's presidency defined our understanding of the scope of the modern executive branch, extending executive power and, to some extent, inventing the role of Commander in Chief in order to defeat the South's insurrection.

Perret portrays Lincoln's humanity and, in particular, his deep affection for the Union soldiers, who looked upon him with reverence even during the most troubled days in the Civil War. Perret also focuses on Lincoln's day-to-day involvement with the military campaign itself, including battlefield visits when Lincoln placed his own safety in risk. Lincoln's studious, perspicacious interest in the new technologies of warfare is a major theme. Perret argues, for example, that Lincoln's personal requisition of multi-loading carbines for a sharp-shooter brigade may have saved Washington, DC, at Fort Matthews, during a Confederate assault in the middle of the war. Throughout the book, Perret chronicles Lincoln's vexations with the commanding generals in the Army of the Potomac prior to Ullyses Grant's accession.

While concentrating on these themes, Perret conveys a sense of the desperation that Lincoln felt during the war and the precariousness of the Union's preservation, especially in the early years. Far from idealizing Lincoln, as the title of Perret's biography might suggest, we see his flaws as well, which make him an ever more impressive historical figure. For instance, Winfield Scott, the aging Commander of U.S. forces at the outset of the war, argued for a strategy of slowly dividing the Confederacy--cutting off supply and communication lines--rather than the quick capture of Richmond. Scott's plan was, in fact, how the Confederacy was ultimately defeated despite the fact that much of Lincoln's attention, from 1861 onward, remained on the Northern Virginia campaign and rapidly seizing Richmond.

A number of reviewers have pointed out the historical inaccuracies in this account and allude to James McPherson's critical review of the biography. I can imagine how for a reader with a detailed knowledge of the Civil War these errors could be quite distracting and/or exasperating. Because I am not an expert on the Civil War or the specifics of military history, much of the book refreshed my memory of the U.S. history that I learned in high school. This was quite enjoyable. My own belief is that a general reader, like myself, still can profit from this book, despite its faults, and likely will not be seriously mislead about the broad historical picture.

A disgrace to the Historical Tradition .......2005-04-28

As the author or editor of fourteen books on the Civil War and Indian Wars of the American West, I understand that errors of fact inevitably creep into the best of books. But I have never encountered a work of history with so many egregious errors as this one. On nearly every page one finds misstatements and historical lies of the most enormous sort. No, Mr. Perrett, President Lincoln did not dream up the idea one summer day in 1862 to issue paper currency; he merely signed an act of Congress, passed several months earlier, that called for paper currency. No, Mr. Perrett, the Federals did not walk up Marye's Heights "like tourists" during the Chancellorsville campaign; they encountered bitter resistance and lost heavily. No, Mr. Perret, Corinth, Mississippi, is not on the Mississippi River - not even close.

The author may have some intriguing conclusions. But it is impossible to give them the slightest credence when they rest on a foundation so factually shaky.

I could go on, but I heartily recommend the reader to Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian James McPherson's review of this book in The Nation. He properly relegates it to the historical trash can.

If it were possible to give zero stars to a book, I would do so here. I've written dozens of reviews for journals and magazines, and this is the first completely negative one that I have ever felt compelled to put forward.

By the way, I noticed one reviewer offering as an excuse for the scores of errors possible lapses by "administrative staff," or by research assistants. Baloney. And if that is the case, and these erros slipped past him, than Mr. Perret is hopelessly ignorant of the subject matter.

Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers)

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Intimate recollections of the Lincoln White House
Friend and confidant to Mary Lincoln
Not What You'd Expect, But Read It As If You Lived 138 Years Ago
One person's memior
The Life Of A Slave

Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers)
Elizabeth Keckley
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195060849

Book Description

Part slave narrative, part memoir, and part sentimental fiction, Behind the Scenes depicts Elizabeth Keckley's years as a slave and subsequent four years in Abraham Lincoln's White House during the Civil War (1861-1865). As public drama privately experienced, Keckley's work presents Jefferson Davis and his wife, Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln, and even Stephen Douglas and "Mrs. Senator Douglas" in the foreground, with the war, and slavery as the issue that precipitated it, in the background. Through the eyes of this black woman--an ex-slave, seamstress, and dressmaker--we see a wide range of historical figures and events of the antebellum South, the Washington of the Civil War years, and the final stages of the war.

