Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas

by Allen C. Guelzo, Michael Lind (Foreword by)

Overview

Despite the most meager of formal educations, Lincoln had a tremendous intellectual curiosity that drove him into the circle of Enlightenment philosophy and democratic political ideology. And from these, Lincoln developed a set of political convictions that guided him throughout his life and his presidency. This compilation of ten essays from Lincoln scholar Allen C. Guelzo uncovers the hidden sources of Lincoln’s ideas and examines the beliefs that directed his career and brought an end to slavery and the Civil War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809386376
Publisher:	Southern Illinois University Press
Publication date:	01/26/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	625 KB

About the Author

Allen C. Guelzo, the author of Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America, is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College. He is a three-time winner of the Lincoln Prize, for Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President (2000), Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2005), and Gettysburg: The Last Invasion (2013), the last of which was a New York Times best seller.

Table of Contents

Contents Foreword 00 Michael Lind Introduction: What Would Lincoln Do? 00 1. The Unlikely Intellectual Biography of Abraham Lincoln 00 2. Abraham Lincoln and the Doctrine of Necessity 00 3. Come-outers and Community-Men: Abraham Lincoln and the Idea of Community in Nineteenth-Century America 00 4. Lincoln and Natural Law 00 5. ¿Fiends . . . Facing Zionwards¿: Abraham Lincoln¿s Reluctant Embrace of the Abolitionists 00 6. Apples of Gold in a Picture of Silver: Lincoln, the Constitution, and Liberty 00 7. Understanding Emancipation: Lincoln¿s Proclamation and the End of Slavery 00 8. Defending Emancipation: Abraham Lincoln and the Conkling Letter, August 1863 00 9. Prudence and the Proclamation 00 10. Lincoln and the ¿War Powers¿ of the Presidency 00 Index 00

Editorial Reviews

Allen Guelzo is one of the finest Lincoln scholars of our generation, and this book of essays reveals once again a unique combination of impeccable scholarship with a wonderfully readable narrative style.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

“Written in an easy, flowing style, Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas is a valuable compendium of the ideas driving some of our most important historical inquiries into Lincoln’s life and times. This first-rate collection is a significant contribution to the literature on Lincoln.”—Brian R. Dirck, author of Lincoln and Davis: Imagining America, 1809-1865

“In Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas, Guelzo continues [his] mission of situating Lincoln within the broad sweep of Western intellectual history and specifically the deep-seated Enlightenment ideas that informed his devotion to ‘rationality, individualism, personal rights, and progress’ as fundamental American principles. . . . Every essay is an exercise in revelation that connects Lincoln to a broad Western intellectual tradition, rather than asking him to spring spontaneously, if not fully formed, from the crucible of the American Backwoods.”—Kenneth J. Winkle, Journal of Historical Biography
 
“[Guelzo] shows Lincoln’s mind to be that of a man of great mental abilities, certainly one of the active Renaissance men of American development. Lincoln was the Thomas Jefferson of the nineteenth century, as we are recognizing more and more.”—Ray B. Browne, Journal of American Culture
 

From the Publisher