Collected Miscellany

I think I am pretty clearly on the record in favor of short biographies but even I might blanche at a book that covers a subject as immense as Abraham Lincoln in a mere 70 or so pages.  Such is the boldness of James McPherson’s Abraham Lincoln.  But this essay/book turned out to be an enjoyable and interesting approach to the enigma that is Lincoln.

I was trolling the library when I saw it and decided it was short enough to read over the President’s Day weekend. Alas, I was not organized enough to post a review on either President’s Day or Lincoln’s birthday. But I wanted to report back anyway.

Here is whay PW had to say:

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian McPherson (Battle Cry of Freedom) contributes to the slew of Lincoln biennial books with this succinct biography, weighing in at a lean 70 pages (plus notes), that delivers gracefully on McPherson’s promise to capture “the essential events and meaning of Lincoln’s life without oversimplification or overgeneralization.” McPherson is a precise writer with a masterful command of the subject, guiding readers through the evolution of Lincoln’s thinking on race, his lifelong struggle with depression, his improbable rise to political power, his anguish over the breakup of the union and his determination to see it made whole again. For anyone wanting to fill the gaps in their understanding of the Great Emancipator by the end of President’s Day, this efficient account from a noted Civil War scholar is a near-perfect solution.

McPherson touches on Lincoln’s political career leading up to the presidency, the issue of slavery as a constitutional and political issue and the conduct of the war in particular. Drawing out in each one the critical role Lincoln played and how his character and decision making impacted the outcome. He notes criticisms and controversies and offers succinct responses of his own.

Read the rest of this entry »

–>Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861

Description

Abraham Lincoln first demonstrated his determination and leadership in the Great Secession Winter — the four months between his election in November 1860 and his inauguration in March 1861 — when he rejected compromises urged on him by Republicans and Democrats, Northerners and Southerners, that might have preserved the Union a little longer but would have enshrined slavery for generations. Though Lincoln has been criticized by many historians for failing to appreciate the severity of the secession crisis that greeted his victory, Harold Holzer shows that the presidentelect waged a shrewd and complex campaign to prevent the expansion of slavery while vainly trying to limit secession to a few Deep South states.

During this most dangerous White House transition in American history, the country had two presidents: one powerless (the president-elect, possessing no constitutional authority), the other paralyzed (the incumbent who refused to act). Through limited, brilliantly timed and crafted public statements, determined private letters, tough political pressure, and personal persuasion, Lincoln guaranteed the integrity of the American political process of majority rule, sounded the death knell of slavery, and transformed not only his own image but that of the presidency, even while makinginevitable the war that would be necessary to make these achievements permanent.

Lincoln President-Elect is the first book to concentrate on Lincoln’s public stance and private agony during these months and on the momentous consequences when he first demonstrated his determination and leadership. Holzer recasts Lincoln from an isolated prairie politician yet to establish his greatness, to a skillful shaper of men and opinion and an immovable friend of freedom at a decisive moment when allegiance to the founding credo “all men are created equal” might well have been sacrificed.

–> Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses

Description

Obama Is Making You Poorer—But Who’s Getting Rich?

Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores and the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s Obamanomics.

Congressman Ron Paul says, “Every libertarian and free-market conservative needs to read Obamanomics.” And Johan Goldberg, columnist and bestselling author says, “Obamanomics is conservative muckraking at its best and an indispensable field guide to the Obama years.”

If you’ve wondered what’s happening to America, as the federal government swallows up the financial sector, the auto industry, and healthcare, and enacts deficit exploding “stimulus packages,” this book makes it all clear—it’s a big scam. Ultimately, Obamanomics boils down to this: every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich, and those somebodies are friends of Barack. This book names the names—and it will make your blood boil.

–>

One of the perennial problems us book addicts have is that the books we want to read always outstrip the books we can read.  And as a blogger I regularly dream of connecting my reading to current events and/or holidays and presenting a timely and insightful commentary on the appropriate date.