Customer Reviews:

Intimate recollections of the Lincoln White House.......2007-09-13

Although this volume comes from the memories of someone familiar with the Lincoln White House and who became a close friend of Mary Todd Lincoln, it must be read cautiously. For example, despite the book's basic authenticity I find its account of Stephen Douglas's love for young Mary Todd and her jilting of Lincoln implausible despite Keckley's claim that she got the story directly from Mary Todd Lincoln and Anson Henry (a close friend of Abraham and Mary, who was a matchmaker encouraging their romance). Possibly some errors might be attributed to one or more literary assistants who helped compile the book. If a reader needs to be certain a about a particular statement, comparison with other sources is wise. Still, the volume will be valuable to anyone interested in firsthand impressions of the Lincoln White House.

Friend and confidant to Mary Lincoln.......2007-03-22

I got this little book so that I could learn more about the Lincolns and their home life at the White House. It does an excellent job of telling the story of Elizabeth and Mary's friendship, which I wish could have continued, but alas, it didn't. I would recommend this book to all readers interested in US history, not matter what their age or gender, so that they can get an intimate view of the Lincoln's family life. Elizabeth was a strong and proud woman with a high moral and ethical character...if she were alive today, she would be swamped with interview requests and book deals!

Not What You'd Expect, But Read It As If You Lived 138 Years Ago.......2006-08-05

In 1868, three years after the War Between the States ended and Abraham Lincoln was murdered, Elizabeth Keckley sat down to write a partial history of her life as a slave and modiste (dressmaker) for Mary Todd Lincoln at the White House. If readers judge "Behind the Scenes" by the standards of modern biographies, they won't do the book justice.

"Lizzie" Keckley was a slave who insisted on buying her freedom, even after being offered it for nothing. In modern terms, she was an "Aunt Tom" for validating the notion that any human being can be bought and sold for a price. By her own standards, she was affirming her value to society. It's impossible to judge such a person in contemporary terms.

Lizzie's dressmaking skill attracted the attention of Mary Todd Lincoln in 1861. Mrs. Lincoln was quite addicted to clothes, and hired "Dear Lizzie" as her private modiste. Their association solidified into a deep friendship after the death in 1862 of Willie Lincoln (in the White House); Lizzie offered warmth and solicitude, badly needed by an erratic First Lady whose intemperate ways and harsh tongue had made her perhaps the most disliked person in Washington. The friendship persisted after Lincoln's assassination, when Lizzie aided Mrs. Lincoln in purging her monstrous debts (she owed $70,000 to department stores) by trying to sell off old dresses and jewelry.

"Behind the Scenes" ended the friendship. After its publication Mary Lincoln, her pride wounded, dropped "Dear Lizzie" and referred to Mrs. Keckley as "that colored historian."

For students of the assassination Mrs. Keckley's reminiscences are especially helpful. Several weeks after April 14, 1865, while Mrs. Lincoln was still in mourning inside the White House, Lizzie told her "the new messenger" (not identified by name in the book, unfortunately) was on watch, he being the same man who had abandoned his post outside Lincoln's box at Ford's Theater. Mrs. Lincoln excoriated the "new messenger" and accused him of complicity in the assassination. The messenger admitted his carelessness but denied complicity, insisting he had simply taken a seat where he could better watch the play.

Except for the ambiguous word "messenger," this account conforms precisely to the convential wisdom that prevailed until about 25 years ago, i.e. that John F. Parker, a Metropolitan Police officer assigned to White House duty, was responsible for guarding Lincoln's box on the night of the assassination, but left his post and allowed John Wilkes Booth clear entry (and how would Booth have known the coast would be clear?). Post-modern historians, possibly seizing on Keckley's use of "messenger" to describe Parker, contrived a theory that Parker's duties never included protecting Lincoln...which idea begs the obvious question, "Why would Mrs. Lincoln have been so angry at someone who wasn't responsible in the first place?" And, since Parker supposedly went on trial for negligence (the records were mysteriously destroyed), "Why would anyone have been put on trial for neglecting Lincoln at Ford's Theater if he had been only a White House functionary all along?"

