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Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times
From one of the great living historians of 19th century America, a revelatory and enthralling new biography of Lincoln, many years in the making, that embeds him deeply in his tumultuous age.
David S. Reynolds, author of the Bancroft-prize-winning cultural biography of Walt Whitman and many other iconic works of 19th century American history, understands the currents in which Abraham Lincoln swam as well as anyone alive. His magisterial biography Abe is the product of a breathtaking full-body immersion into the riotous tumult of American life in the decades before the Civil War.
It was a country growing up and being pulled apart at the same time, with a democratic popular culture that, reflecting the country's contradictions, oscillated between the sentimental and the grotesque. Lincoln's lineage was considered auspicious by Emerson, Whitman and others who prophesied that it would be a new man from the West who would emerge to balance North and South. From New England Puritan stock on his father's side and Virginia Cavalier gentry on his mother's, Lincoln was linked by blood to the central conflict of the age. . An enduring theme of his life, Reynolds shows, was his genius for striking a balance between opposing forces.
Reynolds's Lincoln is not the self-raised child of legend; his father is much more influential and less of a flop than the legend has it. What Lincoln lacked in formal schooling he made up for in an unquenchable thirst for self-improvement; Reynolds leads us through the ad hoc course of study that stocked his mind, from childhood to his years as a lawyer. But there are many kinds of education, and Lincoln's talent for wrestling, tall tales, and bawdy jokes made him as popular with his peers as his appetite for poetry and Shakespeare and prodigious gifts for memorization set him apart from them.
No one can entirely transcend the limitations of their time, and Lincoln was no exception. But what emerges from Reynolds's masterful reckoning is a sense of a man who at each stage in his life managed to arrive at a broader view of things than all but his most enlightened peers. As a politician, he moved too slowly for some, and too swiftly for many more, but he always pushed hard toward justice while keeping the whole nation in mind. Abe culminates, of course, in the Civil War, the defining test of Lincoln and his beloved country. Reynolds shows us convincingly the extraordinary range of cultural artifacts Lincoln drew from as he shaped a vision of true union, transforming, in King's words, "the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." Abraham Lincoln did not come out of nowhere. Never have his cultural influences been more sharply limned than by David S. Reynolds here. But if he was shaped by his times, he also managed at his life's fateful hour to shape them to an extent few could have foreseen. Ultimately, this is the great drama that astonishes us still, and that Abe brings to fresh and vivid life. The measure of that life, in all its democratic fullness, will always be part of our American education.
David S. Reynolds, author of the Bancroft-prize-winning cultural biography of Walt Whitman and many other iconic works of 19th century American history, understands the currents in which Abraham Lincoln swam as well as anyone alive. His magisterial biography Abe is the product of a breathtaking full-body immersion into the riotous tumult of American life in the decades before the Civil War.
It was a country growing up and being pulled apart at the same time, with a democratic popular culture that, reflecting the country's contradictions, oscillated between the sentimental and the grotesque. Lincoln's lineage was considered auspicious by Emerson, Whitman and others who prophesied that it would be a new man from the West who would emerge to balance North and South. From New England Puritan stock on his father's side and Virginia Cavalier gentry on his mother's, Lincoln was linked by blood to the central conflict of the age. . An enduring theme of his life, Reynolds shows, was his genius for striking a balance between opposing forces.
Reynolds's Lincoln is not the self-raised child of legend; his father is much more influential and less of a flop than the legend has it. What Lincoln lacked in formal schooling he made up for in an unquenchable thirst for self-improvement; Reynolds leads us through the ad hoc course of study that stocked his mind, from childhood to his years as a lawyer. But there are many kinds of education, and Lincoln's talent for wrestling, tall tales, and bawdy jokes made him as popular with his peers as his appetite for poetry and Shakespeare and prodigious gifts for memorization set him apart from them.
No one can entirely transcend the limitations of their time, and Lincoln was no exception. But what emerges from Reynolds's masterful reckoning is a sense of a man who at each stage in his life managed to arrive at a broader view of things than all but his most enlightened peers. As a politician, he moved too slowly for some, and too swiftly for many more, but he always pushed hard toward justice while keeping the whole nation in mind. Abe culminates, of course, in the Civil War, the defining test of Lincoln and his beloved country. Reynolds shows us convincingly the extraordinary range of cultural artifacts Lincoln drew from as he shaped a vision of true union, transforming, in King's words, "the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." Abraham Lincoln did not come out of nowhere. Never have his cultural influences been more sharply limned than by David S. Reynolds here. But if he was shaped by his times, he also managed at his life's fateful hour to shape them to an extent few could have foreseen. Ultimately, this is the great drama that astonishes us still, and that Abe brings to fresh and vivid life. The measure of that life, in all its democratic fullness, will always be part of our American education.
1088 pages, Hardcover
First published September 29, 2020
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2,105 people want to read
About the author
David S. Reynolds
31books78followersDavid S. Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at the City University of New York. His works include the award-winning Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson, Walt Whitman's America, and John Brown, Abolitionist. He lives on Long Island in New York.
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November 25, 2020
David Reynolds's "Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times" was published seven weeks ago (September 2020) and is currently the best selling book on the 16th president. Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of nine books including "Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography" and "John Brown, Abolitionist."
Reynolds describes his book as a "cultural biography" with the goal of placing Lincoln in the context of his era and exploring how the social currents of the times impacted him (and vice versa). But it is far more "cultural" and far less "biography" than some might suspect, and with 932 pages of text (and nearly 100 pages of notes) this oeuvre is not for the faint of heart.
The author's premise is straightforward: Lincoln's image as a self-made man is far too simplistic and his greatness is largely a result of his ability to tap into the culture of his times. Because of this, the book is less a comprehensive survey of his life and more a review of the factors which led to his political success. Reynolds also admits - at least twice - to viewing Lincoln as America's greatest president. Fortunately, the book's probity does not suffer under the weight of this sentiment.
At its best, "Abe" is magnificent. Reynold possesses a keen understanding of Lincoln's era with all its swirling complexity, and he explains his subject's engagement with the times with admirable dexterity. Had Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Joseph Ellis and Michael Burlingame conspired to examine Lincoln's character and his times, I imagine this is very much the book which would have resulted.
Of all the topics this book investigates, by far the deepest and most ubiquitous is its examination of his attitude toward slavery and racial equality. Also extensively considered is the impact of religion and faith on his personality and political philosophies.
Other highlights include an interesting review of Lincoln's principal romances, an analysis of the legal cases he pursued during his years as a frontier lawyer, a summary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and interesting sketches of several of President Lincoln's cabinet officials. There book also features an excellent chapter analyzing two of Lincoln's greatest speeches (the Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address) and the circumstances under which they were composed and delivered.
But readers expecting a colorful or comprehensive introduction to Lincoln's life and legacy will be disappointed. Not only is this not a traditional biography, but at times it hardly seems a biography at all. Instead, this is a judicious but focused examination of the era and the man - both inextricably linked.
In that respect, many readers will find this book more like a research paper than an engaging biography. It can be abstract, esoteric and philosophical. It can also be dry - though it is rarely dull. More importantly, the narrative pre-supposes a facility with Lincoln's life and times that some readers will not possess. And while it is broadly chronological, the narrative prefers to proceed thematically.
In addition, readers do not gain much insight into Lincoln's personal life or his most fascinating friendships. But his mercurial wife does receive significant (and obviously deserved) attention. Finally, the narrative moves swiftly past many important historical events which would (and should) receive far more notice in a traditional biography.
Overall, David Reynolds's biography of Abraham Lincoln is excellent for what it is designed to be: a character analysis embedded within the context of his times. Readers hoping to understand how Lincoln's environment shaped his views - and how his actions influenced the world around him - will find this study compelling. But anyone seeking a thorough, comprehensive and engaging narrative of Lincoln's life and legacy will do better to look elsewhere.
Overall Rating: “Unrated� as a biography
September 7, 2022
I tend to be a little wary of cultural histories about a specific time period, as they can sometimes read like a collection of trivialities without a larger purpose in mind - like a pseudo-scholarly version of “Hey, Remember the 1800’s?� That’s what I thought about David Reynolds’s , so with that in mind, I was somewhat hesitant to pick up this later work of his on Abraham Lincoln.
But one word in the book’s subtitle makes all the difference. It’s not “Abraham Lincoln and His Times� but “Abraham Lincoln in His Times.� So this is not a collection of random anecdotes about Lincoln and his era, but a full narrative that connects Lincoln’s life story to the social and cultural features and transformations of his time. Sometimes the narrative tells well-known Lincoln stories but in a larger cultural context, while other times it uses lesser-known Lincoln stories to make a broader point about social phenomena of the time.
From the very beginning, the book has a different feel from other Lincoln biographies. The standard family history that opens many biographies can sometimes feel like a rote and inconsequential recitation of the subject’s ancestry. But Reynolds traces Lincoln’s background in the context of how it shaped him, with a lineage that could be traced back to both the north and the south, to both the cultured and the common people.
This, Reynolds argues, allowed Lincoln to pick and choose aspects of his ancestry and his upbringing to use for political purposes. While not denying the reality of Lincoln’s humble background, Reynolds shows how Lincoln later “played up his image as the self-made man," displaying a "tendency to underplay his background" by, for example, emphasizing his lack of formal education, even though contemporaries like Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass also had little to no schooling but proved that "a sound education could be found outside the classroom."
By the time Lincoln gets into politics, Reynolds tells of the "performative Lincoln" who embraced his "Uncle Abe persona," both to relate to the common man and to preemptively deflect criticism of his awkward appearance. In Lincoln’s case, however - unlike, say, aristocrat William Henry Harrison’s disingenuous “log cabin and hard cider� campaign - the background that Lincoln played up also happened to be true.
But Reynolds also tells how it really was, with one of the best descriptions I’ve read of real rough-and-tumble frontier life, where violence - whether against animals or people - was practiced as sport. Lincoln, to an extent, participated in this, but also rose above it, just as he did with the frontier style of storytelling, which he adopted but also adapted, in order “to add meaning to the nonsensical humor of his era.� His storytelling and stylistic choices in speechmaking helped Lincoln attract the support of rural, young male voters and earn their lifelong loyalty. And while others of his time, like Henry David Thoreau, viewed the simplicity of living in nature as somewhat romantic, Lincoln sought to move beyond his own natural and simple upbringing, neither romanticizing nor rejecting it, but focusing on “making nature useful to humans� with his Whig philosophy of advocating improvements like roads and canals.
As Lincoln works his way toward the presidency, the book weaves in stories about Lincoln’s contemporaries and about social phenomena of the time, without ever straying too far from Lincoln himself. Reynolds aims to show how Lincoln was both influenced by, and influenced, his era. He moved in tandem with public opinion, as authors and speakers and thinkers of the time helped to shape it, but he also worked to push public opinion forward himself, while being careful not to push too hard.
There’s plenty of (perhaps somewhat too much) discussion about the books Lincoln read, the music he liked and the diversions he enjoyed, which both helped to shape him and keep him connected with the common man. Among the better connections Reynolds makes between Lincoln and a cultural figure of his time is in comparing Lincoln to a famous tightrope walker known as Blondin. Cultural commentators, political cartoonists and Lincoln himself often compared the two, as they were both centrists looking to keep their balance without leaning too far in any one direction.
Reynolds also makes good use of the story about the time Lincoln met P.T. Barnum personality General Tom Thumb at the White House. It’s a story that’s often featured in collections of presidential trivia, but rarely finds its way into serious Lincoln biographies. Reynolds uses the story to compare Lincoln himself to Barnum’s attractions, as some political cartoonists of the time did, portraying him as an odd physical specimen who had become a “crowd-pleasing curiosity,� and used that to his advantage.
There are times, though, when the connections that Reynolds tries to make between Lincoln and the culture of the time seem more strained and questionable. Much of this comes when analyzing Lincoln’s relationship with his wife. In discussing gender roles of the time, he somehow paints Lincoln and Mary as protofeminists. Mary’s outbursts at home “created some difficulties for Lincoln," Reynolds acknowledges, but they merely demonstrated how she "chafed under the gender restrictions of her era� and “sought outlets for her trapped energies."
“Outlets,� like whacking Lincoln in the face with a piece of firewood in a fit of rage? No matter, Reynolds claims, since Lincoln likely viewed incidents like this as a mere ”healthy letting off of steam, then a rare option for women."
Mary’s later compulsive overspending and arguably criminal efforts to cover it up is largely explained away in the book as an example of "the woman who, feeling thwarted in a patriarchal society, takes revenge by becoming either actively criminal herself or the leader of other wrongdoers." Many women at the time “saw fashion and shopping as real avenues to power and self-expression,� so Mary’s actions are portrayed as merely an example of her exploring “new avenues to creativity and power.”�
Reynolds even goes so far as to link Mary to the burgeoning “Free Love� movement of the time, speculating that since Mary had some potentially inappropriate relationships with men, perhaps she was a believer in the Free Love movement too?
There are numerous smaller examples where Reynolds’s analysis seems strained and his facts are somewhat off - I won’t get into a nitpicky laundry list, but it all detracts from the larger points he’s trying to make. And on numerous occasions, Reynolds tells an anecdote where it fits the narrative thematically, then repeats it later on when it fits a later theme, with no acknowledgement of having referenced the story before.
