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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.