One person's memior.......2005-04-26

This is a memior written by a woman who started life as a slave, then managed to buy her freedom, and later set up a successful living as a seamstress, eventually going to work for Mrs. Lincoln in the White House. As such, it is a bit rambling. There are two chapters about her early life as a slave, but the author knows that what is most interesting to the readers is her life in the white house, and so she skips ahead to that period, giving us her personal "insider account" of daily vignettes with Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. These vignettes include an eyewitness account of Lincoln's second inauguration address, the death of Willie Lincoln, and events immediately after Lincoln's assasination. The author then goes on to describe her post-white house associations with Mrs. Lincoln, who became a personal friend, as Mrs. Lincoln deals with post-presidency debts. The book continues with an in-depth account of how Mrs. Keckley assisted Mrs. Lincoln with attempting to sell her personal effects (dresses) to raise money. This must have been of great interest to readers when the book was first published in the 1860's, but has limited appeal to modern readers.

Overall, however, the book is a very interesting glimpse into the daily life of a slave, an independent businesswoman in the 1860's, of someone who worked in the white house during the civil war, and of someone in the close confidence of the Lincolns. It is well-written and engaging.

The Life Of A Slave.......2005-02-18

This is my least favorite book on the Lincolns. It's the story of Elizabeth Keckley, who was a slave. Elizabeth eventaully becomes Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and friend. This is a lot more about slavery than the Lincolns.I don't mind reading about the subject. I just didn't think it was a very well-written book on Elizabeth's part.

Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865 (Civil War America)

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A man of war, a man of letters...a magnificent collection of Uncle Billy's writings!!
A great collection of primary documents
Wonderful glimpse into the mind of Sherman

Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865 (Civil War America)
Brooks D. Simpson
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0807824402
Release Date: 1999-04-14

Book Description

The first major modern edition of the wartime correspondence of General William T. Sherman, this volume features more than 400 letters written between the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the day Sherman bade farewell to his troops in 1865. Together, they trace Sherman's rise from obscurity to become one of the Union's most famous and effective warriors.

Arranged chronologically and grouped into chapters that correspond to significant phases in Sherman's life, the letters—many of which have never before been published—reveal Sherman's thoughts on politics, military operations, slavery and emancipation, the South, and daily life in the Union army, as well as his reactions to such important figures as General Ulysses S. Grant and President Lincoln.

Lively, frank, opinionated, discerning, and occasionally extremely wrong-headed, these letters mirror the colorful personality and complex mentality of the man who wrote them. They offer the reader an invaluable glimpse of the Civil War as Sherman saw it.

Customer Reviews:

A man of war, a man of letters...a magnificent collection of Uncle Billy's writings!!.......2007-07-19

William Tecumseh Sherman was a brilliant military genius and a true eccentric.
A fascinating and complex man, who found his destiny in war. Sherman revelled in war and owed much to it: he began it as an former officer of modest means and ended it hailed as the Union greatest general next to Grant. At the same time he loathed and despised war and was horrified by it. He was shocked by what the war did to his country, his people, his soldiers and to himself. At times he was appalled by his duties as an officer, but he was always highly resolved to perform these duties.

Everybody who has ever read his memoirs knows that Sherman was not only a great general but also a very talented writer. His memoirs are not a dry succession of events and his part in it, but they convey how he lived through the war and how and why he did what he did in it.
Now professor Brooks D. Simpson has edited a big volume of his Sherman's correspondence from the Civil War years. Again it is the quality of the Sherman's writing which catches the eye and pleases the mind. His letters, as are his memoirs, are a joy to read. This book offers an interesting perspective on Sherman and his part in the war. Reading the memoirs is like having Sherman telling his war experiences to you, long after the facts. This is interesting enough but reading his letters is even more so. It feels like being there with him in his tent, in some Union camp during the war, looking over his shoulder while events are shaping. A truly fascinating experience.
He pours his heart out to his brother John, to his wife Ellen, to his friend Grant and to many others.
So many aspects of his personality appear: his quicksilver intelligence, his warmth and humanity, his wicked and dry sense of humour, his fundamental decency and his military capability.
Read this book and look intro Sherman's mind: it is an interesting place.