By the time Lincoln is president, he’s not so much shaped by contemporary culture and society anymore as he is shaping it himself. At this point, Reynolds is not as concerned with the progress or Lincoln's conduct of the war as he is with Lincoln’s ongoing Blondin-like political balancing act. He astutely describes Lincoln’s much-analyzed letter to Horace Greeley about the Union and slavery as “a flamboyant show of centrism," designed to prepare the public for his more radical Emancipation Proclamation to come.
The book ultimately builds to the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural as the culmination of all the social, political and cultural influences that brought Lincoln to this point. And Reynolds contrasts the cultural forces that managed to bring us both a Lincoln and a John Wilkes Booth.
At 900+ pages, this is not a quick read, but it’s still accessible and enjoyable. While not perfect, it does fulfill its goal of telling a familiar story in a different way, by placing Lincoln’s story in the context of his times. And any book at this point that can successfully come up with something new to say about Lincoln, is okay by me.
But one word in the book’s subtitle makes all the difference. It’s not “Abraham Lincoln and His Times� but “Abraham Lincoln in His Times.� So this is not a collection of random anecdotes about Lincoln and his era, but a full narrative that connects Lincoln’s life story to the social and cultural features and transformations of his time. Sometimes the narrative tells well-known Lincoln stories but in a larger cultural context, while other times it uses lesser-known Lincoln stories to make a broader point about social phenomena of the time.
From the very beginning, the book has a different feel from other Lincoln biographies. The standard family history that opens many biographies can sometimes feel like a rote and inconsequential recitation of the subject’s ancestry. But Reynolds traces Lincoln’s background in the context of how it shaped him, with a lineage that could be traced back to both the north and the south, to both the cultured and the common people.
This, Reynolds argues, allowed Lincoln to pick and choose aspects of his ancestry and his upbringing to use for political purposes. While not denying the reality of Lincoln’s humble background, Reynolds shows how Lincoln later “played up his image as the self-made man," displaying a "tendency to underplay his background" by, for example, emphasizing his lack of formal education, even though contemporaries like Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass also had little to no schooling but proved that "a sound education could be found outside the classroom."
By the time Lincoln gets into politics, Reynolds tells of the "performative Lincoln" who embraced his "Uncle Abe persona," both to relate to the common man and to preemptively deflect criticism of his awkward appearance. In Lincoln’s case, however - unlike, say, aristocrat William Henry Harrison’s disingenuous “log cabin and hard cider� campaign - the background that Lincoln played up also happened to be true.
But Reynolds also tells how it really was, with one of the best descriptions I’ve read of real rough-and-tumble frontier life, where violence - whether against animals or people - was practiced as sport. Lincoln, to an extent, participated in this, but also rose above it, just as he did with the frontier style of storytelling, which he adopted but also adapted, in order “to add meaning to the nonsensical humor of his era.� His storytelling and stylistic choices in speechmaking helped Lincoln attract the support of rural, young male voters and earn their lifelong loyalty. And while others of his time, like Henry David Thoreau, viewed the simplicity of living in nature as somewhat romantic, Lincoln sought to move beyond his own natural and simple upbringing, neither romanticizing nor rejecting it, but focusing on “making nature useful to humans� with his Whig philosophy of advocating improvements like roads and canals.
As Lincoln works his way toward the presidency, the book weaves in stories about Lincoln’s contemporaries and about social phenomena of the time, without ever straying too far from Lincoln himself. Reynolds aims to show how Lincoln was both influenced by, and influenced, his era. He moved in tandem with public opinion, as authors and speakers and thinkers of the time helped to shape it, but he also worked to push public opinion forward himself, while being careful not to push too hard.
There’s plenty of (perhaps somewhat too much) discussion about the books Lincoln read, the music he liked and the diversions he enjoyed, which both helped to shape him and keep him connected with the common man. Among the better connections Reynolds makes between Lincoln and a cultural figure of his time is in comparing Lincoln to a famous tightrope walker known as Blondin. Cultural commentators, political cartoonists and Lincoln himself often compared the two, as they were both centrists looking to keep their balance without leaning too far in any one direction.
Reynolds also makes good use of the story about the time Lincoln met P.T. Barnum personality General Tom Thumb at the White House. It’s a story that’s often featured in collections of presidential trivia, but rarely finds its way into serious Lincoln biographies. Reynolds uses the story to compare Lincoln himself to Barnum’s attractions, as some political cartoonists of the time did, portraying him as an odd physical specimen who had become a “crowd-pleasing curiosity,� and used that to his advantage.
There are times, though, when the connections that Reynolds tries to make between Lincoln and the culture of the time seem more strained and questionable. Much of this comes when analyzing Lincoln’s relationship with his wife. In discussing gender roles of the time, he somehow paints Lincoln and Mary as protofeminists. Mary’s outbursts at home “created some difficulties for Lincoln," Reynolds acknowledges, but they merely demonstrated how she "chafed under the gender restrictions of her era� and “sought outlets for her trapped energies."
“Outlets,� like whacking Lincoln in the face with a piece of firewood in a fit of rage? No matter, Reynolds claims, since Lincoln likely viewed incidents like this as a mere ”healthy letting off of steam, then a rare option for women."
Mary’s later compulsive overspending and arguably criminal efforts to cover it up is largely explained away in the book as an example of "the woman who, feeling thwarted in a patriarchal society, takes revenge by becoming either actively criminal herself or the leader of other wrongdoers." Many women at the time “saw fashion and shopping as real avenues to power and self-expression,� so Mary’s actions are portrayed as merely an example of her exploring “new avenues to creativity and power.”�
Reynolds even goes so far as to link Mary to the burgeoning “Free Love� movement of the time, speculating that since Mary had some potentially inappropriate relationships with men, perhaps she was a believer in the Free Love movement too?
There are numerous smaller examples where Reynolds’s analysis seems strained and his facts are somewhat off - I won’t get into a nitpicky laundry list, but it all detracts from the larger points he’s trying to make. And on numerous occasions, Reynolds tells an anecdote where it fits the narrative thematically, then repeats it later on when it fits a later theme, with no acknowledgement of having referenced the story before.
By the time Lincoln is president, he’s not so much shaped by contemporary culture and society anymore as he is shaping it himself. At this point, Reynolds is not as concerned with the progress or Lincoln's conduct of the war as he is with Lincoln’s ongoing Blondin-like political balancing act. He astutely describes Lincoln’s much-analyzed letter to Horace Greeley about the Union and slavery as “a flamboyant show of centrism," designed to prepare the public for his more radical Emancipation Proclamation to come.
The book ultimately builds to the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural as the culmination of all the social, political and cultural influences that brought Lincoln to this point. And Reynolds contrasts the cultural forces that managed to bring us both a Lincoln and a John Wilkes Booth.
At 900+ pages, this is not a quick read, but it’s still accessible and enjoyable. While not perfect, it does fulfill its goal of telling a familiar story in a different way, by placing Lincoln’s story in the context of his times. And any book at this point that can successfully come up with something new to say about Lincoln, is okay by me.
February 7, 2021
I would have loved to five star this book. And, even with some of the early problems on one issue, I was still leaning that way. But, more problems on that issue meant I couldn’t do it. And, if it weren’t so good otherwise, it risked falling to three stars.
(Update: In hindsight, and seeing James Oakes is peddling some of the same untrue claims about Lincoln abandoning colonization after 1862, and with these claims getting bigger play in Reynolds, I have decided that for this and other reasons noted by myself and mentioned by other reviewers in various places, the rating must be reduced to three stars after all.)
First, the good of what’s billed as the first ever “cultural biography� of Lincoln? Reynolds delivers in spades in many ways.
One area where he really impressed me was on Lincoln’s religiosity. He notes that his parents attended an anti-slavery Baptist church in Kentucky, and were steadfast in their own stance. Beyond that, Reynolds talks about Lincoln’s younger adult deism, and how he soft-peddled that as part of his political rise. At the same time, along with other biographers, especially after the death of son Willie, he shows Lincoln, though still not a churchgoer, moving toward a more fatalistic version of conventional Calvinism.
Reynolds is also good on Lincoln’s legal practice. Many biographers focus on his 1850s railroad cases. Reynolds looks at how many divorce cases the younger Lincoln handled, for women as plaintiffs suing on grounds of desertion. He adds that Illinois was one of the few states that allowed women to file for divorce on desertion as well as abute, and that it was fairly generous, for that day, on what counted as abuse.
Fast forward to the 1850s. Reynolds talks about Lincoln avoiding ‘isms,� a charge Democrats hurled repeatedly at Republicans. He notes that Lincoln was like French tightrope walker Blondin, who had crossed Niagara Falls at this time. He adds how Lincoln sometimes made this modeling conscious, and how many newspaper columns and cartoons in the 1860 election explicitly drew this out.
He also talks about how Abe, not just Mary, was interested in spiritualism, especially after Willie’s death. Again, he puts this in the context of a rising national interest in spiritualism, fueled largely but by no means entirely by the Fox sisters. Among his contempraries, Ben Wade, Josh Giddings and Garrison all had at least some degree of interest. Lincoln conversed with both Robert Edmonds and Robert Dale Owen, the son of utopian Robert Owen, and listened seriously to Owen on matters both within and outside of spiritualism.
(Sidebar: This puts paid to the lie by folks like the Freedom from Religion Foundation that Lincoln was an atheist.)
That’s just a sample.
On the non-cultural side, Reynolds does a good job of recognizing Anna Carroll’s contributions to the war effort. I had read basically nothing about her before.
Several problems with the book, though, and they all center around slavery. Reynolds isn’t quite doing the Spielberg movie version, but �.
First and foremost, no, Lincoln did not stop talking about colonization in 1862. His administration continued discussions with Central American countries well into 1864, and in 1865, Lincoln purportedly said he had only abandoned it at the time for political reasons. Spoons Butler said that Lincoln, the day before his assassination, asked him to continue to look into it. It’s dishonest of Reynolds to not even mention Bernard Kock and the Ile-de-Vache (Vache Island) scheme. More here and here
It's true that Vache Island wasn't actively promoted after 1862. But, colonizing Belize? That was an activity the Emigration Bureau did promote, under Lincoln's auspices, into 1863. And, per Wiki, Lincoln continued to have at least a background attachment to colonization into 1864, even if he and Butler didn't discuss it in 1865.
The question is, ultimately, after the war itself started swinging to the US more instead of the Confederacy and 1863 elections went pro-Republican, how much was Lincoln’s diminished public push for colonization his own change of mind and how much was change of politics? That first link, especially, needs reading. Basically, I find Reynolds, given the amount of knowledge he has otherwise, to be intellectually dishonest.
Second, he “sanitizes� some of Lincoln’s somewhat racist comments in the 1840s and 50s. No, they were racist, if not the worst racist for his age, and they weren’t all told in the service of politics.
Third, he claims the republic was strong against the slave trade, citing that the death penality was made a possible punishment in 1820. Reality? The Lincoln Administration’s imposition of it, once, was the ONLY time in the 42 years. More reality? The US refusing to cooperate with Britain in African shore naval policing. MORE reality? Very few cases brought in the US. W.E.B. DuBois may be too high, but, as of the start of the Civil War, I’d estimate 100,000 blacks had either been post-1807 illegally imported (whether from Africa or the post-1832 British Caribbean) or descendants of such people.
In addition, I found a phrase here and there jarring, such as calling Elizabeth Keckley’s son “light complexioned.� Of what relevance is that? None, obviously.
On the 13th Amendment? Lincoln may not have personally handed out favors. (I can’t remember what Speilberg claimed.) But, did he know that Ashley and others WERE? Yes. And, some of the favors being peddled? Federal jobs are executive branch appointments. For instance, only Abe (or Andy Johnson, later) could have named George Yeaman ambassador to Denmark. The movie part about Lincoln personally lobbying Yeaman at the White House is true.
And, again, I know Reynolds knows this. If not, he should
It’s anachronistic to call a Lollard like John Oldcastle a Puritan.
Per reviewers elsewhere, applying labels like "conservative" and "progressive" to the battle over slavery is also anachronistic and serves no purpose.
(Update: In hindsight, and seeing James Oakes is peddling some of the same untrue claims about Lincoln abandoning colonization after 1862, and with these claims getting bigger play in Reynolds, I have decided that for this and other reasons noted by myself and mentioned by other reviewers in various places, the rating must be reduced to three stars after all.)
First, the good of what’s billed as the first ever “cultural biography� of Lincoln? Reynolds delivers in spades in many ways.
One area where he really impressed me was on Lincoln’s religiosity. He notes that his parents attended an anti-slavery Baptist church in Kentucky, and were steadfast in their own stance. Beyond that, Reynolds talks about Lincoln’s younger adult deism, and how he soft-peddled that as part of his political rise. At the same time, along with other biographers, especially after the death of son Willie, he shows Lincoln, though still not a churchgoer, moving toward a more fatalistic version of conventional Calvinism.
