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Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald
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A masterful work by Pulitzer Prize–winning author David Herbert Donald, Lincoln is a stunning portrait of Abraham Lincoln’s life and presidency.
Donald brilliantly depicts Lincoln’s gradual ascent from humble beginnings in rural Kentucky to the ever-expanding political circles in Illinois, and finally to the presidency of a country divided by civil war. Donald goes beyond biography, illuminating the gradual development of Lincoln’s character, chronicling his tremendous capacity for evolution and growth, thus illustrating what made it possible for a man so inexperienced and so unprepared for the presidency to become a great moral leader. In the most troubled of times, here was a man who led the country out of slavery and preserved a shattered Union—in short, one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen.
- Sales Rank: #49331 in eBooks
- Published on: 2011-12-20
- Released on: 2011-12-20
- Format: Kindle eBook
From Publishers Weekly
Donald, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished scholar of the Civil War era (Charles Sumner), offers here a provocative reinterpretation of Abraham Lincoln's career and character. Donald presents Lincoln's nature as essentially passive. Throughout his life, according to Donald, Lincoln believed his destiny was controlled by some larger force or "higher power." This conviction generated both an underlying fatalism and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving. If one approach?or one general?failed, another could be tried. Although the information available to Lincoln was often significantly limited by modern standards, bold plans based on a priori reasoning were foreign to his thought process. Instead, it was Lincoln's ability to respond to events and actions that brought the U.S. through its greatest crisis and established the matrix for successful, if imperfect, reunification. BOMC split main selection; History Book Club main selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, most recently for Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe (LJ 12/86), Donald proves himself the superb biographer of Lincoln, though two recent biographies, Michael Burlingame's The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln (LJ 4/1/94) and Merrill Peterson's Lincoln in American Memory (LJ 10/1/94), are both important studies. Donald's profile of the 16th president focuses entirely on Lincoln, seldom straying from the subject. It looks primarily at what Lincoln "knew, when he knew it, and why he made his decisions." Donald's Lincoln emerges as ambitious, often defeated, tormented by his married life, but with a remarkable capacity for growth?and the nation's greatest president. What really stands out in a lively narrative are Lincoln's abilities to hold together a nation of vastly diverse regional interests during the turmoil and tragedy of the Civil War. Donald's biography will appeal to all readers and will undoubtedly corral its share of book awards. Highly recommended for all libraries.?Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The man who became our greatest president seems, from our vantage point, to have been an obvious choice for the job. But as esteemed Lincoln scholar Donald indicates in this magisterial yet intimate new biography, when people first began discussing the idea of Lincoln for president in 1860, the prairie lawyer had few of the usual qualifications for the office. There was no inevitability about his progress from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., a path Donald nonetheless follows in luxuriant detail. Writing as complete and as believable a psychological portrait as possible from this distance, the author tells of a man who started with few advantages but spent his whole life learning and growing. Ironically, Lincoln was by nature a reactor, not an instigator; he believed his existence was controlled by a higher authority. From the deprivations of his frontier childhood, Lincoln "carried away from his brief schooling the self-confidence of a man who has never met his intellectual equal." Lincoln took considerable time, though, finding the niche whereby he could support himself; the legal field eventually drew him, and drew out his talents, as did his interest in politics. How he eventually became the leading Republican in Illinois, then president, and then successful commander-in-chief is a wondrous story, and it is brilliantly interpreted here. Brad Hooper
Most helpful customer reviews
247 of 261 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating look at Lincoln, the man
By J. Grattan
"Lincoln" is a remarkable look at Abraham Lincoln as he advanced from extremely poor, rural roots, in what was then the western United States, into both the Illinois legislature and the U.S. Congress for one term, through a career as a self-taught lawyer, and finally to the presidency. The author has extensively researched Lincoln's movements, first-hand accounts of his utterances, his formal speeches and writings, as well as official records kept in the discharge of his various duties and offices.
It is a fascinating look at the evolution of the character and personality of a man of meager origins and virtually no formal education. Lincoln was driven to make something of himself; this is best seen in his insatiable desire to educate himself. Beyond self-development, Lincoln had an inherent ability to relate to others. He combined humility with a great ability to tell stories. This ease among his fellow citizens led to his being elected to the Illinois legislature at a fairly young age and to a reasonably successful career as a lawyer.
Lincoln was a Whig and devotee of Henry Clay and his American system of internal improvements. But it would be completely wrong to regard Lincoln as mostly an opportunistic politician. He was principled, if anything. Manipulating a political view to get elected would have never occurred to Lincoln. Furthermore, Lincoln was a man of his word. When elected to Congress in 1846, he returned home after one term as he promised, though undoubtedly he could have been re-elected. However, the author shows that Lincoln became very astute politically with a substantial network of political friends both at the state and national levels.
Early in Lincoln's career, slavery was seldom an issue. But by the mid-1850s, slavery came to dominate the political and social life of the country. Lincoln, though clearly antislavery, was not an abolitionist. In his debates with Stephen Douglas in 1858 and on his way to being elected president in 1860, Lincoln articulated, often eloquently, a moderate position on slavery that resonated with a large segment of Northern voters. The extension of slavery to new territories became the foremost issue of the day as compared to eradication.