The book itself is a big b*gger, but once you've started, you'll be grateful that is is so big: you'll hate to finish it. It looks great, which I like in books and it's very nicely turned out, with good quality binding , high grade paper, a pretty typesetting and a nice dust jacket design. Listings and indexes are clear and elaborate, which is useful in a book like this. So here's a big thumbs up to the publisher's (Chapel Hill North Carolina State University Press): very well done, a fine piece of work!!!

I can't recommend this too highly. A must for all those who are interested in history, in the American Civil War and/or in Sherman. Read and enjoy the letters uncle Billy wrote in those four years of war and enjoy the sight and the feel of this beautifully made book.

A great collection of primary documents.......2006-05-16

It's difficult to rate a collection of primary documents such as this one for several reasons. The quality of the documents themselves might be very good but the arrangement or editing of them might be very poor, in which case it becomes a question of whether you should rate the volume well for the documents themselves or poorly for the editing job. Fortunately this collection does not have that issue, as both the primary documents themselves and the editing of them are excellent.

This massive volume contains much of Sherman's correspondence during the war. Surprisingly, these letters are enjoyable to read, and the editors have done a great job of compiling and editing them. Reading these letters, orders, etc of General Sherman can give someone a very unique perspective of the Civil War as Sherman himself saw it, without the bias of authors who have written about it since and without the inevitable coloring of events that happens later when war heroes write about their experiences (and which certainly affected his memoirs, though I do believe they were very honest and straightforward). General Sherman is one of my heroes from the Civil War, and this collection of glimpses into his brilliant mind certainly fed my understanding and fascination of the man.

Wonderful glimpse into the mind of Sherman.......2000-12-31

William T. Sherman was an irascible, unpredictably brilliant man and his letters bring out these myriad traits. He was a fascinating man and his own words illuminate his fiery personality. Sherman's own 1875 memoirs are a mixed bag, marred by an over-abundance of wartime correspondence and ancillary material. This collection of his letters actually makes for more engrossing, instructive reading. We hear his opinions on the major players of the Civil War: Grant, Halleck and Lincoln. We gain an understanding of his tortured relationship with his wife, Ellen, to whom many of the letters are addressed. His visceral hatred of the press and reporters is well represented.

Book Description

Letting Lincoln's eloquent voice speak for itself, editor Michael Johnson has collected more than 180 of the writings and speeches that illuminate Lincoln’s life and career, from his youth to his entry into Republican politics and through his presidency. Classics like the Kansas-Nebraska speech, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and the Gettysburg Address, along with less familiar writings — poignant letters to individual voters, notes to generals on military strategy, and stirring public speeches — show the development of Lincoln's thought on free labor, slavery, secession, the Civil War, and emancipation. Johnson provides historical context by weaving an engaging narrative around Lincoln’s own words, making this volume the most accessible collection of Lincoln’s writings available. Also included are 14 illustrations, relevant Civil War maps, a Lincoln chronology, reading questions, a bibliography, and an index.

Customer Reviews:

PAGE TURNER.......2007-03-10

FOR ME THIS WAS A PAGE TURNER. I FELT LIKE I WAS THERE AT THE TIME THESE LETTERS AND SPEECHES WERE WRITTEN. VERY EASY TO GET LOST IN THE TIME PERIOD. IF YOU LOVE THIS SUBJECT, YOU'LL ENJOY THIS BOOK.

Crowns of Thorns and Glory: Mary Todd Lincoln and Varina Howell Davis: The Two First Ladies of the Civil War

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crowns of thorns and glory
The lost history of a forgotten First Lady

Crowns of Thorns and Glory: Mary Todd Lincoln and Varina Howell Davis: The Two First Ladies of the Civil War
Gerry Van der Heuvel
Manufacturer: Dutton Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0525245995

Customer Reviews:

crowns of thorns and glory.......2000-07-30

This is one of the best books on the Civil War era in that it not only tells a part of the story from each "side," it tells it from a woman's point of view. The two first ladies of the time were in some ways very much alike and in other ways very different. I came to care about each of them, but must admit that I felt very close to Varina Davis because she was so REAL. I get the impression that she could make a person feel comfortable, that she did not use her status for personal gain or "look down her nose" at anyone. I will not forget when she walked in the mud carrying a child so that her nurse, who was ill, could ride in the wagon. Varina blossomed from a shy, young and beautiful (second) wife of a very influential man to an outgoing, personable, gracious first lady who remained "human" all the way. She suffered greatly both in her personal life and with her country. I have borrowed this book twice since it has gone out of print. Now I have Amazon tracking it down for me. It's a great read!