Reynolds is also good on Lincoln’s legal practice. Many biographers focus on his 1850s railroad cases. Reynolds looks at how many divorce cases the younger Lincoln handled, for women as plaintiffs suing on grounds of desertion. He adds that Illinois was one of the few states that allowed women to file for divorce on desertion as well as abute, and that it was fairly generous, for that day, on what counted as abuse.
Fast forward to the 1850s. Reynolds talks about Lincoln avoiding ‘isms,� a charge Democrats hurled repeatedly at Republicans. He notes that Lincoln was like French tightrope walker Blondin, who had crossed Niagara Falls at this time. He adds how Lincoln sometimes made this modeling conscious, and how many newspaper columns and cartoons in the 1860 election explicitly drew this out.
He also talks about how Abe, not just Mary, was interested in spiritualism, especially after Willie’s death. Again, he puts this in the context of a rising national interest in spiritualism, fueled largely but by no means entirely by the Fox sisters. Among his contempraries, Ben Wade, Josh Giddings and Garrison all had at least some degree of interest. Lincoln conversed with both Robert Edmonds and Robert Dale Owen, the son of utopian Robert Owen, and listened seriously to Owen on matters both within and outside of spiritualism.
(Sidebar: This puts paid to the lie by folks like the Freedom from Religion Foundation that Lincoln was an atheist.)
That’s just a sample.
On the non-cultural side, Reynolds does a good job of recognizing Anna Carroll’s contributions to the war effort. I had read basically nothing about her before.
Several problems with the book, though, and they all center around slavery. Reynolds isn’t quite doing the Spielberg movie version, but �.
First and foremost, no, Lincoln did not stop talking about colonization in 1862. His administration continued discussions with Central American countries well into 1864, and in 1865, Lincoln purportedly said he had only abandoned it at the time for political reasons. Spoons Butler said that Lincoln, the day before his assassination, asked him to continue to look into it. It’s dishonest of Reynolds to not even mention Bernard Kock and the Ile-de-Vache (Vache Island) scheme. More here and here
It's true that Vache Island wasn't actively promoted after 1862. But, colonizing Belize? That was an activity the Emigration Bureau did promote, under Lincoln's auspices, into 1863. And, per Wiki, Lincoln continued to have at least a background attachment to colonization into 1864, even if he and Butler didn't discuss it in 1865.
The question is, ultimately, after the war itself started swinging to the US more instead of the Confederacy and 1863 elections went pro-Republican, how much was Lincoln’s diminished public push for colonization his own change of mind and how much was change of politics? That first link, especially, needs reading. Basically, I find Reynolds, given the amount of knowledge he has otherwise, to be intellectually dishonest.
Second, he “sanitizes� some of Lincoln’s somewhat racist comments in the 1840s and 50s. No, they were racist, if not the worst racist for his age, and they weren’t all told in the service of politics.
Third, he claims the republic was strong against the slave trade, citing that the death penality was made a possible punishment in 1820. Reality? The Lincoln Administration’s imposition of it, once, was the ONLY time in the 42 years. More reality? The US refusing to cooperate with Britain in African shore naval policing. MORE reality? Very few cases brought in the US. W.E.B. DuBois may be too high, but, as of the start of the Civil War, I’d estimate 100,000 blacks had either been post-1807 illegally imported (whether from Africa or the post-1832 British Caribbean) or descendants of such people.
In addition, I found a phrase here and there jarring, such as calling Elizabeth Keckley’s son “light complexioned.� Of what relevance is that? None, obviously.
On the 13th Amendment? Lincoln may not have personally handed out favors. (I can’t remember what Speilberg claimed.) But, did he know that Ashley and others WERE? Yes. And, some of the favors being peddled? Federal jobs are executive branch appointments. For instance, only Abe (or Andy Johnson, later) could have named George Yeaman ambassador to Denmark. The movie part about Lincoln personally lobbying Yeaman at the White House is true.
And, again, I know Reynolds knows this. If not, he should
It’s anachronistic to call a Lollard like John Oldcastle a Puritan.
Per reviewers elsewhere, applying labels like "conservative" and "progressive" to the battle over slavery is also anachronistic and serves no purpose.
December 5, 2021
Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times by David S. Reynolds, one of the great living historians of 19th century America, a revelatory and enthralling new biography of Lincoln, many years in the making, that embeds him deeply in his tumultuous age. David S. Reynolds understands the currents in which Abraham Lincoln swam as well as anyone alive. His magisterial biography Abe is the product of a breathtaking full-body immersion into the riotous tumult of American life in the decades before the Civil War. I've read a number of books about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln but was surprised to learn how much more there was to learn about Abe from reading this book. It presents a much more intimate look at Lincoln and particularly his early years.
It was a country growing up and being pulled apart at the same time, with a democratic popular culture that, reflecting the country's contradictions, oscillated between the sentimental and the grotesque. Lincoln's lineage was considered auspicious by Emerson, Whitman and others who prophesied that it would be a new man from the West who would emerge to balance North and South. From New England Puritan stock on his father's side and Virginia Cavalier gentry on his mother's, Lincoln was linked by blood to the central conflict of the age. . An enduring theme of his life, Reynolds shows, was his genius for striking a balance between opposing forces.
Reynolds's Lincoln is not the self-raised child of legend; his father is much more influential and less of a flop than the legend has it. What Lincoln lacked in formal schooling he made up for in an unquenchable thirst for self-improvement; Reynolds leads us through the ad hoc course of study that stocked his mind, from childhood to his years as a lawyer. But there are many kinds of education, and Lincoln's talent for wrestling, tall tales, and bawdy jokes made him as popular with his peers as his appetite for poetry and Shakespeare and prodigious gifts for memorization set him apart from them.
No one can entirely transcend the limitations of their time, and Lincoln was no exception. But what emerges from Reynolds's masterful reckoning is a sense of a man who at each stage in his life managed to arrive at a broader view of things than all but his most enlightened peers. As a politician, he moved too slowly for some, and too swiftly for many more, but he always pushed hard toward justice while keeping the whole nation in mind. Abe culminates, of course, in the Civil War, the defining test of Lincoln and his beloved country. Reynolds shows us convincingly the extraordinary range of cultural artifacts Lincoln drew from as he shaped a vision of true union, transforming, in King's words, "the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." Abraham Lincoln did not come out of nowhere. Never have his cultural influences been more sharply limned than by David S. Reynolds here. But if he was shaped by his times, he also managed at his life's fateful hour to shape them to an extent few could have foreseen. Ultimately, this is the great drama that astonishes us still, and that Abe brings to fresh and vivid life. The measure of that life, in all its democratic fullness, will always be part of our American education.
It was a country growing up and being pulled apart at the same time, with a democratic popular culture that, reflecting the country's contradictions, oscillated between the sentimental and the grotesque. Lincoln's lineage was considered auspicious by Emerson, Whitman and others who prophesied that it would be a new man from the West who would emerge to balance North and South. From New England Puritan stock on his father's side and Virginia Cavalier gentry on his mother's, Lincoln was linked by blood to the central conflict of the age. . An enduring theme of his life, Reynolds shows, was his genius for striking a balance between opposing forces.
Reynolds's Lincoln is not the self-raised child of legend; his father is much more influential and less of a flop than the legend has it. What Lincoln lacked in formal schooling he made up for in an unquenchable thirst for self-improvement; Reynolds leads us through the ad hoc course of study that stocked his mind, from childhood to his years as a lawyer. But there are many kinds of education, and Lincoln's talent for wrestling, tall tales, and bawdy jokes made him as popular with his peers as his appetite for poetry and Shakespeare and prodigious gifts for memorization set him apart from them.
No one can entirely transcend the limitations of their time, and Lincoln was no exception. But what emerges from Reynolds's masterful reckoning is a sense of a man who at each stage in his life managed to arrive at a broader view of things than all but his most enlightened peers. As a politician, he moved too slowly for some, and too swiftly for many more, but he always pushed hard toward justice while keeping the whole nation in mind. Abe culminates, of course, in the Civil War, the defining test of Lincoln and his beloved country. Reynolds shows us convincingly the extraordinary range of cultural artifacts Lincoln drew from as he shaped a vision of true union, transforming, in King's words, "the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." Abraham Lincoln did not come out of nowhere. Never have his cultural influences been more sharply limned than by David S. Reynolds here. But if he was shaped by his times, he also managed at his life's fateful hour to shape them to an extent few could have foreseen. Ultimately, this is the great drama that astonishes us still, and that Abe brings to fresh and vivid life. The measure of that life, in all its democratic fullness, will always be part of our American education.
December 6, 2020
My personal pick as (non-fiction) Book of the Year 2020.
If you have read dozens of books on the Civil War, Lincoln, and the surrounding aspects, this is STILL a fascinating and revelatory read. Even having read the truly outstanding Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, a fly-on-the-wall look at Lincoln's Presidency/i.e. Civil War from the Cabinet Room, another truly outstanding book, this book will uncover and illuminate multiple aspects of Lincoln's life and likely thoughts than any other book out there.
This is a cultural history. Other reviewers here have pointed out that this aspect doesn't make this a biography of Lincoln.
I disagree.
The "cradle to grave" linear perspective is still here. You learn all of the timeline aspects of his life in a roughly chronological order. Indeed, it is surprising how linear the book is in this aspect.
The first several hundred pages (beautiful layout, largish print, deckle edged, so many great illustrations and photos - it really is an aethestically - and culturally - beautiful looking book to read and hold) covers the frontier years and the aspects of life that Lincoln would have referenced in his mind based on his knowledge of popular culture. The second section of his life focuses on how he emerged as a lawyer and political figure, and vigorously counters recent commentators on accusations of "racism" on his evolving positions on race (Reynolds strictly defends Abe on charges of racism here). The last couple of hundred pages deals with the Presidential years, and don't expect a chronological history of the Civil War when you get there. The assassination is grippingly told, though strictly chronological.
It's about the cultural references. The intersection between popular and educational reading, Blondin (read the book to learn about this daredevil type-rope walker as a common metaphor for Lincoln), and Harriet Beecher Stowe (a more obvious cultural reference). It's about the basic premise of this book, that rethreads the original cultural construct of Puritanism vs. Cavalierism here. In two spoiler free sentences, America saw itself during this period - as convincingly rediscovered here by Reynolds - as a nation in the aftershocks of the English Civil War. The North (Puritans) were seen as the strict, authoritarian, moralistic side of this conflict, and the South as the Cavalier, conservative, medieval, honor based society that was projected by their media. It's a forgotten aspect that makes much sense in the ensuing conflict. Of course it was about the traditional ideas of Unionism vs. Slavery; but those have been submerged in this book about the currents of that time. That the North and the South (to be so reductive as to be simplistic - yes, it was much more complicated) were ideologically and culturally diverse enough to be irreconcilable without a Civil War. That Lincoln was the Blondin who rode the tightrope of politics to portray moderatism while steadily moving towards abolitionism.
There is obviously so much more going on here. The main text is 930+ pages of pure bliss, with plenty of inset photographs and portraiture (no Civil War maps, and surprisingly fast to read for that page count because of illustrations and font size) that continue to illustrate Reynolds's main idea: that Lincoln was the main conciliator and compromiser despite turbulent times. Lincoln was the perfect person for this moment. And it was precisely because of his understanding of America's popular culture that he was able to inspire the Union cause and our hearts ever since his iconic assassination.
If you know a bit about the times, this is actually the perfect biography. Not because every literal aspect of his life is uncovered, but because the cultural MIND is uncovered and it reinfuses the narrative and scope with new vigor. This probably won't get the prizes it deserves (Lincoln and the Civil War? Too many great books in that era already - though a Lincoln Prize should be in the offing) but it should be recognized as an invaluable contribution to the understanding of our greatest - and certainly most legendary POTUS alongside Washington- leader in the most difficult times. The assassination almost reads like a newspaper version of the story and the reader feels saddened over the loss of this man all over again.
If you are a Lincoln superfan, ESSENTIAL reading. If you are not, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. There must be a dozen essential biographies of Abe, but only this one makes you feel like you could understand his humor and anecdotes. Read.
If you have read dozens of books on the Civil War, Lincoln, and the surrounding aspects, this is STILL a fascinating and revelatory read. Even having read the truly outstanding Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, a fly-on-the-wall look at Lincoln's Presidency/i.e. Civil War from the Cabinet Room, another truly outstanding book, this book will uncover and illuminate multiple aspects of Lincoln's life and likely thoughts than any other book out there.
This is a cultural history. Other reviewers here have pointed out that this aspect doesn't make this a biography of Lincoln.
I disagree.
The "cradle to grave" linear perspective is still here. You learn all of the timeline aspects of his life in a roughly chronological order. Indeed, it is surprising how linear the book is in this aspect.
The first several hundred pages (beautiful layout, largish print, deckle edged, so many great illustrations and photos - it really is an aethestically - and culturally - beautiful looking book to read and hold) covers the frontier years and the aspects of life that Lincoln would have referenced in his mind based on his knowledge of popular culture. The second section of his life focuses on how he emerged as a lawyer and political figure, and vigorously counters recent commentators on accusations of "racism" on his evolving positions on race (Reynolds strictly defends Abe on charges of racism here). The last couple of hundred pages deals with the Presidential years, and don't expect a chronological history of the Civil War when you get there. The assassination is grippingly told, though strictly chronological.
