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Title: Abraham Lincoln: A Penguin Life by Thomas Keneally ISBN: 0-670-03175-5 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Really Good Overview
Comment: I'm only a casual reader of history and biographies. I didn't want to read a thousand-page work about Lincoln's extraordinary life. I only wanted an overview, some sort of work to give me a sense of the man. For my purposes, this little biography by Thomas Keneally was a success. It's brief, but it hits all of the most important points of the presidents life. It captures the contradictions and conflicts that marked Lincoln's life, and it does so with, at times, soem true lyricism. Keneally is a good writer (though his fiction such as Schindler's List is much better) and particularly over the first part of this biography, that is evident. The biography only suffers during the last half when Lincoln seems to disappear behind Keneally's depiction of the war. I don't think Lincoln's great role and conflicts during the war were aptly shown. Also, the biography ended too abruptly with no attempt at summation. I know that the Penguin Lives reach for brevity, but this is one of the shorter books in that series. Keneally could have given Lincoln another twenty pages and still been under 200 pages. Nevertheless, this biography is good, certainly serving its purpose as an overview that will answer essential questions and incite further inquiry into life of one of America's greatest presidents.
Rating: 5
Summary: Best Concise Biography
Comment: This can serve as a primer in Lincoln and Civil War history. In a concise, easy to read and suspenseful tale one learns how Lincoln, coming from the most common of backgrounds, lifted himself up in the best of entrepreneurial spirit, and by a fluke of events was catapulted from country lawyer and orator, a one-term Congressman who just a year earlier had lost an attempt to become Senator from Illinois, to become President of the United States of America. His inauguration took place as the Southern States had already formed a Confederacy, the Union was falling apart, and Washington,D.C. was at threat to be overrun by Rebel forces.
The course of the great Civil War is retold with Lincoln's input to his field generals well documented and retold. One learns of the great turning point battles of this bloody and painful contest. Lincoln's relationships to his family and colleagues are insightful to the character and make-up of this both humble and brave leader. The modern economy of greenbacks and taxes was born, too, and documented herein. In such a small book the scope of its tale is quite surprising.
Of course the end is abrupt. On the heels of his winning a 2nd term and of Lee's surrender of the Army of Virginia, Lincoln is gunned down at the Ford Theater. The book aptly ends with a quote from his Cabinet member Stanton: "Now he belongs to the ages". And the author Keneally adds:" he had become the bloodied nation incarnate".
Rating: 4
Summary: Lincoln -- a man of 'compromise' in a time of ideologues
Comment: All in all, this is a reasonable but uninspired biography suitable for anyone not otherwise familiar with the heritage and life of America's greatest, or at least second-greatest, president.
History, even biography, is an examination of the past to understand the present and offer a guide for the future. On this basis, the contrast between Lincoln and modern politicians is abundantly relevant; Kenneally makes abundantly clear that Lincoln was a compromiser, a man concerned with temporary expediency of policy, a man of stubborn persistence and long-held values. Unlike today's politicians, who like bold decisive actions, he was not a man of unilateral impulsive decisions and hasty judgments.
As Kenneally makes clear, it was the Confederate leaders who recklessly and unilaterally plunged into the Civil War. Had they accepted Lincoln's compromise efforts, the Old South might still be a cotton-picking slave society; at the very least, slavery would have lasted for decades past the Emancipation Declaration of Jan. 1, 1863.
Sound familiar? Lincoln had his own "radical right" critics; instead of being ruled by their evangelical values, he remained in charge and favored gradualism. This gradualism may have been beneficial, or it may have been disastrous. Kenneally writes, "But even Lincoln began to believe, as McClellan delayed, that some Democratic generals didn't really want anything drastic to happen to the Confederacy, fearing that a great victory would encourage the administration to emancipate slaves."
Perhaps Lincoln's compromise and gradualism meant he selected "cautious" generals rather than plunge an unprepared army into disaster as happened at Bull Run on July 21, 1861. Except for U.S. Grant, Union generals have always been criticized for caution. But, Kenneally makes me wonder if Lincoln's conscious or even unconscious "cautious" nature prompted him to select cautious generals.
It's a basic question that comes to mind from this book: Were Lincoln's generals incompetent? Or did his generals merely reflect the innate nature of Lincoln, preferring caution and thoroughness to impulsive and unilateral action?
Lincoln is the worldwide symbol of American greatness, just as Southern slavery typifies the worst of America. Every nation, every person, has their own good and bad traits; most everyone understands the complexity of this dual nature. It is as true today as it was when Lincoln became the nation's leader. This book admirably illustrates the greatness to which a president can rise. It is a lesson for this fall's election. Perhaps there is something valid for a president to be, like Lincoln, "Ever the gradualist . . . . " Lincoln never wanted to be "a war president" and did as much as he could to avoid war.
On the other hand, Lincoln believed in the "Doctrine of Necessity" -- which means people act rationally because of enlightened self interest. It is why he failed to understand the Confederacy would be so stupid as to secede. Perhaps, had Lincoln been less the Gradualist, less a believer in Necessity, the Civil War might have been averted.
Possible? It's a couple of issues that Kenneally doesn't examine, but he provides enough background to raise these questions. It's what makes his book so interesting. He doesn't try to resolve either issue, he leaves such thinking to every astute reader.
It makes this a most interesting book.
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Title: Robert E. Lee: A Penguin Life by Roy Blount, Roy, Jr. Blount ISBN: 0670032204 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 08 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Winston Churchill: A Penguin Life by John Keegan ISBN: 0670030791 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 10 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Napoleon: A Penguin Life by Paul Johnson ISBN: 0670030783 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 09 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Leonardo Da Vinci by Sherwin B. Nuland ISBN: 0670893919 Publisher: Viking Penguin Inc Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Woodrow Wilson by Louis Auchincloss ISBN: 0670889040 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 20 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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