The lost history of a forgotten First Lady.......1999-12-06

This book,about the wife of Jefferson Davis-the President of an independent South, is an overlooked masterpiece of an overlooked heroine of the South. It is not the story of Magnolia and moonlight..but is the story of of the wife of a beleagured first lady to the President of a beleaguered and invaded nation at total war in the forlorn fight for independence.There are many commarisons to the spendthrift and mentally ill wife of The Invader, Abe Lincoln And Varina is by far the better woman. Varina's life is that of a true woman of strengh and courage both during the time of war and of defeat. This book deserves to be read by all those who claim feminism as their credo and they will learn what a woman of courage can do an be in a time that most living Americans cannot comprehend.

The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln

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The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln
Kenneth J. Winkle
Manufacturer: Taylor Trade Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (American Presidency Series)

ASIN: 0878332553

The Two American Presidents: A Dual Biography of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis

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Two American Presidents
Good read, interesting
Beware This Book!
Mediocre Bio of Davis, Mediocre Bio of Lincoln
Good reading but exhaustive

The Two American Presidents: A Dual Biography of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis
Bruce Chadwick
Manufacturer: Citadel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

Two American Presidents.......2007-01-14

I can make this short and sweet. This book is trash. Chadwick should stick to journalism or fiction and leave history to the historians. Definitely a lack of research or knowledge about either of the subjects. I read about 1/3 of the book and placed it in file 13.

Good read, interesting.......2005-11-08

As the subtitle says, this is a dual biography of US President Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The book is arranged so that equivalent periods of time are presented in consecutive chapters (eg childhood of Lincoln, then childhood of Davis, etc) with the emphasis, of course, on the Civil War years.

I found this book to be an easy read, despite several typos and some awkward syntax. There were not very many slow spots, but it never really took off, either. I am barely more than a casual Civil War buff, so I found much of the book informative. However, a more serious enthusiast may not gleam much (s)he doesn't already know. Chadwick takes pains to point out how the one-party system (which breeds factionalism) of the Confederate government limited Davis' power and effectiveness, while the North's two-party system allowed Lincoln to be much more effective; an interesting concept I hadn't thought of before. I also thought Chadwick's assessment of Northern and Southern attitudes was right on the mark (with one exception: I can't see fiercely independent poor southerners blindly following the rich planters just because "well, they're rich, they must know what's right").

I would recommend this book for those who have more than just a passing interest in the Civil War.

Beware This Book!.......2003-04-27

It seemed like such a good concept -- parallel bios of the two great antagonists of the Civil War. However, after a promising beginning, this book becomes so wildly inaccurate and in parts so "Oliver Stone-ish" that I personally will submit my copy for recycling rather than allow anyone else to read it. Some errors are errors of detail (the General commanding the Confederate troops on Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg was James Longstreet, not "Stonewall" Jackson). Some are chronological. Chadwick places Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign after the Seven Days' battles, where in reality it was the indispensible prelude. Sometimes the chronology becomes so muddled that events seem to occur twice. The way the text reads, it seems that Union General John Pope was beaten at Second Bull Run twice. And can anyone truly imagine Salmon Chase leading Union forces in the field?

I was particularly disturbed by the assertion that Ohio "Peace Democrat" Clement Vallandigham was arrested on President Lincoln's authority. Every other source I've ever seen asserts that General Burnside acted without any authority other than his own, and that he quickly received orders to arrest no other politicians and suppress no more newspapers without consulting Washington first. What evidence did Chadwick find that eluded Allen Nevins, Shelby Foote, and Stephen B. Oates (to name but three) missed?