It's about the cultural references. The intersection between popular and educational reading, Blondin (read the book to learn about this daredevil type-rope walker as a common metaphor for Lincoln), and Harriet Beecher Stowe (a more obvious cultural reference). It's about the basic premise of this book, that rethreads the original cultural construct of Puritanism vs. Cavalierism here. In two spoiler free sentences, America saw itself during this period - as convincingly rediscovered here by Reynolds - as a nation in the aftershocks of the English Civil War. The North (Puritans) were seen as the strict, authoritarian, moralistic side of this conflict, and the South as the Cavalier, conservative, medieval, honor based society that was projected by their media. It's a forgotten aspect that makes much sense in the ensuing conflict. Of course it was about the traditional ideas of Unionism vs. Slavery; but those have been submerged in this book about the currents of that time. That the North and the South (to be so reductive as to be simplistic - yes, it was much more complicated) were ideologically and culturally diverse enough to be irreconcilable without a Civil War. That Lincoln was the Blondin who rode the tightrope of politics to portray moderatism while steadily moving towards abolitionism.
There is obviously so much more going on here. The main text is 930+ pages of pure bliss, with plenty of inset photographs and portraiture (no Civil War maps, and surprisingly fast to read for that page count because of illustrations and font size) that continue to illustrate Reynolds's main idea: that Lincoln was the main conciliator and compromiser despite turbulent times. Lincoln was the perfect person for this moment. And it was precisely because of his understanding of America's popular culture that he was able to inspire the Union cause and our hearts ever since his iconic assassination.
If you know a bit about the times, this is actually the perfect biography. Not because every literal aspect of his life is uncovered, but because the cultural MIND is uncovered and it reinfuses the narrative and scope with new vigor. This probably won't get the prizes it deserves (Lincoln and the Civil War? Too many great books in that era already - though a Lincoln Prize should be in the offing) but it should be recognized as an invaluable contribution to the understanding of our greatest - and certainly most legendary POTUS alongside Washington- leader in the most difficult times. The assassination almost reads like a newspaper version of the story and the reader feels saddened over the loss of this man all over again.
If you are a Lincoln superfan, ESSENTIAL reading. If you are not, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. There must be a dozen essential biographies of Abe, but only this one makes you feel like you could understand his humor and anecdotes. Read.
June 9, 2022
Award-winning Abe Lincoln bio. I gave this 3.5 stars.
I've previously read 6-7 Lincoln bios (on GR & Amazon).
This author noted Abe and his wife Mary each had
possible melancholy/ depression. Historians have
speculated for years: was Abe a Christian? an atheist?
a spiritual man but not a church member? He read the
Bible & sometimes accompanied Mary & their sons
to church. He used the arts ie theatre, books, poetry,
humor in the newspaper to cope with the horrors of war.
I felt that the cultural era info sometimes detracted from
Abe's bio. The author heavily quoted works of W. Whitman,
Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allen Poe etc. & lyrics of the era.
And P.T. Barnum. He overdid the comparisons of the myth
of Puritans (Northerners) & Cavaliers (Southerners) and
reactions by both sides as events unfolded. Some in the
North were anti-slavery, some pro-slavery, some neutral.
Some were anti-slavery, yet did not favor civil rights for
former slaves.
Readers perhaps got the impression that Abe was only
a fair lawyer. Other Abe bios I've read indicted that Abe
was known as a clever attorney who seldom lost his cool.
Abe favored for a time slaves in America being voluntarily
colonized elsewhere. But he wanted freedom for slaves.
Previous bios indicated Abe had conflicting thoughts on
slavery and civil rights. Jefferson Davis, Pres. Confederacy,
favored slave relocation to the West Indies, or Central or
South America. This author seemed to conclude that Abe
shared in private his anti-slavery stance but not so in
public. But Abe gradually made public his views.
The author gave credence to Abe's 3rd law partner William
Herndon's observations on Abe, whereas some other
historians or journalists thought Herndon had his own
agenda. Of negating Abe's legacy.
New things I learned about Abe's administration:
1. created standardized currency & a national bank system
2. created a standardized post office with stamps used in
all states & receipts for packages sent
3. created the Dept. of Agriculture
4. created the precursor to the national park system
5. created conscription & federal income tax
6. created a federal False Claims Act of 1863 (AKA the
Whistleblower Law)
7. created land grant colleges
8. Abe's 1st Secy of War overcharged for munitions,
tents, etc and pocketed money. Materials were sun-
standard ie bullets had sawdust, not gunpowder.
Abe replaced him.
9. Congress passed the 13th Amendment (later ratified
by the states)
10. Lincoln was the only U.S. President to receive a
patent for his invention.
I thought modern politico campaigns were brutal.
Southern Democrats called Abe every name under
the sun, including N-(word) lover. They accused Abe
of promoting race-mixing. Ironic because Southern
plantation owners were known for forcing sex on
slave women, sometimes resulting in offspring.
Some called Abe "a gorilla despot."
James Buchanan proceeded Abe as President. He saw a
war was coming & ordered his Secretary of War transfer
munitions from Northern to Southern states. "Stonewall"
Jackson died by 'friendly fire.' Some Civil War Generals,
West Point graduates, thought themselves superior to
Generals not trained there. West Pt. grads served the
North & South.
Reportedly 500-700 women disguised themselves as men
in order fight in the Civil War. Abe & Mary made a point
to visit with wounded soldiers, in make-shift hospitals.
Abe also visited soldiers in the field.
John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators planned
to kill Abe Lincoln, US Grant (who declined the theatre
invite), Abe's VP Johnson & Secretary of State Seward
(who survived knife wounds). JWB & these men were
captured, then hung or imprisoned. JWB & these men
plotted Lincoln's demise in a boarding house. The
female boarding house owner was also hung.
Revised 05/30/22.
I've previously read 6-7 Lincoln bios (on GR & Amazon).
This author noted Abe and his wife Mary each had
possible melancholy/ depression. Historians have
speculated for years: was Abe a Christian? an atheist?
a spiritual man but not a church member? He read the
Bible & sometimes accompanied Mary & their sons
to church. He used the arts ie theatre, books, poetry,
humor in the newspaper to cope with the horrors of war.
I felt that the cultural era info sometimes detracted from
Abe's bio. The author heavily quoted works of W. Whitman,
Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allen Poe etc. & lyrics of the era.
And P.T. Barnum. He overdid the comparisons of the myth
of Puritans (Northerners) & Cavaliers (Southerners) and
reactions by both sides as events unfolded. Some in the
North were anti-slavery, some pro-slavery, some neutral.
Some were anti-slavery, yet did not favor civil rights for
former slaves.
Readers perhaps got the impression that Abe was only
a fair lawyer. Other Abe bios I've read indicted that Abe
was known as a clever attorney who seldom lost his cool.
Abe favored for a time slaves in America being voluntarily
colonized elsewhere. But he wanted freedom for slaves.
Previous bios indicated Abe had conflicting thoughts on
slavery and civil rights. Jefferson Davis, Pres. Confederacy,
favored slave relocation to the West Indies, or Central or
South America. This author seemed to conclude that Abe
shared in private his anti-slavery stance but not so in
public. But Abe gradually made public his views.
The author gave credence to Abe's 3rd law partner William
Herndon's observations on Abe, whereas some other
historians or journalists thought Herndon had his own
agenda. Of negating Abe's legacy.
New things I learned about Abe's administration:
1. created standardized currency & a national bank system
2. created a standardized post office with stamps used in
all states & receipts for packages sent
3. created the Dept. of Agriculture
4. created the precursor to the national park system
5. created conscription & federal income tax
6. created a federal False Claims Act of 1863 (AKA the
Whistleblower Law)
7. created land grant colleges
8. Abe's 1st Secy of War overcharged for munitions,
tents, etc and pocketed money. Materials were sun-
standard ie bullets had sawdust, not gunpowder.
Abe replaced him.
9. Congress passed the 13th Amendment (later ratified
by the states)
10. Lincoln was the only U.S. President to receive a
patent for his invention.
I thought modern politico campaigns were brutal.
Southern Democrats called Abe every name under
the sun, including N-(word) lover. They accused Abe
of promoting race-mixing. Ironic because Southern
plantation owners were known for forcing sex on
slave women, sometimes resulting in offspring.
Some called Abe "a gorilla despot."
James Buchanan proceeded Abe as President. He saw a
war was coming & ordered his Secretary of War transfer
munitions from Northern to Southern states. "Stonewall"
Jackson died by 'friendly fire.' Some Civil War Generals,
West Point graduates, thought themselves superior to
Generals not trained there. West Pt. grads served the
North & South.
Reportedly 500-700 women disguised themselves as men
in order fight in the Civil War. Abe & Mary made a point
to visit with wounded soldiers, in make-shift hospitals.
Abe also visited soldiers in the field.
John Wilkes Booth and his fellow conspirators planned
to kill Abe Lincoln, US Grant (who declined the theatre
invite), Abe's VP Johnson & Secretary of State Seward
(who survived knife wounds). JWB & these men were
captured, then hung or imprisoned. JWB & these men
plotted Lincoln's demise in a boarding house. The
female boarding house owner was also hung.
Revised 05/30/22.
March 20, 2021
An impressive tour de force that captures the culture(s) in which Lincoln developed as a man and as a politician. I was struck again and again at how similar the antebellum years were to our own time. Less "refined," of course, but no less partisan. The phrase used by observers of the time was "mobocracy," a word that has resonance in our own time. The North and South saw themselves as inheritors of two different and incompatible British strains: Cavaliers (the South, where honor and aristocratic self-image were definitional) and Puritans (the North, moralistic and democratic). These are terms they used themselves. ()“No civil strife is this; . . . but a war of alien races, distinct, nationalities, and opposite, hostile, and eternally antagonistic governments. Cavalier and Roundhead no longer designate parties, but nations."
It wasn't until after the Civil War that one spoke of The United States; before then, it was These United States. "By the late 1850s, the North and the South were widely perceived as separate peoples—so far apart that civil war was inevitable."
The culture was certainly explosive enough. Elsewhere, I've read about the violence and threats of violence that were regular features in the antebellum Congress, including on the floor of the House itself and on the streets outside. Reynolds expands our view by giving us a shocking glimpse of a culture that our history textbooks don't show: A diarist in Kentucky reported that “all the country round stood in awe� of a fighter who “was so dexterous in these matters that he had, in his time, taken out five eyes, bit off two or three noses and ears and spit them in the faces� of his opponents.
And this: "At frolics they would grab a wild pig and throw it alive into a fire, eating it when it was cooked." ("Frolic" clearly had a different, more violent connotation in those days.)
Politics itself was a blood sport in those days, decades before secret ballots were introduced: In 1844 the New York Herald reported that “it is notorious that the fighting men—the bullies—the ‘sporting men’—the ‘gentlemen of the fancy’—as they are called in their own slang� were “hired and paid by both parties, as the leaders and managers of these political clubs.� Armed with Bowie knives and revolvers, these club leaders were “producing a state of affairs which now threaten us with riot, bloodshed, conflagration, and we know not what terrible disorders.�
I could cite a hundred passages in the book that struck me, ranging from the mundane (the word "saloon" referred to grocers') to things like this:
If a woman found herself in an unhappy or abusive marriage, gaining a divorce was extremely difficult in many states. A husband, in contrast, could respond to unorthodox or disagreeable behavior on his wife’s part by having her committed to an asylum. And yet, as Reynolds shows, a woman named Anne Carroll played a significant role in designing the strategy of the Union army.
And: During the war, leading Christians in the North demanded a religious amendment to the Constitution. The Reverend Ezra Adams called it “monstrous� that the US Constitution did not directly pay homage to God, whereas the Confederacy’s constitution did.
And: “Why have you Bloomers and Women’s Rights men, and strong-minded women, and Mormons, and anti-renters, and ‘vote myself a farm men,� Millerites, and Spiritual Rappers, and Shakers, and Widow Wakemanites, and Agrarians, and Grahamites, and a thousand other superstitious and infidel isms at the North?� Antebellum Identity Politics?
And: In [Jefferson] Davis’s view, Southerners were refined gentlemen, while Northerners were lowly money seekers and meddling moralists. As he expressed it, Confederate people were “essentially aristocratic, their aristocracy being based on birth and education; while the men of the North were democratic in the mass, making money the basis of their power and standard to which they aspired.� Davis, as Reynolds shows, had grand dreams of expanding slavery to Cuba, Mexico, and South America.
I've read numerous books about Lincoln, the Civil War, and the Nineteenth Century, but Reynolds showed me countless things I'd never seen before. "Abe" provides an extraordinary and expansive window into Lincoln's times in all its complexity, from the conflicts over slavery to the political struggles within and among parties, the shocking corruption that marked the early years of the war (Just before the war, James Buchanan’s secretary of war, John B. Floyd of Virginia, seeing that a national crisis was approaching, transferred thousands of rifles from Northern arsenals to Southern ones, diminishing the North’s weapons supply in the early months of the war.), how many decisions were made when people were completely drunk, and so much more.
