Lincoln Books

Most Americans consider Abraham Lincoln to be the greatest president in history. But what if most everything you knew about Lincoln were false? In this book, author Thomas J. DiLorenzo uncovers a side of Lincoln not told in many history books and overshadowed by the immense Lincoln legend. Through extensive research and meticulous documentation, DiLorenzo portrays the sixteenth president as a man who devoted his political career to revolutionizing the American form of government from one that was very limited in scope and highly decentralized - as the Founding Fathers intended - to a highly centralized, activist state. Standing in his way, however, was the South, with its independent states, its resistance to the national government, and its reliance on unfettered free trade. To accomplish his goals, Lincoln subverted the Constitution, trampled states' rights, and launched a devastating Civil War, whose wounds haunt us still. According to this provocative book, 600,000 American soldiers did not die for the honorable cause of ending slavery but for the dubious agenda of sacrificing the independence of the states to the supremacy of the federal government.

Abraham Lincoln: From Skeptic To Prophet by Wayne C. Temple (historian and former editor of the "Lincoln Herald") is a uniquely comprehensive study of an often-overlooked aspect of the man who saw the United States of America through the turmoil of the Civil War. This scholarly and seminal treatise focuses in-depth specifically upon President Lincoln's religious views. Extremely heavily researched, filled with references to primary sources and black-and-white photographs of portraits, places, and documented evidence, Abraham Lincoln From Skeptic to Prophet leaves no stone unturned in its search to uncover precisely what Lincoln believed during the different phases of his life. Abraham Lincoln: From Skeptic To Prophet is an impressive work and a "must-read" for anyone studying the life, times, and personality of Abraham Lincoln.

Always count on C-Span for quality programming and publication of public affairs books! As the Lincoln birth bicentennial occurs in 2999 the network has published "Abraham Lincoln. Swain and Lamb took interviews they and others have conducted on C-Span and present them in the 68 essays in the book. The book is divided into four sections:
I. Log Cabin to White House. This section deals with the life of Lincoln from his Kentucky slave-state birth in 1809 to his election as president in November 1860.
Historian Mark Neely Jr. writes of Lincoln's early years; Harold Hozer focuses on the Lincoln-Douglas debates while other essays explore the friends Lincoln made as he chartered his course to the top of the political heap in Illinois and the nation.
II.Wartime President. This is the longest section of the book dealing with such varied topics as Lincoln's Soldier's Home retreat; Lincoln and Grant; the end of the war; the assassination and how he conducted his presidency during wartime. Scuh stalwart Lincoln scholars as David Herbert Donald, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jay Winik, Edward Steers Jr, Wayne Fields, Michael Barone and others are heard from.
III. Character:: We see how Lincoln viewed religion; how he was influenced by the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution and look at the complexity of his character. People like Frank J. Williams, Matthew Pinsker, Edna Green Medord, Shelby Foote and Allen C. Guezlo are the distinguished contributors in this area of Lincoln study.
IV. Memory: Essays include "Whitman's Lincoln" by David Reynolds' and insights into the Lincoln cult and Lincoln collecting. Essays included are by such collectors of as Frank Williams and Louise Taper. Thomas Dilorenzo has harsh words to say about the Lincoln cult and Lincoln.
Anytime you can buy a book featuring such scholars as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Richard Norton Smith, Harold Holzer, Jay Winik and James McPherson you should do so! All of these authors have at least one and sometimes more than one essay in this fine book!
The great Lincoln speeches are included such as the ones given at Cooper Union, Gettysburg, the Emancipation Proclamation and the two inaugural addresses.
The book includes well drawn maps, succinct but good biographical sketches of the authors and color photos of the author's and historical sites related to the story of Abraham Lincoln. Readers can look up interviews/essays which interest them by viewing the C-Span Website archive.
This is an excellent overview of the state of Lincoln scholarship. Lamb, Swain and the C-Span team are to be commended for compiling such a fine anthology of essays !

On February 12, 2009, our nation marks the Bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The present volume contains 68 essays by 55 writers who are among those best versed in the history of Lincoln and the Civil War.

Parts 1-4 discuss "Log Cabin to White House," "Wartime President," "Character," and "In Memory." Part 5 includes eight of Lincoln's speeches.