When Chadwick comes to the Kilpatrick/Dahlgren raid to Richmond, things get very worrisome for anyone who's read much Civil War history (and I have). No one else that I have have read has ever asserted that the raid's purported goal of killing or kidnapping Jefferson Davis and/or other members of his administration was authorized by Abraham Lincoln himself. What evidence has Chadwick unearthed that hundreds if not thousands of other historians had never found? In addition, Chadwick is the only author that I have read that flatly pronounces the papers purportedly found on Ulric Dahlgren's body genuine. All others have at least acknowledged the possibility that they were forgeries. (For the record, incidently, Judson Kilpatrick's not-too-flattering nickname was "Kill Cavalry", not "Kill Patrick".)

I gave up on this book at page 340. My time is too precious to waste it on conspiritorial pseudo-history. I'll bet yours is , too.

Mediocre Bio of Davis, Mediocre Bio of Lincoln.......2001-01-09

Where's the Beef?

With all of the attention lavished by historians on Abraham Lincoln, and with the growing number of works on Jefferson Davis, it is curious that there have been so few comparative studies of the two men. Aside from Bruce Catton's Two Roads To Fort Sumter (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963), and a few scattered articles and monographs, no scholar of the Civil War has attempted a comprehensive, systematic comparison of Lincoln and Davis. Bruce Chadwick has attempted to fill this hole with The Two American Presidents.

As the title suggests, this is a dual biography, a two-track narrative which switches back and forth between Lincoln's and Davis's stories. These twin narratives are not bad history in the sense of being inaccurate or sloppy. Chadwick wrote competently and with occasional dramatic flair, he made good use of the available primary sources, and he utilized an impressive amount of newspaper research. A casual reader without much prior knowledge of the Civil War could read The Two American Presidents and come away with a basic understanding of each man's life and career.

But Chadwick really unearthed nothing new about either man; his book is for the most part merely a pedestrian rehashing of oft-told tales. His story of Lincoln follows the standard arc which one could find in a dozen other biographies: Lincoln the savvy politician and prairie lawyer with the large measure of common sense who is smarter than most everyone around him, and who is dedicated to finding a pragmatic means to the idealistic end of killing slavery and establishing a new birth of freedom. Likewise, Chadwick's Jefferson Davis is not very original: he is the Calhounian planter and Mexican war hero who never questions slavery; a principled yet rigid man who relentlessly pursues Confederate victory but is hobbled by serious character flaws and political ineptitude. Chadwick's narrative is sprightly, but in the end this is still old wine in a new bottle. It is so old, in fact, that I found very little material worthy of substantive criticism; hence the brevity of this review.

According to the book's dust jacket, Chadwick argues that "one of several reasons why the North won and the South lost can be found in the drastically different characters of the two presidents." This is perhaps a reasonable--though by no means foregone--conclusion. It is not the "fascinating new perspective" and "startling answers" the book's jacket claims; Davis Potter made this exact argument forty years ago in a widely read essay which Chadwick does not cite (see Potter, "Jefferson Davis and the Political Factors of Confederate Defeat," in David Donald, ed., Why the North Won the Civil War [New York: Collier, 1960]).

But where does Chadwick draw these conclusions, let alone support them with evidence? I have quoted the book jacket at some length because in 490 pages of text I was unable to locate anything resembling an actual argument. The Two Presidents is a comparative study with no substantive comparative analysis. Chadwick seems to have assumed that the mere placing of a mediocre biography of Davis and a mediocre biography of Lincoln within the same cover somehow constitutes an "argument," an original contribution. It does not.

Chadwick somehow missed the point of his own book. The only value such a study might possess would lie in the new light it shed on either Lincoln and Davis themselves, or on larger subjects -- presidential leadership, for example -- which are illuminated by but transcend the two men's individual stories. Chadwick did neither, and in the end wrote a book which is of little real value to serious scholars of Lincoln, Davis or the Civil War.

Reviewed by Brian Dirck, Assistant Professor of History, Anderson University . Published by H-South (September, 2000)

Copyright © 2000, H-Net, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the list. For other permission questions, please contact hbooks@h-net.msu.edu.

Good reading but exhaustive.......2000-11-14

I am sure people who are interested in the American history of the latter part of the 19th century will find this book useful.

The Military Memoirs of General John Pope (Civil War America)

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Two Cheers for General Pope
A "fresh" take on an old subject!