"Abe" is a very long book -- it took me a full month to read -- but it is definitely worth the time.
It wasn't until after the Civil War that one spoke of The United States; before then, it was These United States. "By the late 1850s, the North and the South were widely perceived as separate peoples—so far apart that civil war was inevitable."
The culture was certainly explosive enough. Elsewhere, I've read about the violence and threats of violence that were regular features in the antebellum Congress, including on the floor of the House itself and on the streets outside. Reynolds expands our view by giving us a shocking glimpse of a culture that our history textbooks don't show: A diarist in Kentucky reported that “all the country round stood in awe� of a fighter who “was so dexterous in these matters that he had, in his time, taken out five eyes, bit off two or three noses and ears and spit them in the faces� of his opponents.
And this: "At frolics they would grab a wild pig and throw it alive into a fire, eating it when it was cooked." ("Frolic" clearly had a different, more violent connotation in those days.)
Politics itself was a blood sport in those days, decades before secret ballots were introduced: In 1844 the New York Herald reported that “it is notorious that the fighting men—the bullies—the ‘sporting men’—the ‘gentlemen of the fancy’—as they are called in their own slang� were “hired and paid by both parties, as the leaders and managers of these political clubs.� Armed with Bowie knives and revolvers, these club leaders were “producing a state of affairs which now threaten us with riot, bloodshed, conflagration, and we know not what terrible disorders.�
I could cite a hundred passages in the book that struck me, ranging from the mundane (the word "saloon" referred to grocers') to things like this:
If a woman found herself in an unhappy or abusive marriage, gaining a divorce was extremely difficult in many states. A husband, in contrast, could respond to unorthodox or disagreeable behavior on his wife’s part by having her committed to an asylum. And yet, as Reynolds shows, a woman named Anne Carroll played a significant role in designing the strategy of the Union army.
And: During the war, leading Christians in the North demanded a religious amendment to the Constitution. The Reverend Ezra Adams called it “monstrous� that the US Constitution did not directly pay homage to God, whereas the Confederacy’s constitution did.
And: “Why have you Bloomers and Women’s Rights men, and strong-minded women, and Mormons, and anti-renters, and ‘vote myself a farm men,� Millerites, and Spiritual Rappers, and Shakers, and Widow Wakemanites, and Agrarians, and Grahamites, and a thousand other superstitious and infidel isms at the North?� Antebellum Identity Politics?
And: In [Jefferson] Davis’s view, Southerners were refined gentlemen, while Northerners were lowly money seekers and meddling moralists. As he expressed it, Confederate people were “essentially aristocratic, their aristocracy being based on birth and education; while the men of the North were democratic in the mass, making money the basis of their power and standard to which they aspired.� Davis, as Reynolds shows, had grand dreams of expanding slavery to Cuba, Mexico, and South America.
I've read numerous books about Lincoln, the Civil War, and the Nineteenth Century, but Reynolds showed me countless things I'd never seen before. "Abe" provides an extraordinary and expansive window into Lincoln's times in all its complexity, from the conflicts over slavery to the political struggles within and among parties, the shocking corruption that marked the early years of the war (Just before the war, James Buchanan’s secretary of war, John B. Floyd of Virginia, seeing that a national crisis was approaching, transferred thousands of rifles from Northern arsenals to Southern ones, diminishing the North’s weapons supply in the early months of the war.), how many decisions were made when people were completely drunk, and so much more.
"Abe" is a very long book -- it took me a full month to read -- but it is definitely worth the time.
March 17, 2022
Whatever you think of Lincoln—popularly considered America's greatest President, but thought terrible by a very small and settled minority—he is a compelling and fascinating figure, and the more I read about him, the more he seems obviously likable.
This book is a biography, but its subtitle is "Abraham Lincoln In His Times," and what it does in distinction from other biographies is to continually illuminate the cultural context in which Lincoln lived and did what he did. His time was the time of Charles Blondin, who would tightrope walk across Niagara Falls, balancing with a long pole, and through much of the book Reynolds uses Blondin as an image for the political balancing Lincoln had to constantly engage in. For all the arguments made about the Civil War and secession and the rightness of Lincoln's decisions (militarily, constitutionally, or otherwise), there were complexities that only someone of exceptional caliber could have navigated like Lincoln did, and I'm convinced that he was principled and sincere throughout, and thoroughly admirable. His Second Inaugural Address is a genuine masterpiece of both insight and rhetoric that encapsulates this. In fact, despite not really being a professed Christian, I think his theological take on the war in that speech was better and more measured than a lot of the takes coming out of Christian pulpits at the time.
One interesting aspect of the time that I wasn't aware of was the way the North/South factions were regularly paralleled with the Puritan/Cavalier distinction that went back to the English Civil Wars of the 1640s. The Yankees were seen as carrying on a Puritan spirit that emphasized more egalitarian and democratic principles, while the Southerners considered themselves to embody the more class-conscious strain and hierarchical nobility from America's English cultural background.
Extremely readable and well-written, and not at all tedious (quite an accomplishment for being over 900 pages long)—maybe the best compliment I can give it is that it has made me want to read more about and from Lincoln, rather than feeling tired of the subject.
This book is a biography, but its subtitle is "Abraham Lincoln In His Times," and what it does in distinction from other biographies is to continually illuminate the cultural context in which Lincoln lived and did what he did. His time was the time of Charles Blondin, who would tightrope walk across Niagara Falls, balancing with a long pole, and through much of the book Reynolds uses Blondin as an image for the political balancing Lincoln had to constantly engage in. For all the arguments made about the Civil War and secession and the rightness of Lincoln's decisions (militarily, constitutionally, or otherwise), there were complexities that only someone of exceptional caliber could have navigated like Lincoln did, and I'm convinced that he was principled and sincere throughout, and thoroughly admirable. His Second Inaugural Address is a genuine masterpiece of both insight and rhetoric that encapsulates this. In fact, despite not really being a professed Christian, I think his theological take on the war in that speech was better and more measured than a lot of the takes coming out of Christian pulpits at the time.
One interesting aspect of the time that I wasn't aware of was the way the North/South factions were regularly paralleled with the Puritan/Cavalier distinction that went back to the English Civil Wars of the 1640s. The Yankees were seen as carrying on a Puritan spirit that emphasized more egalitarian and democratic principles, while the Southerners considered themselves to embody the more class-conscious strain and hierarchical nobility from America's English cultural background.
Extremely readable and well-written, and not at all tedious (quite an accomplishment for being over 900 pages long)—maybe the best compliment I can give it is that it has made me want to read more about and from Lincoln, rather than feeling tired of the subject.
August 12, 2020
Read if you: Want a larger sense of American culture during Lincoln's lifetime.
Early in David S. Reynolds's monumental biography, ABE, he states that the only historic personage that has been the subject of books more so than Abraham Lincoln is Jesus Christ. So--why read (yet another) Lincoln biography?
If you're totally new to Lincoln biographies and want a standard overview of his life, this is probably not the book with which to start. However--if you're like me, and have read umpteenth number of Lincoln bios, then definitely try this one. Reynolds does hit upon major milestones of Lincoln's life--the death of his mother, his difficult relationship with his father, his romances before meeting Mary Todd, his indulgent parenting and the tragic loss of two children (one more would prematurely die, after his death)--but also examines fascinating aspects of American culture at the time, from the development of Christmas customs, Lincoln's love of bawdy jokes, his religious outlook, and much more. The length might intimidate, but the writing is so engaging that you won't want to put it down.
One instance that disturbed me-- "While Lincoln lost the case, he could not but have been moved by the powerful example of the emancipationist Mrs. Russell, who paid the extraordinary price of the equivalent of fourteen million dollars to free two slaves, her son's lover and their child." Let's not characrterize sexual--likely forced--encounters with enslaved women this way. (p. 330--p. 352 in my PDF file).
Librarians/booksellers: Your biography fans will want to read this one.
Many thanks to Penguin Group/The Penguin Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Early in David S. Reynolds's monumental biography, ABE, he states that the only historic personage that has been the subject of books more so than Abraham Lincoln is Jesus Christ. So--why read (yet another) Lincoln biography?
If you're totally new to Lincoln biographies and want a standard overview of his life, this is probably not the book with which to start. However--if you're like me, and have read umpteenth number of Lincoln bios, then definitely try this one. Reynolds does hit upon major milestones of Lincoln's life--the death of his mother, his difficult relationship with his father, his romances before meeting Mary Todd, his indulgent parenting and the tragic loss of two children (one more would prematurely die, after his death)--but also examines fascinating aspects of American culture at the time, from the development of Christmas customs, Lincoln's love of bawdy jokes, his religious outlook, and much more. The length might intimidate, but the writing is so engaging that you won't want to put it down.
One instance that disturbed me-- "While Lincoln lost the case, he could not but have been moved by the powerful example of the emancipationist Mrs. Russell, who paid the extraordinary price of the equivalent of fourteen million dollars to free two slaves, her son's lover and their child." Let's not characrterize sexual--likely forced--encounters with enslaved women this way. (p. 330--p. 352 in my PDF file).
Librarians/booksellers: Your biography fans will want to read this one.
Many thanks to Penguin Group/The Penguin Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
November 7, 2021
Credit David S. Reynolds, author of Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times, with trying something more than your standard biography of the Great Emancipator. Instead, Reynolds writes a massive "cultural biography" that attempts to place Lincoln's life and career in a sociopolitical context. An admirable goal, and for much of its length Reynolds' book is compelling. He ties Lincoln's intellectual and personal development with the boisterous cultural trends of the early Midwest, obtaining a skeptical-yet-pious view of religion, an appreciation for self-made success, a healthy respect both for nature and the Constitution, a weakness for bawdy humor and casual racism he never sloughed off. The book explores fascinating connections between Lincoln and arcane figures like political activist Anna Carroll, spiritualist-abolitionist Robert Dale Owen and humorist David Ross Locke, satirist of Southern bigots, while also illuminating his personal relationships: friendships with Joshua Speed and William Herndon, political figures like Stephen Douglas, Charles Sumner and his "team of rivals" cabinet, his troubled-but-devoted marriage to Mary Todd Lincoln, whose portrayed here as a much more active participant in her husband's administration than is usually the case. At its best, then, Abe does an excellent job explaining how Lincoln came to be, and how typical he was (in many ways) of his time and place. Hence his ideology evolving into a "centrist progressivism," embracing liberal, even radical ideas (most obviously, abolishing slavery) within a legalistic framework that struck activists as tardy and half-hearted, but allowed for change more lasting and publicly accepted than the most passionate speechmaking.
But Reynolds often falls prey to his own obsessions, delving into stemwinding discursions worthy of Lincoln at his most verbose. Do we need detailed plot descriptions of multiple Melville novels and stories, when the lesson is often obscure? (He explains how Bartleby the Scrivener captures the mundanity of 19th Century law practices...then undercuts the point by noting how Lincoln's high powered law practice wasn't really like that.) Comparing Lincoln to tightrope walker Blondin is a fair analogy, but is it really worth spending 10 pages explicating it? Anecdotes are repeated to the point of tedium (eg. Lincoln's son Tad "executing," then burying a Zouave doll in the White House Rose Garden - a charming anecdote, but not one we need to hear multiple times). Civil War buffs will be disappointed by the fragmentary, superficial treatment of Lincoln's military decisions (Gettysburg gets all of two paragraphs). And Reynolds tends to downplay or condone Lincoln's less laudable traits, from his treatment of Native Americans (which he insists would have been more progressive in a second term - special pleading worthy of JFK apologists!) to his ambivalence on race (no doubt Lincoln was no more racist than most contemporaries, but it's hard to excuse his lingering support for colonization and reluctance to punish the South). It's hard to call a 1,000 page book insubstantial, but Abe feels oddly unsatisfying - filling in some gaps in Lincoln's life and personality while leaving others frustratingly unexplored.
But Reynolds often falls prey to his own obsessions, delving into stemwinding discursions worthy of Lincoln at his most verbose. Do we need detailed plot descriptions of multiple Melville novels and stories, when the lesson is often obscure? (He explains how Bartleby the Scrivener captures the mundanity of 19th Century law practices...then undercuts the point by noting how Lincoln's high powered law practice wasn't really like that.) Comparing Lincoln to tightrope walker Blondin is a fair analogy, but is it really worth spending 10 pages explicating it? Anecdotes are repeated to the point of tedium (eg. Lincoln's son Tad "executing," then burying a Zouave doll in the White House Rose Garden - a charming anecdote, but not one we need to hear multiple times). Civil War buffs will be disappointed by the fragmentary, superficial treatment of Lincoln's military decisions (Gettysburg gets all of two paragraphs). And Reynolds tends to downplay or condone Lincoln's less laudable traits, from his treatment of Native Americans (which he insists would have been more progressive in a second term - special pleading worthy of JFK apologists!) to his ambivalence on race (no doubt Lincoln was no more racist than most contemporaries, but it's hard to excuse his lingering support for colonization and reluctance to punish the South). It's hard to call a 1,000 page book insubstantial, but Abe feels oddly unsatisfying - filling in some gaps in Lincoln's life and personality while leaving others frustratingly unexplored.