Writers include James M. McPherson, Harold Holzer, Stephen B. Oates, Shelby Foote, and Doris Kearns Goodwin, and critics such as Lerone Bennett, Jr. and Thomas DiLorenzo, who examine the many sides of Lincoln concerning presidential power, leadership, racial reconciliation, and American values.

These essays, both pro and con, help one gain a balanced view of a complex Lincoln, an alleged "racist" and "white supremacist" who grew and evolved into a statesman described by Mario Cuomo as a "progressive pragmatist."

Note: Complete transcripts of interviews with authors--along with video and other features--are available at [...].

About the Editors:

Brian Lamb is C-SPAN's chairman and CEO and longtime on-camera interviewer, noted for his "just the facts" style of interviewing. Many of the essays in this book are drawn from Booknotes, Lamb's long-running author-interview program, while others were conducted for C-SPAN's special history series on Lincoln and on the American presidency. Lamb lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Susan Swain is President & co-Chief Operating Officer of C-SPAN. For more than twenty-five years, she has been an on-air interviewer for the program. A regular moderator of Washington Journal, she's interviewed hundreds of members of Congress, policy experts, journalists, and several presidents. She lives in Northern Virginia.

Twelve-year-old Lettie is a slave girl living on the Tucker Plantation near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1861. It is only because of the friendship of her owner's young daughter, Katherine, that Lettie and her family have not been separated Even though Katherine taught her to read and has ensured that her father is not cruel, Lettie still longs to be free. With more questions than answers caused by the outbreak of war, she takes a daring step and writes to President Abraham Lincoln with the question she must know the answer to - when will she finally be free? This was a moving story about the cruelty of slavery as seen through the story of a spirited young girl longing to be free. Even though the letters were fictional, they seemed so real.

Harold Holzer is co[-chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and an acknowledged authority on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era. Therefore he brings a very special expertise to compiling and editing "Abraham Lincoln Portrayed In The Collections of The Indiana Historical Society", a 264 page volume that includes 150 images (many of which are in full color) and a complete catalog of the Indiana Historical Society collection compiled by IHS William Henry Smith Library staff members Emily Castle and Barbara Quigley. Here are contemporary and later images of Lincoln with his family, generals, and cabinet members, as well as political cartoons, illustrate sheet music, book and newspaper illustrations of the period.. A work of impressive, detailed and original scholarship, "Abraham Lincoln Portrayed In The Collections of The Indiana Historical Society" is a singularly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library American History reference collections in general, and supplemental reading lists for students of Abraham Lincoln's life and times in particular. Also very highly recommended are Harold Holzer's other works on Abraham Lincoln: "The Lincoln Image"; "Lincoln Seen and Heard"; "Dear Mr. Lincoln"; "The Lincoln Mailbag"; and "Lincoln at Cooper Union".

Gordon Leidner's Abraham Lincoln collects the know facts assembled about President Lincoln, from his marriage and his personal interests to his favorite poem and his law practice. Filled with trivia-type details, Abraham Lincoln packs in facts, quizzes and trivia information any Lincoln buff will enjoy.

If you manage to read all six volumes of Sandburg's labor of love, you will feel a great sense of accomplishment, and you will know Abraham Lincoln inside and out. At least as much as this rather secretive man allowed anyone to see. When I finished, I felt like an old friend had left my life. That said, at times Sandburg sorely needed a better editor. He would run on forever with newspaper accounts of basically the same thing, as if he had to hammer home the point. Each and every visitor that ever applied to Lincoln for anything is recorded. We get the picture 3 pages ago. The research must have been prodigious. The 1st volume was rather poetic in the beginning, not surprising from such a one as Sandburg. Mostly, my interest never flagged. Six months it took me to read it. And am very glad I did.

Ifeoma Onyefulu writes a wonderful first hand account of how she celebrates Christmas in her home land of Nigeria. The book is filled with wonderful photographs that bring the details to life. I loved sharing this book with my 6 year old daughter and think it was a great way to open a discussion on what makes our traditions similar to those of people who live on the other side of the world.

This magnificently photographed volume offers the reader a wonderful insight into one of the most beautiful edifices in the world. This oversized book stunningly recreates the splendor of Grenada. A treasure for any who have visited the Alhambra.

As a craft-y grandmother, I am always looking for high quality ways to encourage creativity and art appreciation in my grands--this book is an outstanding way to do both--it inspires children to create their own effects using pictures from the National Gallery in London.