The Military Memoirs of General John Pope (Civil War America)
Peter Cozzens , and John Y. Simon
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0807824445
Release Date: 1998-11-25

Book Description

Union general John Pope was among the most controversial and misunderstood figures to hold major command during the Civil War. Before being called east in June 1862 to lead the Army of Virginia against General Robert E. Lee, he compiled an enviable record in Missouri and as commander of the Army of the Mississippi. After his ignominious defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run, he was sent to the frontier. Over the next twenty-four years Pope held important department commands on the western plains and was recognized as one of the army's leading authorities on Indian affairs, but he never again commanded troops in battle.

In 1886, Pope was engaged by the National Tribune, a weekly newspaper published in Washington, D.C., to write a series of articles on his wartime experiences. Over the next five years, in twenty-nine installments, he wrote about the war as he had lived it. Collected here for the first time, Pope's "war reminiscences" join a select roster of memoirs written by Civil War army commanders.

Pope presents a detailed review of the campaigns in which he participated and offers vivid character sketches of such illustrious figures as Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Clearly written and balanced in tone, his memoirs are a dramatic and important addition to the literature on the Civil War.

Customer Reviews:

Two Cheers for General Pope .......2006-10-03

Peter Cozzens and Robert Girardi provided an excellent service to Civil War scholars by assembling the collected newspaper essays that General John Pope wrote in way of reflecting on his Civil War career. Best known for his stunning defeat at Second Bull Run and his bravado, a very different Pope emerges here. Often witty, Pope left excellent sketches of President Lincoln (an old friend of the family), Edwin Stanton, as well as numerous commanders of both the North and the South. Pope is excellent in capturing the chaos and incompetence of John Fremont's command in Missouri in the first days of the war. His scathing attack on Henry Halleck's torturously slow move towards Corinth reveals the extent of this wasted opportunity. But Pope is best known for two battles: Island Number 10 and Second Bull Run. His account of Island Number 10 is a bit rushed though certainly through. While Pope does an excellent job of describing the layout of his forces at the start of the Bull Run campaign, he relies on official records a bit too much and seems willing to let the matter slide. That is understandable, after all Pope was humiliated by Lee at Second Bull Run. The problem is that the Second Bull Run campaign was Pope's moment in the sun and he has little to say on it. With the large exceptions of George McClellan and Fitz John Porter, who Pope believed deliberately undermined his command, there is little bitterness. Even Nathaniel Banks, who picked a fight at Cedar Mountain against Pope's orders and was mauled by Stonewall Jackson, comes off relatively unscathed. It seems as if all of Pope's fire was being saved for McClellan and Porter, as can be seen in the memoirs as well as in a correspondence with the Comte de Paris which is included in an appendix. The memoirs reveal Pope to be much more intelligent and witty than his traditional blowhard persona would indicate though the bile is still there certainly in the cases of Porter and McClellan. One can see from these memoirs why so many men, including Grant and Sherman, seemed to like and respect Pope and while others had no use for the man. All in all, an interesting and revealing memoir to some long neglected parts of the war though be warned the main course, Second Bull Run, remains a bit bland.

A "fresh" take on an old subject!.......1999-01-24

Peter Cozzens rightly compares General John Pope's memoires with those of U.S. Grant and W.T. Sherman. This is a highly readable account from one of the participants in some of the least-understood episodes of the Civil War.

Of course, Pope's writings are not "new." As Cozzens relates, the entries which make up this book appeared in the National Tribune and other Reconstruction-era publications. However, they have spent the last century forgotten by the general public. Cozzens and his colleague, Gerardi, have done a great service both to Civil War scholars and to the casual Civil War buff by bringing Pope's reminiscences and analyses to life.

What is most surprising is the humor, candor and generosity of a man who has gone down in history as a narrow, bitter mediocrity. For example, devotees of General Lee, whose comments largely consigned Pope to history almost as a barbarian, will be surprised to read Pope's poetic evocation of the beauty of Virginia and the nobility of its citizens.

In a similar vein, readers will benefit from a "fresh" take on a wide range of issues -- such as the relationships between Lincoln, Stanton, Halleck and McClellan -- from a player very much in the know, but whose views have gone largely unremarked.

My only cautionary note would be that an appreciation of this volume depends upon a basic understanding of the events of the war, and perhaps also upon an introductory familiarity with the post-war debates on those events.

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