July 15, 2024
I spent some time in Springfield recently and picked this up in the Lincoln Museum bookstore. The book was surprisingly original and I liked it so much that I’m already on to Reynold’s book on the age of Andrew Jackson. Reynold’s book may not be the best Lincoln biography out there, but it’s a wonderful vehicle for learning more about how Lincoln’s life and career reflect or contradict the political, cultural, religious, and intellectual currents of the times.
September 17, 2022
This is an outstanding cultural biography! I learned so much more about Lincoln and his times and how they were together than I ever thought possible. On a personal note, it was interesting to me to Jack’s to pose Lincolns life and cultural in with that of Joseph Smith, who is just 3 1/2 years older than Lincoln. The same forces were at work. Fascinating!
January 24, 2021
Lincoln was the first president from the Republican party -
“At America’s most divided time, Lincoln pushed hard toward justice while keeping the whole nation foremost in his mind. He progressed cautiously, shrewdly, inexorably. With honesty. With humility. With winning humor. And in the end, with his thoughts on all Americans, regardless of party, religion or race.�
The most recent president from that party is his antithesis. It is not clear where the Republicans can go from here.
“At America’s most divided time, Lincoln pushed hard toward justice while keeping the whole nation foremost in his mind. He progressed cautiously, shrewdly, inexorably. With honesty. With humility. With winning humor. And in the end, with his thoughts on all Americans, regardless of party, religion or race.�
The most recent president from that party is his antithesis. It is not clear where the Republicans can go from here.
May 31, 2020
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Without a doubt Lincoln was an important figure in our nation's history. This was an interesting read but I did not feel it added too much to the knowledge base of the man. It is well written and flows quite well but was not a page turner.
December 27, 2020
Reynolds has written a master work of social and cultural history of the early to mid-19th Century� the Civil War era� and how that milieu of varied influences affected Lincoln in his evolution both as a politician and as a thinker, and ultimately a defender of the core values of human rights that has set the United States apart from all prior systems of government. Overlaying it all, permeating it all, is the ever present, over riding, inescapable issue of slavery and Lincoln’s steady opposition to it, along with his ideological progression that lead him inexorably to the non-negotiable abolitionist position of the latter years of his administration (and his life).
Reynolds immerses the reader into the 19th Century and all its many customs, language usages, literature, issues, politics, spiritualism, life within the White House, politicians, celebrities, and more. It is a massive undertaking that in effect is less a biography of Lincoln and more an experience of the times in which he existed at various periods of his life. He is less the subject of the book than a recurrent feature of the narrative. As a result, the reader gradually builds an understanding of Lincoln the person, the thinker, the unique and uniquely necessary man of the times, of his times. It is an amazing book, and a rewarding experience reading it.
Reynolds proceeds in more of a subject driven manner than a strict chronological one, devoting individual chapters to specific topics of the times and explaining/projecting Lincoln into that topic. Some he assigns greater weight than I think is merited, but all are fascinating such as the belief in spiritualism that was endemic then. Mary Todd was a devotee � Lincoln I think less influenced than Reynolds imputes. He explores Mary Todd’s fashions, Lincoln’s frontier childhood, the prevalence and influence of alcohol throughout 19th Century society. He refutes much Lincoln mythology, such as his reputed unhappy childhood � true Lincoln was alienated from his father but not, apparently, due to his childhood relations with him and, to cite another example, Lincoln writing down the Gettysburg address on the train on his way to the ceremony.
There is so much that is engaging and so many digressions that are revelatory � the establishment of a national Thanksgiving, evolution of Christmas, the etymology of terms still in use today but whose origins and original usages have faded out of our consciousness, and absolutely brilliant chapters on the Gettysburg address and the Second Inaugural speech. Overlaid upon everything is slavery and the racism so prevalent throughout American culture of the day. Reynolds refutes the mythology of the “lost cause� and the war for states� rights with which Southern apologists have masked the true, and single, cause of the war.
Reynolds persistently relates events and Lincoln within the contexts of three themes � the southern Cavalier ethos versus the New England Puritan ethos, the John Brown absolutist anti-slavery mentality, and the contradictions between higher, natural law as epitomized by the Declaration of Independence and the ‘lesser� laws of man and state. These themes are relevant, although Reynold’s application of them throughout sometimes seems to be a reach more in line with wanting it to be so as opposed to how significantly it actually was so. Not a criticism, but more one in which I do not completely agree with his diagnosis as omni-applicable as he argues it to be.
Whereas most of his social/cultural topics are delved into in depth, some are passed over with relatively abrupt attention and are less than they could have been � for one example, he cites Lincoln’s innate curiosity and fascination with technology and new things as related to the various military weapons and developments of the period, but lets it go with just a few pages most of which are taken up with an overly simplistic explanation of the small arms used in the war. It is disappointingly dismissive. But then in a work of this magnitude, I suppose he had to abridge some topics� still, I found it disappointing in those occasional areas� a testimony to his ability to engage the curiosity and interest of the reader throughout and thus disappointing when he abbreviates a subject matter to which he has introduced you. Still a brilliant book that is must reading! It is a book that, every time I put it down for the night, I looked forward to when I could pick it up and resume reading.
Reynolds immerses the reader into the 19th Century and all its many customs, language usages, literature, issues, politics, spiritualism, life within the White House, politicians, celebrities, and more. It is a massive undertaking that in effect is less a biography of Lincoln and more an experience of the times in which he existed at various periods of his life. He is less the subject of the book than a recurrent feature of the narrative. As a result, the reader gradually builds an understanding of Lincoln the person, the thinker, the unique and uniquely necessary man of the times, of his times. It is an amazing book, and a rewarding experience reading it.
Reynolds proceeds in more of a subject driven manner than a strict chronological one, devoting individual chapters to specific topics of the times and explaining/projecting Lincoln into that topic. Some he assigns greater weight than I think is merited, but all are fascinating such as the belief in spiritualism that was endemic then. Mary Todd was a devotee � Lincoln I think less influenced than Reynolds imputes. He explores Mary Todd’s fashions, Lincoln’s frontier childhood, the prevalence and influence of alcohol throughout 19th Century society. He refutes much Lincoln mythology, such as his reputed unhappy childhood � true Lincoln was alienated from his father but not, apparently, due to his childhood relations with him and, to cite another example, Lincoln writing down the Gettysburg address on the train on his way to the ceremony.
There is so much that is engaging and so many digressions that are revelatory � the establishment of a national Thanksgiving, evolution of Christmas, the etymology of terms still in use today but whose origins and original usages have faded out of our consciousness, and absolutely brilliant chapters on the Gettysburg address and the Second Inaugural speech. Overlaid upon everything is slavery and the racism so prevalent throughout American culture of the day. Reynolds refutes the mythology of the “lost cause� and the war for states� rights with which Southern apologists have masked the true, and single, cause of the war.
Reynolds persistently relates events and Lincoln within the contexts of three themes � the southern Cavalier ethos versus the New England Puritan ethos, the John Brown absolutist anti-slavery mentality, and the contradictions between higher, natural law as epitomized by the Declaration of Independence and the ‘lesser� laws of man and state. These themes are relevant, although Reynold’s application of them throughout sometimes seems to be a reach more in line with wanting it to be so as opposed to how significantly it actually was so. Not a criticism, but more one in which I do not completely agree with his diagnosis as omni-applicable as he argues it to be.
Whereas most of his social/cultural topics are delved into in depth, some are passed over with relatively abrupt attention and are less than they could have been � for one example, he cites Lincoln’s innate curiosity and fascination with technology and new things as related to the various military weapons and developments of the period, but lets it go with just a few pages most of which are taken up with an overly simplistic explanation of the small arms used in the war. It is disappointingly dismissive. But then in a work of this magnitude, I suppose he had to abridge some topics� still, I found it disappointing in those occasional areas� a testimony to his ability to engage the curiosity and interest of the reader throughout and thus disappointing when he abbreviates a subject matter to which he has introduced you. Still a brilliant book that is must reading! It is a book that, every time I put it down for the night, I looked forward to when I could pick it up and resume reading.
November 14, 2021
I have read many books on our greatest president not only because he was such a great leader but also because was a very interesting man. I also happen to share his birthday, another honor. This edition by David Reynolds is one of the better volumes I have come across.
Mr. Reynolds covers so many aspects of the character and the challenges this man faced in his lifetime, just an amazing story. He relates many instances which bring out the real nature of who and what Abraham Lincoln was all about. The balancing act he had to pull off being pulled in so many direction was truly remarkable.
He covers pretty much every part of his life and does a wonderful job of mixing the political with personal to give us a very well rounded portrait. He does not get into the heavy details of the war itself and the battles, but more the political side in how President Lincoln shrewdly handled the competing politicians and their viewpoints along with the series of incompetent generals.
The last portion gets into the machinations of the Emancipation Proclamation and how heavily it factored into the outcome of the conflict. He spends quite a bit of time examining the issue of race and the prevalent racism that was widespread north and south. It clarified for me why we still deal with this matter to this day.
Mr. Reynolds covers so many aspects of the character and the challenges this man faced in his lifetime, just an amazing story. He relates many instances which bring out the real nature of who and what Abraham Lincoln was all about. The balancing act he had to pull off being pulled in so many direction was truly remarkable.
He covers pretty much every part of his life and does a wonderful job of mixing the political with personal to give us a very well rounded portrait. He does not get into the heavy details of the war itself and the battles, but more the political side in how President Lincoln shrewdly handled the competing politicians and their viewpoints along with the series of incompetent generals.
The last portion gets into the machinations of the Emancipation Proclamation and how heavily it factored into the outcome of the conflict. He spends quite a bit of time examining the issue of race and the prevalent racism that was widespread north and south. It clarified for me why we still deal with this matter to this day.
June 26, 2021
Massive tome on Lincoln’s life, presented as a “cultural biography� meaning that it examines Lincoln’s life and actions in the context of the nineteenth century American culture in which he lived. As much an American cultural history as a Lincoln biography. It manages to balance both perfectly. Fascinating, and it’s the fastest I’ve breezed through a thousand-page monster since Robert Massie’s Dreadnought.
February 28, 2021
A fantastic read. Not for those coming in with a blank slate on the era as it is not a linear biography. Also, the authors musings on the Gettysburg Address and second inaugural was some of the best writing I've encountered in awhile.
December 18, 2021
Absolutely required for any lover of American history. An expertly crafted book that brings an understanding of our greatest president and the most formative time of our nation.
October 4, 2024
This book is very in depth on the times of Abe Lincoln, and it does accomplish what is sets out to show. But out of a lot of the books I have read on the subject; there is just a lot of unnecessary commentary that draws out this book to greater lengths that proves to be wearisome for the reader.
August 30, 2023
Idk how you make a thousand-page book engaging throughout, but david s. reynolds managed it.
February 21, 2021
I put this book on my reading list because of all the awards it won in 2020. I have already read four books on Abraham Lincoln and there are probably thousands of them written on him. Honestly, I did not imagine this book could bring a fresh portrayal of Lincoln.
Boy was I wrong!
Against all odds, this monumental biography is full of fresh information and insights. This book presents a detailed analysis of Lincoln’s upbringing and education and presents him not as the “quintessential self made man� but as a man that was shaped by a keen awareness of the cultural forces and pop culture surrounding him.
Focusing on these cultural changes that shaped Lincoln and his contemporaries, Reynolds portrays the gathering storm of conflict that erupted into a war over slavery in which Lincoln's commitment to freedom and racial justice was grounded in his moral integrity as well as military and political distress.
Boy was I wrong!
Against all odds, this monumental biography is full of fresh information and insights. This book presents a detailed analysis of Lincoln’s upbringing and education and presents him not as the “quintessential self made man� but as a man that was shaped by a keen awareness of the cultural forces and pop culture surrounding him.
Focusing on these cultural changes that shaped Lincoln and his contemporaries, Reynolds portrays the gathering storm of conflict that erupted into a war over slavery in which Lincoln's commitment to freedom and racial justice was grounded in his moral integrity as well as military and political distress.
August 20, 2021
What did I learn from Reynold's social and cultural biography of Lincoln. First that the U.S. in the 19th century was a culturally diverse country. Specifically, the north was influenced by political philosophy of Cromwell and the moralistic fervor of the Puritans. The South was Cavalier and looked upon the North as overbearing and intolerant of it way of life, including slavery. Second, Lincoln was a conciliator and compromiser in his political career. Reynolds demonstrates these two influences on Lincoln in nearly every political struggle in which he was a involved.
The book is addressed to the lay reader and is written without much scholarly jargon. While. to an easy fead Reynolds clear writing makes the text a literary treasure for the committed reader. All historians writing fr the general public can take a lesson from Mr. Reynold'sstyle.
The book is addressed to the lay reader and is written without much scholarly jargon. While. to an easy fead Reynolds clear writing makes the text a literary treasure for the committed reader. All historians writing fr the general public can take a lesson from Mr. Reynold'sstyle.