Alas, it is most often not to be.  And today’s 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is no different.  I had grand plans only to fall behind schedule and miss the deadline.  There will be no great Abraham Lincoln post from me today I am afraid (except this one).  Instead, I thought I might point out some books on Lincoln that might be of interest to readers.

Let me start with a book I have read, Thomas Keneally’s Penguin Lives Series volume on Abraham Lincoln.  I am a big fan of the series and have collected, and read, quite a few of the volumes.  I concluded my review of Keneally this way:

If you are looking for an in-depth and analytical study of Lincoln, Keneally’s work is really not for you. If on the other hand you are looking for a brief but fascinating narrative of his life, this work might suit you. It is an interesting and easy read largely because the subject is so fascinating and important.

There is no shortage of large tomes on Lincoln so if, like me, you enjoy shorter works Keneally is a good place to start.

I have already mentioned in these pages my guilt (this is a reoccurring problem and thus complaint) over not having read The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln by John Stauffer. At that time I wanted to read it for the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday.  But it equally applies to Lincoln’s Birthday.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. had this to say about this interesting book:

John Stauffer’s collective biography of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln stands apart from other biographies by focusing on how each man continually remade himself, with help from women, words, self-education, physical strength, and luck. In the process Stauffer gives us the texture and feel–a “thick description”–of the strange worlds that Douglass and Lincoln inhabited. The result is a path-breaking work that dissolves traditional conceptions of these two seminal figures (Lincoln the “redeemer” president, Douglass the assimilationist). He reveals how Douglass towered over Lincoln as a brilliant orator, writer, agitator, and public figure for most of his life. He shows us how words became potent weapons for both men. And he tells the poignant story of how these preeminent self-made men ultimately converged, despite their vastly different agendas and politics, and helped transform the nation.

And last but not least, another book in the TBR pile is 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History by Charles Bracelen Flood.  Publishers Weekly offered this Starred Review:

Critically acclaimed historian Flood (Grant and Sherman: The Friendship that Won the Civil War) provides a brilliant, compelling account of Lincoln’s dramatic final full year of life-a year in which the war finally turned in the Union’s favor and Lincoln faced a tough battle for re-election. After Union defeats at the Battle of Cold Harbor and the siege of Petersburg, Confederate General Jubal Early came within five miles of Washington, D.C., before he was beaten back; General Sherman’s September victory at Atlanta followed, with his bloody march to the sea. At the same time, Lincoln found himself running against his own secretary of the treasury, Salmon Chase, for the Republican nomination, and then against the Democrat (and general) George B. McClellan for the presidency. Lincoln won by a narrow popular majority, but a significant electoral majority. At the close of 1864, as Lincoln celebrated both his re-election and the coming end of the war, John Wilkes Booth laid down an ambitious plan for kidnapping that soon evolved into a map for murder. Combining a novelist’s flair with the authority and deep knowledge of a scholar, Flood artfully integrates this complex web of storylines.

So if you are looking for some books on Lincoln in honnor of his bicentenial birthday all of the above are worthy of consideration.

If you have a favorite book on Lincoln drop it in the comment section below.

Cover via Amazon

You know what they say about good intentions and that makes me nervous because I so often have them only to see them fail.

As is almost always the case, I have once again bitten off more than I can chew.  There are simply far too many non-fiction books that I want to read.  I try to limit my choices but even so I end up feeling hopelessly behind.

In one particular case, I had high hope of reading Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln and writing an insightful essay encompassing the MLK holiday, the inauguration, and history.

Alas, it was not to be.  The book has been buried int he TBR pile as I struggle to find time and energy to read the stack of non-fiction I have committed to.  I still plan to read it, but I missed the chance to connect to the events of the day (something I have never been any good at anyways).

But I thought I would make note of the book in case any of my good readers were not aware of it.  So you read it and I will read it and we can discuss it.  Or if anyone has already read it, please leave a comment or send me a link to your review.