Lincoln was probably not technically qualified to be president; he had never held an administrative post of any importance. Nor did hundreds of high-level administrative assistants perform most of his duties, as is the case in the modern era. In addition, Lincoln faced perhaps the greatest challenge that any president in our history ever has. The secession of the South exacerbated political divides in the country. Not only did Lincoln have to deal with radical and moderate Republicans and War and Peace Democrats, but also his own cabinet, populated with some of his political rivals, exhibited the same sort of splits. Militarily, the U.S. was totally unprepared to put down a rebellion, as Lincoln called it, of the size that the Confederacy represented. He was often driven to the edge of his patience in dealing with a series of incompetent generals that cost the Northern armies defeat after defeat in the early years of the War.
The author captures the immense pressures on Lincoln during his presidency. His ungainliness was fodder for the various political factions that publicly labeled Lincoln as an "imbecile" or a "baboon." Though the presidency took a tremendous toll on Lincoln, he retained his generally good humor, even seeing countless numbers of nameless citizens straight from the streets in his office. He functioned at a high level of awareness, navigating the political minefields of the day, in making difficult decisions. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 was just such a decision. It was a typically moderate Lincoln response to the antislavery and unionist extremists. When Lincoln was shot at the beginning of his second term, he had prevailed and brought the country through a terrible experience through the sheer strength and flexibility of his intellect and personality. One doubts whether there existed another individual in the country at that time, who could have dealt with all of the issues that Lincoln did with the same degree of success.
Though the author is favorably deposed towards Lincoln, he does not push Lincoln on the reader - he does not have to. He does a great job of letting the reader closely watch Lincoln in action for about forty years. It is an incredible story.
74 of 77 people found the following review helpful.
As free of biases as one could imagine
By Stephen R. Laniel
Before reading _Lincoln_, I had read David McCullough's _John Adams_. The latter is good but nonetheless unsatisfying, because McCullough clearly worships Adams. (See my review of McCullough's book.) I went right into _Lincoln_. All I can say is that it's astonishing.
The organizing principle of _Lincoln_ makes Donald's job very hard. When Donald met JFK during the latter's presidency, Kennedy attacked historians for retrospectively judging the worth of presidents. Historians, said Kennedy, had no right to make such judgments until they sat in the presidential desk and had to make the tough decisions.
Donald wrote _Lincoln_ in an attempt to honor Kennedy's wishes, and he more than succeeded. Every sentence in _Lincoln_ is guided by the question, ``What did Lincoln know at the time he made this decision? What information did he have on hand? What could he have been reasonably expected to know? Why did he make this decision?" At no moment does Donald judge Lincoln - he is a scrupulous researcher, not historiography's answer to God.
Through this biography, we learn that Lincoln was very human. He made mistakes. Not only did he mess up, but Donald makes it clear that he wasn't always as revered as he is today. Through newspaper clippings, diary entries, and hundreds of other primary sources, Donald paints a picture of a man who very nearly lost the Union as well as his second term. Only through skillful politicking did Lincoln neutralize his enemies and get reelected.
I came into this book curious how Lincoln moved from his first inaugural address, during which he said
I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution
of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to
do so, and I have no inclination to do so.
to his second inaugural:
If God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two
hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop
of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as
was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of
the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
This is, naturally, a question that any Lincoln biographer would have to answer (if only by citing someone else who answered it). Donald does a fantastic job of answering this question without ever stating the answer outright. He merely describes the events of Lincoln's life, and lets the reader figure it out. The answer is clear: Lincoln had a fine line to walk between the abolitionists of his party and its less extreme members. At the same time, his main goal was to preserve the Union - whether or not slavery came with it. But as time went on, the political situation got easier to navigate, and Lincoln became more comfortable in his role as a leader. The evolution from one political landscape to another is vital to the answer, and Donald does a masterful job painting us a picture.
Yet never did I feel as though an historian were behind the scenes painting. Instead, it was as though I were watching Lincoln himself, through a lens that Donald provided for me. Surely every historian has his or her biases, even in such subtle ways as the sources he or she chooses to quote. Yet I feel as though Donald silenced these biases and stuck to the raw materials he was given. This is as pure and unadulterated a biography as I could imagine.
I couldn't help but think of _Crime & Punishment_ as I read this biography. In _C&P_, Dostoevsky is a pseudo-omnipotent narrator: he can get inside of Raskolnikov's head and record every thought that the latter has, but he has access to no one else's brain. Donald's biography of Lincoln is similar: it's as though we were living life from Lincoln's perspective, without any glimpses at all into related topics - no descriptions of battle scenes (where Lincoln never would have fought), nothing about life in the South beyond what Lincoln would have known, and so on. It's a subtle technique, but it's beautiful in context. It keeps Donald focused on the reality of Lincoln's life.
This book should be a model to all future biographers, and it is the standard against which I will judge all future biographies.
90 of 96 people found the following review helpful.
"Honest Abe" comes alive
By Brian D. Rubendall
David Herbert Donald's biography of Abraham Lincoln is an outstanding work that emphasizes his most important aspect, his humanity. Lincoln came to the presidency with one of the skimpiest political resumes of any non-General in American History. Donald shows how this Washington outsider had to grope his way around at first, but then used his remarkable skills to find the political center, which was vital though he often seemed to stand alone. Donald's book focusses on Lincoln's life through Lincoln's eyes. He does not go into great detail about Civil War battles or anything else that Lincoln did not personally witness. The result is a biography that is as thorough as it is readable and that, like its subject, will stand the test of time.
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