October 28, 2020
Excellent book presenting Lincoln in the context of, and an influencer of, the culture of the times in which he lived. [Longer review shortly]
June 15, 2022
Read if:
1) You've read other Lincoln biographies and/or are decently familiar with the Civil War and Lincoln's (masterful) handling of the greatest crisis our country has faced.
2) You don't get offended by seeing Lincoln and "Progressive" in the same sentence or seeing slaveholding Democrats labeled as "Conservative." (Seriously, some readers seem to get so upset when Lincoln is described as progressive (for his time) on race or the role of government, which is odd because advocating for the end of slavery in the 1800s was certainly progressive, as was significantly expanding the reach of the Federal government. Obviously Lincoln was not what today's most ardent progressives would call a true progressive, just as he surely wasn't what today's Republican party would consider a Republican. But if an analysis of Lincoln as a progressive reformer bothers you, David Reynold's take on Lincoln will surely bother you (which is a pity, because this is a great read.))
As a cultural biography, this book explores Lincoln's life—with a focus on his moral character and intellectual interests—through the lens of Civil war era culture. If you're expecting a typical, linear biography you won't find that here. While the book does touch on all (or most of) the major events of Lincoln's life, the focus is on general cultural themes and Lincoln's response to and synthesis of these themes throughout his life. This means you get plenty of analysis of the most important voices of the day (e.g., Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, etc.) and, fortunately, several lesser known voices, such as Anna Carroll, a writer and adviser to Lincoln who helped defend his—let's call it creative—interpretation of the President's war powers as laid out in the Constitution.
While the underlying narrative does follow the rough timeline of Lincoln's life, it jumps around more than you'd expect from your average biography: for example, you'll find references to events during the Civil War before Reynolds has actually launched into the Civil War years. This works well, for the most part, and Reynolds writing is engaging and easy to follow, but there are occasional moments that feel repetitive. An example that comes to mind is when Reynolds spends several pages discussing the popular humorist Artemus Ward and then introduces Artemus Ward again a few pages later as if we haven't already been talking about him. (Of course, this is a small quibble rather than a serious knock against the book!)
What I love most about this book is the exploration of Lincoln's humor and religious views and Reynold's analysis of both the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural. Learning more about Lincoln's familiarity with—and appreciation of—the many humor writers of his time was enlightening, but Reynold's breakdown of these two speeches is the highlight of the book for me. Which brings me to another observation of the book: at times—or maybe most of the time—it reads a bit more like a character analysis than a character-driven story. This was fine with me, because I've read several Lincoln biographies (not that you can read too many Lincoln biographies!) and I appreciated the different angle of exploring Lincoln.
My main criticisms of the book are the aforementioned repetitiveness, which isn't that big of a deal, quite frankly, and Reynold's tendency to occasionally draw sweeping conclusions from rather tenuous connections and hazy evidence. Someone else here has already pointed out Reynold's strange confidence in Lincoln's intent to change the country's policy towards Native Americans. There are a few other moments where Reynolds has to stretch a few offhand remarks made by Lincoln (or supposedly made by Lincoln) to justify claims about Lincoln's attitude or policy ideas, but these don't detract from the overall experience that much. My sense is that the thrust of Reynold's argument re: Lincoln is that he was actually more forward-thinking than we give him credit for. I can see the appeal of this argument, although I personally think understanding Lincoln doesn't require us to think any higher of them than we already do; he was, of course, our greatest president. Of course, one way to interpret Reynold's goal here—and this may not occur to those who grumble when Reynold's extols the progressive Lincoln—is as an attempt to show some of today's readers that Lincoln was, even by our own standards, a remarkable leader. There's some beauty here, given that part of Lincoln's brilliance was reinterpreting (or correctly interpreting) the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution as essentially antislavery documents and thus winning over those who thought the Constitution itself was proslavery and needed to go.
All in all, this is a fun read that fans of Lincoln will enjoy.
1) You've read other Lincoln biographies and/or are decently familiar with the Civil War and Lincoln's (masterful) handling of the greatest crisis our country has faced.
2) You don't get offended by seeing Lincoln and "Progressive" in the same sentence or seeing slaveholding Democrats labeled as "Conservative." (Seriously, some readers seem to get so upset when Lincoln is described as progressive (for his time) on race or the role of government, which is odd because advocating for the end of slavery in the 1800s was certainly progressive, as was significantly expanding the reach of the Federal government. Obviously Lincoln was not what today's most ardent progressives would call a true progressive, just as he surely wasn't what today's Republican party would consider a Republican. But if an analysis of Lincoln as a progressive reformer bothers you, David Reynold's take on Lincoln will surely bother you (which is a pity, because this is a great read.))
As a cultural biography, this book explores Lincoln's life—with a focus on his moral character and intellectual interests—through the lens of Civil war era culture. If you're expecting a typical, linear biography you won't find that here. While the book does touch on all (or most of) the major events of Lincoln's life, the focus is on general cultural themes and Lincoln's response to and synthesis of these themes throughout his life. This means you get plenty of analysis of the most important voices of the day (e.g., Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, etc.) and, fortunately, several lesser known voices, such as Anna Carroll, a writer and adviser to Lincoln who helped defend his—let's call it creative—interpretation of the President's war powers as laid out in the Constitution.
While the underlying narrative does follow the rough timeline of Lincoln's life, it jumps around more than you'd expect from your average biography: for example, you'll find references to events during the Civil War before Reynolds has actually launched into the Civil War years. This works well, for the most part, and Reynolds writing is engaging and easy to follow, but there are occasional moments that feel repetitive. An example that comes to mind is when Reynolds spends several pages discussing the popular humorist Artemus Ward and then introduces Artemus Ward again a few pages later as if we haven't already been talking about him. (Of course, this is a small quibble rather than a serious knock against the book!)
What I love most about this book is the exploration of Lincoln's humor and religious views and Reynold's analysis of both the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural. Learning more about Lincoln's familiarity with—and appreciation of—the many humor writers of his time was enlightening, but Reynold's breakdown of these two speeches is the highlight of the book for me. Which brings me to another observation of the book: at times—or maybe most of the time—it reads a bit more like a character analysis than a character-driven story. This was fine with me, because I've read several Lincoln biographies (not that you can read too many Lincoln biographies!) and I appreciated the different angle of exploring Lincoln.
My main criticisms of the book are the aforementioned repetitiveness, which isn't that big of a deal, quite frankly, and Reynold's tendency to occasionally draw sweeping conclusions from rather tenuous connections and hazy evidence. Someone else here has already pointed out Reynold's strange confidence in Lincoln's intent to change the country's policy towards Native Americans. There are a few other moments where Reynolds has to stretch a few offhand remarks made by Lincoln (or supposedly made by Lincoln) to justify claims about Lincoln's attitude or policy ideas, but these don't detract from the overall experience that much. My sense is that the thrust of Reynold's argument re: Lincoln is that he was actually more forward-thinking than we give him credit for. I can see the appeal of this argument, although I personally think understanding Lincoln doesn't require us to think any higher of them than we already do; he was, of course, our greatest president. Of course, one way to interpret Reynold's goal here—and this may not occur to those who grumble when Reynold's extols the progressive Lincoln—is as an attempt to show some of today's readers that Lincoln was, even by our own standards, a remarkable leader. There's some beauty here, given that part of Lincoln's brilliance was reinterpreting (or correctly interpreting) the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution as essentially antislavery documents and thus winning over those who thought the Constitution itself was proslavery and needed to go.
All in all, this is a fun read that fans of Lincoln will enjoy.
July 22, 2021
Way too long, and rather cursory throughout, this was still an interesting contextualization of Lincoln's life and career as set against the underlying cultural/artistic currents of the age. Some fun facts I learned:
* Marx called Lincoln “one of the rare men who succeed in becoming great, without ceasing to be good.�
* Lincoln declared, “He who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.�
* Scott recognized what Emerson and Whitman stated eloquently—in democratic America, the highest individualism lay in the greatest representativeness: the ability, in Whitman’s phrase, to “contain multitudes.�
* When Ethan Allen was visiting England, he used an outhouse and was asked by his hosts if he had seen the picture of George Washington they had hung there in mockery. Allen replied that he had not seen it but thought it was an appropriate place for the picture, because “nothing . . . Will Make an Englishman Shit So quick as the Sight of Genl Washington.�
* “The truth about Mr. Lincoln,� William Herndon opined, “is that he read less and thought more than any man in his sphere in America.�
* P.T. Barnum, who first earned big money when he hoodwinked the public by presenting the aged African American Joice Heth as a 161-year-old ex-nanny of George Washington.
* In notes for a lecture on the law that he wrote in 1850, he advised, “Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can.�9 There was no one, he wrote, who was “more nearly a fiend� than a lawyer who was wont “to stir up litigation.�
* “Hail Columbia,� which was the unofficial national anthem of the United States until “The Star-Spangled Banner� took its place in 1931, was regularly played at events during his presidency.
* He told a fellow lawyer that “he habitually studied the opposite side of every disputed question, of every law case, of every political issue, more exhaustively, if possible, than his own side. He said that the result had been that in all his long practice at the bar he had never once been surprised in court by the strength of his adversary’s case—often finding it much weaker than he had feared.�
* Harriet Beecher Stowe received hate mail, including an envelope from the South containing an ear cut from the head of an enslaved person, sent in payment, as a note explained, for her defense of “D—n niggers.�
* There are clear takeaways from America’s greatest president. To be an effective leader in a deeply divided time, keep to the center while clinging to the nation’s core principle of human equality. Make the center lively—even, at times, shocking. Don’t insult your opponents. And don’t forget young voters.
* Marx called Lincoln “one of the rare men who succeed in becoming great, without ceasing to be good.�
* Lincoln declared, “He who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.�
* Scott recognized what Emerson and Whitman stated eloquently—in democratic America, the highest individualism lay in the greatest representativeness: the ability, in Whitman’s phrase, to “contain multitudes.�
* When Ethan Allen was visiting England, he used an outhouse and was asked by his hosts if he had seen the picture of George Washington they had hung there in mockery. Allen replied that he had not seen it but thought it was an appropriate place for the picture, because “nothing . . . Will Make an Englishman Shit So quick as the Sight of Genl Washington.�
* “The truth about Mr. Lincoln,� William Herndon opined, “is that he read less and thought more than any man in his sphere in America.�
* P.T. Barnum, who first earned big money when he hoodwinked the public by presenting the aged African American Joice Heth as a 161-year-old ex-nanny of George Washington.
* In notes for a lecture on the law that he wrote in 1850, he advised, “Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can.�9 There was no one, he wrote, who was “more nearly a fiend� than a lawyer who was wont “to stir up litigation.�
* “Hail Columbia,� which was the unofficial national anthem of the United States until “The Star-Spangled Banner� took its place in 1931, was regularly played at events during his presidency.
* He told a fellow lawyer that “he habitually studied the opposite side of every disputed question, of every law case, of every political issue, more exhaustively, if possible, than his own side. He said that the result had been that in all his long practice at the bar he had never once been surprised in court by the strength of his adversary’s case—often finding it much weaker than he had feared.�
* Harriet Beecher Stowe received hate mail, including an envelope from the South containing an ear cut from the head of an enslaved person, sent in payment, as a note explained, for her defense of “D—n niggers.�
* There are clear takeaways from America’s greatest president. To be an effective leader in a deeply divided time, keep to the center while clinging to the nation’s core principle of human equality. Make the center lively—even, at times, shocking. Don’t insult your opponents. And don’t forget young voters.
January 29, 2022
As one of, if not the most written about figures in American history, one would think that a new book about Abraham Lincoln is not needed. Yet Lincoln is so compelling that historians continually find new lenses through which to examine him. In Abe: Abraham Lincoln In His Times, David S. Reynolds views Lincoln through the ways in which society and culture influenced him, in both his private and his public lives. Widening the aperture to include politics, of course, Reynolds gives us a new and even fuller picture of a beloved president.
Reynolds shows how the tension between Puritanism and Cavaliers morphed into the tension between North and South, and how Lincoln kept a "Blondin Balance" (Charles Blondin was a tightrope walker who in 1859 famously kept his balance while crossing a tightrope over Niagara Falls) between these dichotomies. As Reynolds puts it, "Lincoln found in Blondin a symbol for his centrist position on major issues."
Lincoln excelled in reading "the people," and took his impressions seriously in his policy making. Before acting, he, as his law partner and biographer William Herndon wrote, "made observations, felt the popular pulse; and when he thought that the people were ready he acted, and not before. Reynolds continues, "He did not go beyond the people because, in his very soul, he was one of them. He knew well their lives, their tastes, their hopes."
Reynolds later says, "Lincoln pushed hard toward justice while keeping the whole nation foremost in his mind. He progressed cautiously, shrewdly, inexorably. With honesty. With humility. With winning humor. And in the end, with his thoughts on all America, regardless of party, religion, or race."
In a chapter entitled "Politics, Race, and the Culture Wars," Reynolds explains, in Lincoln's 1864 bid for re-election, his approach to campaigning:
To assault his political enemies head on through party-driven speeches would have damaged his goal of fostering cultural togetherness. In a time of national division, he saw, a president who vituperated political opponents could only deepen the rift.
Abe is worth the price of purchase for Reynold's contextual analysis of The Gettysburgh Address alone, but it offers much more. (Include are photographs of the address in Lincoln's own beautiful, completely legible handwriting).
Abe, a 1,064 page study of our sixteenth President, is a thorough biography that covers Lincoln's life and ancestry. It is impossible to summarize, but anyone interested in the subject will find Reynolds' fluid, non-academic style a pleasure. Published in 2020, it is startling to examine Lincoln's times with an eye turned toward our own.
Highest recommendation.
Reynolds shows how the tension between Puritanism and Cavaliers morphed into the tension between North and South, and how Lincoln kept a "Blondin Balance" (Charles Blondin was a tightrope walker who in 1859 famously kept his balance while crossing a tightrope over Niagara Falls) between these dichotomies. As Reynolds puts it, "Lincoln found in Blondin a symbol for his centrist position on major issues."
Lincoln excelled in reading "the people," and took his impressions seriously in his policy making. Before acting, he, as his law partner and biographer William Herndon wrote, "made observations, felt the popular pulse; and when he thought that the people were ready he acted, and not before. Reynolds continues, "He did not go beyond the people because, in his very soul, he was one of them. He knew well their lives, their tastes, their hopes."
Reynolds later says, "Lincoln pushed hard toward justice while keeping the whole nation foremost in his mind. He progressed cautiously, shrewdly, inexorably. With honesty. With humility. With winning humor. And in the end, with his thoughts on all America, regardless of party, religion, or race."
In a chapter entitled "Politics, Race, and the Culture Wars," Reynolds explains, in Lincoln's 1864 bid for re-election, his approach to campaigning:
To assault his political enemies head on through party-driven speeches would have damaged his goal of fostering cultural togetherness. In a time of national division, he saw, a president who vituperated political opponents could only deepen the rift.
Abe is worth the price of purchase for Reynold's contextual analysis of The Gettysburgh Address alone, but it offers much more. (Include are photographs of the address in Lincoln's own beautiful, completely legible handwriting).
Abe, a 1,064 page study of our sixteenth President, is a thorough biography that covers Lincoln's life and ancestry. It is impossible to summarize, but anyone interested in the subject will find Reynolds' fluid, non-academic style a pleasure. Published in 2020, it is startling to examine Lincoln's times with an eye turned toward our own.
Highest recommendation.
March 31, 2021
There's so much to cover about this book, but I'll keep it simple.
This is a cultural biography of Abraham Lincoln, who preferred to be known as Abe. It firmly situates Lincoln in the culture of his age, showing how his thinking, his policies, and his growth as a human being were affected by the things he read, listened to, watched on stage, and absorbed through contact with others. Reynolds takes the reader through an up-close examination of some of Lincoln's best-known speeches and writings, with references to his influences, whether contemporary, biblical, or historical.
I learned so much here, in some cases about people who were important figures in Lincoln's personal and political lives, but who have faded into the shadows of history over time. Anna Ella Carroll, David Ross Locke (as Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby), Robert Dale Owen, and so many others passed through Lincoln's sphere and brought their contributions, whether intellectual or spiritual, to his life. From many contemporary sources, Reynolds gives examples of how Lincoln reflected these perspectives and how he was a man of his cultural times.
I've read other works on Lincoln, but none brought home to me just how politically astute and adept he was like this one. Repeatedly using the image of the 19th century tightrope walker Blondin, Reynolds shows -- literally, through the use of political cartoons -- how Lincoln was perceived as walking a thin line between the conservative and radical sides of the nation, how he struggled to keep his balance as he carried the burdens of war, the fate of the enslaved, threats to his beloved Union, and, yes, personal tragedy and grief. He was criticized as being both too slow to move, for example, on slavery and as too radical in promulgating the Emancipation Proclamation. Eventually, though, both sides came around -- perhaps too far around, in the case of some Southerners who felt secure in calling him the South's best friend in eulogizing him, unaware of his views on Reconstruction and what he could have brought about in his second term and beyond, had he lived.
And at the same time, as one man who knew him said, Abe never got too far out in front of the People. He observed, he tested, he listened, and he made policy to bring change that Americans could embrace because they were ready for it. I would argue, too, that his immersion in and his enjoyment of the culture in which he lived helped the People embrace that change, as it was effected by a man they could see as one of them, who grew from the heartland into the seat of power.
This is a cultural biography of Abraham Lincoln, who preferred to be known as Abe. It firmly situates Lincoln in the culture of his age, showing how his thinking, his policies, and his growth as a human being were affected by the things he read, listened to, watched on stage, and absorbed through contact with others. Reynolds takes the reader through an up-close examination of some of Lincoln's best-known speeches and writings, with references to his influences, whether contemporary, biblical, or historical.
I learned so much here, in some cases about people who were important figures in Lincoln's personal and political lives, but who have faded into the shadows of history over time. Anna Ella Carroll, David Ross Locke (as Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby), Robert Dale Owen, and so many others passed through Lincoln's sphere and brought their contributions, whether intellectual or spiritual, to his life. From many contemporary sources, Reynolds gives examples of how Lincoln reflected these perspectives and how he was a man of his cultural times.
I've read other works on Lincoln, but none brought home to me just how politically astute and adept he was like this one. Repeatedly using the image of the 19th century tightrope walker Blondin, Reynolds shows -- literally, through the use of political cartoons -- how Lincoln was perceived as walking a thin line between the conservative and radical sides of the nation, how he struggled to keep his balance as he carried the burdens of war, the fate of the enslaved, threats to his beloved Union, and, yes, personal tragedy and grief. He was criticized as being both too slow to move, for example, on slavery and as too radical in promulgating the Emancipation Proclamation. Eventually, though, both sides came around -- perhaps too far around, in the case of some Southerners who felt secure in calling him the South's best friend in eulogizing him, unaware of his views on Reconstruction and what he could have brought about in his second term and beyond, had he lived.
And at the same time, as one man who knew him said, Abe never got too far out in front of the People. He observed, he tested, he listened, and he made policy to bring change that Americans could embrace because they were ready for it. I would argue, too, that his immersion in and his enjoyment of the culture in which he lived helped the People embrace that change, as it was effected by a man they could see as one of them, who grew from the heartland into the seat of power.
December 21, 2021
This "cultural biography" of Abraham Lincoln is a truly marvelous book. The author sought to portray Lincoln as a man of the nineteenth century culture in which he lived, and that effort was a success. We learn about religious views, popular culture, including books, plays and poetry, and many other topics that influenced the politics of Lincoln's time.
For me, the most interesting aspect of the book was the presentation of Lincoln as a shrewd politician, always striving to avoid falling off the tightrope that he had constructed, trying to appeal to disparate factions without alienating others. This caused him to appear too conservative to those advocating a quicker abolition of slavery and establishment of equal rights for African Americans, a struggle that continues to the present. The author convincingly argues that Lincoln was more progressive than he sometimes seemed to be, that his views evolved over time and that he always had his eye on keeping the border states loyal to the Union. The discussion near the end of the book of the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural was fascinating.
The discussion of the Puritans vs the Cavaliers, and Lincoln's careful avoidance of taking sides in that rivalry was also interesting. One wonders whether some of that deep-seated sectional hostility still exits today.
I much enjoyed the discussion of Lincoln's long career as a lawyer and his political activities prior to becoming involved in national politics. We got a lot of Abe Lincoln, the man, and the author presented him well.
The book was very admiring in tone. Granted, there is much to admire about Lincoln, but some may think that the author tried a little too hard to explain away some of Lincoln's earlier views, such as his interest in colonization for former slaves and his willingness to leave slavery in place in the south if that was necessary to save the Union. I found the author's arguments persuasive, particularly since he did such a good job of portraying the racist views that were so predominant at the time that Lincoln was in public life.
The book is very long, but never dull. I read it in short chunks, and it was nicely divided into sections based on subject matter. The author did a very good job of organizing the chapters so that the discussion, while mostly divided up by subject matter, was also mostly chronological.
Just a superb book. I learned a lot from it and believe that it should be widely read by anyone who wants to understand American history.
For me, the most interesting aspect of the book was the presentation of Lincoln as a shrewd politician, always striving to avoid falling off the tightrope that he had constructed, trying to appeal to disparate factions without alienating others. This caused him to appear too conservative to those advocating a quicker abolition of slavery and establishment of equal rights for African Americans, a struggle that continues to the present. The author convincingly argues that Lincoln was more progressive than he sometimes seemed to be, that his views evolved over time and that he always had his eye on keeping the border states loyal to the Union. The discussion near the end of the book of the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural was fascinating.
The discussion of the Puritans vs the Cavaliers, and Lincoln's careful avoidance of taking sides in that rivalry was also interesting. One wonders whether some of that deep-seated sectional hostility still exits today.
I much enjoyed the discussion of Lincoln's long career as a lawyer and his political activities prior to becoming involved in national politics. We got a lot of Abe Lincoln, the man, and the author presented him well.
The book was very admiring in tone. Granted, there is much to admire about Lincoln, but some may think that the author tried a little too hard to explain away some of Lincoln's earlier views, such as his interest in colonization for former slaves and his willingness to leave slavery in place in the south if that was necessary to save the Union. I found the author's arguments persuasive, particularly since he did such a good job of portraying the racist views that were so predominant at the time that Lincoln was in public life.
The book is very long, but never dull. I read it in short chunks, and it was nicely divided into sections based on subject matter. The author did a very good job of organizing the chapters so that the discussion, while mostly divided up by subject matter, was also mostly chronological.
Just a superb book. I learned a lot from it and believe that it should be widely read by anyone who wants to understand American history.
January 21, 2023
Never has a blurb on the back cover of a book been so true as Adam Gopnik's for David S. Reynolds 'Abe'. Even readers long marinated in the Lincoln literature will find revelation. I have read many Lincoln, Lincoln-related, Civil War era books, and like to think I had a decent historical grasp of what Abraham Lincoln was like as a person, and what he experienced in his formative years that made him evolve into the greatest President of the United States.
The culture of the first half of the 19th century, how it influenced Abe, what he chose to do with his life, what entertained him. How he kept some critical beliefs and theoretical assumptions to himself.
Reynolds introduces culturally based items, not in your typical history book. For example, Lincoln's Blondin approach to politics. Walking a tightrope and not straying too far left or right. Being entertained by the comically ill-spoken Copperhead Petroleum V. Nasby, and his cultural racism. His speeches against alcohol consumption and support of the temperance movement. I had never really heard such strong admiration from Lincoln for John Brown and Harpers Ferry and how such a deed was before its time. Reynolds also reveals his expertise regarding Brown and Walt Whitman with their stories intertwined with Abe's public persona, as well as the history of Thomas Nast's influence in creating the modern Santa Clause (the Christmas tree ornament of Jefferson Davis with a rope around his neck was a nice touch).
In a related note, during the time I took to read this excellent book, TCM's showed the 1940 black and white movie (Acadamy Award nominated) called 'Abe Lincoln in Illinois'. It paralleled my reading for a while with great scenes of Lincoln's true love for Ann Rutledge (and marriage of convenience to Mary Todd), wrestling with the B'hoy bully and winning respect, so much so that they went to work for Lincoln during elections. The actor playing Stephen Douglas, the Little Giant, is convincing in his campaign speeches, sounds like a true politician. The movie ends with Lincoln leaving Illinois for Washington DC on the back of the train. Excellent old movie if you ever get a chance to see it.
In sum, I will investigate reading the Walt Whitman biography by David S. Reynolds in the future as it receives exceptional ratings.
The culture of the first half of the 19th century, how it influenced Abe, what he chose to do with his life, what entertained him. How he kept some critical beliefs and theoretical assumptions to himself.
Reynolds introduces culturally based items, not in your typical history book. For example, Lincoln's Blondin approach to politics. Walking a tightrope and not straying too far left or right. Being entertained by the comically ill-spoken Copperhead Petroleum V. Nasby, and his cultural racism. His speeches against alcohol consumption and support of the temperance movement. I had never really heard such strong admiration from Lincoln for John Brown and Harpers Ferry and how such a deed was before its time. Reynolds also reveals his expertise regarding Brown and Walt Whitman with their stories intertwined with Abe's public persona, as well as the history of Thomas Nast's influence in creating the modern Santa Clause (the Christmas tree ornament of Jefferson Davis with a rope around his neck was a nice touch).
In a related note, during the time I took to read this excellent book, TCM's showed the 1940 black and white movie (Acadamy Award nominated) called 'Abe Lincoln in Illinois'. It paralleled my reading for a while with great scenes of Lincoln's true love for Ann Rutledge (and marriage of convenience to Mary Todd), wrestling with the B'hoy bully and winning respect, so much so that they went to work for Lincoln during elections. The actor playing Stephen Douglas, the Little Giant, is convincing in his campaign speeches, sounds like a true politician. The movie ends with Lincoln leaving Illinois for Washington DC on the back of the train. Excellent old movie if you ever get a chance to see it.
In sum, I will investigate reading the Walt Whitman biography by David S. Reynolds in the future as it receives exceptional ratings.
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