Abraham Lincoln: A Life

Hailed as the definitive portrait of the sixteenth president, Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame's impressive two-volume biography has been masterfully abridged and revised.

Sixteenth president of the United States, the Great Emancipator, and a surpassingly eloquent champion of national unity, freedom, and democracy, Abraham Lincoln is arguably the most studied and admired of all Americans. Michael Burlingame's astonishing Abraham Lincoln: A Life, edited and abridged by Jonathan W. White, offers fresh interpretations of this endlessly fascinating American leader.

Based on deep research in unpublished sources as well as newly digitized sources, this work reveals how Lincoln's character and personality were the North's secret weapon in the Civil War, the key variables that spelled the difference between victory and defeat. He was a model of psychological maturity and a fully individuated man whose influence remains unrivaled in the history of American public life.

Burlingame chronicles Lincoln's childhood and early development, romantic attachments and losses, his love of learning, legal training, and courtroom career as well as his political ambition, his term as congressman in the late 1840s, and his serious bouts of depression in early adulthood. Burlingame recounts, in fresh detail, the Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln marriage and traces the mounting moral criticism of slavery that revived his political career and won this Springfield lawyer the presidency in 1860. This abridgement delivers Burlingame's signature insight into Lincoln as a young man, a father, and a politician.

Lincoln speaks to us not only as a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity but also as a source of inspiration. Few have achieved his historical importance, but many can profit from his personal example, encouraged by the knowledge that despite a lifetime of troubles, he became a model of psychological maturity, moral clarity, and unimpeachable integrity. His presence and his leadership inspired his contemporaries; his life story will do the same for generations to come.

1100304945
Abraham Lincoln: A Life

Hailed as the definitive portrait of the sixteenth president, Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame's impressive two-volume biography has been masterfully abridged and revised.

Sixteenth president of the United States, the Great Emancipator, and a surpassingly eloquent champion of national unity, freedom, and democracy, Abraham Lincoln is arguably the most studied and admired of all Americans. Michael Burlingame's astonishing Abraham Lincoln: A Life, edited and abridged by Jonathan W. White, offers fresh interpretations of this endlessly fascinating American leader.

Based on deep research in unpublished sources as well as newly digitized sources, this work reveals how Lincoln's character and personality were the North's secret weapon in the Civil War, the key variables that spelled the difference between victory and defeat. He was a model of psychological maturity and a fully individuated man whose influence remains unrivaled in the history of American public life.

Burlingame chronicles Lincoln's childhood and early development, romantic attachments and losses, his love of learning, legal training, and courtroom career as well as his political ambition, his term as congressman in the late 1840s, and his serious bouts of depression in early adulthood. Burlingame recounts, in fresh detail, the Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln marriage and traces the mounting moral criticism of slavery that revived his political career and won this Springfield lawyer the presidency in 1860. This abridgement delivers Burlingame's signature insight into Lincoln as a young man, a father, and a politician.

Lincoln speaks to us not only as a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity but also as a source of inspiration. Few have achieved his historical importance, but many can profit from his personal example, encouraged by the knowledge that despite a lifetime of troubles, he became a model of psychological maturity, moral clarity, and unimpeachable integrity. His presence and his leadership inspired his contemporaries; his life story will do the same for generations to come.

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Abraham Lincoln: A Life

Abraham Lincoln: A Life

Abraham Lincoln: A Life

Abraham Lincoln: A Life

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Overview

Hailed as the definitive portrait of the sixteenth president, Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame's impressive two-volume biography has been masterfully abridged and revised.

Sixteenth president of the United States, the Great Emancipator, and a surpassingly eloquent champion of national unity, freedom, and democracy, Abraham Lincoln is arguably the most studied and admired of all Americans. Michael Burlingame's astonishing Abraham Lincoln: A Life, edited and abridged by Jonathan W. White, offers fresh interpretations of this endlessly fascinating American leader.

Based on deep research in unpublished sources as well as newly digitized sources, this work reveals how Lincoln's character and personality were the North's secret weapon in the Civil War, the key variables that spelled the difference between victory and defeat. He was a model of psychological maturity and a fully individuated man whose influence remains unrivaled in the history of American public life.

Burlingame chronicles Lincoln's childhood and early development, romantic attachments and losses, his love of learning, legal training, and courtroom career as well as his political ambition, his term as congressman in the late 1840s, and his serious bouts of depression in early adulthood. Burlingame recounts, in fresh detail, the Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln marriage and traces the mounting moral criticism of slavery that revived his political career and won this Springfield lawyer the presidency in 1860. This abridgement delivers Burlingame's signature insight into Lincoln as a young man, a father, and a politician.

Lincoln speaks to us not only as a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity but also as a source of inspiration. Few have achieved his historical importance, but many can profit from his personal example, encouraged by the knowledge that despite a lifetime of troubles, he became a model of psychological maturity, moral clarity, and unimpeachable integrity. His presence and his leadership inspired his contemporaries; his life story will do the same for generations to come.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781421445564
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 10/10/2023
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 720
File size: 10 MB

About the Author

Michael Burlingame is the Sadowski Professor of History Emeritus at Connecticut College. He is the author or editor of a number of books about Lincoln, including Lincoln Observed: Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks, published by Johns Hopkins, and The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln.

Table of Contents

Introduction and Acknowledgments
1. "I Have Seen a Good Deal of the Back Side of This World": Childhood in Kentucky (1809-1816)
2. "I Used to be a Slave": Boyhood and Adolescence in Indiana (1816-1830)
3. "Separated from His Father, He Studied English Grammar": New Salem (1831-1834)
4. "A Napoleon of Astuteness and Political Finesse": Frontier Legislator (1834-1837)
5. "We Must Fight the Devil With Fire": Slasher-Gaff Politico in Springfield (1837-1841)
6. "It Would Just Kill Me to Marry Mary Todd": Courtship and Marriage (1840-1842)
7. "I Have Got the Preacher by the Balls": Pursuing a Seat in Congress (1843-1847)
8. "A Strong but Judicious Enemy to Slavery": Congressman Lincoln (1847-1849)
9. "I Was Losing Interest in Politics and Went to the Practice of Law with Greater Earnestness Than Ever Before": Mid-Life Crisis (1849-1854)
10. "Aroused As He Had Never Been Before": Reentering Politics (1854-1855)
11. "Unite with Us, and Help Us to Triumph": Building the Illinois Republican Party (1855-1857)
12. "A House Divided": Lincoln vs. Douglas (1857-1858)
13. "A David Greater than the Democratic Goliath": The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)
14. That Presidential Grub Gnaws Deep: Pursuing the Republican Nomination (1859-1860)
15. "The Most Available Presidential Candidate for Unadulterated Republicans": The Chicago Convention (May 1860)
16. "I Have Been Elected Mainly on the Cry 'Honest Old Abe'": The Presidential Campaign (May-November 1860)
17. "I Will Suffer Death Before I Will Consent to Any Concession or Compromise": President-elect in Springfield (1860-1861)
18. "What If I Appoint Cameron, Whose Very Name Stinks in the Nostrils of the People for His Corruption?": Cabinet-Making in Springfield (1860-1861)
19. "The Man Does Not Live Who Is More Devoted to Peace Than I Am, But It May Be Necessary to Put the Foot Down Firmly": From Springfield to Washington (February 11-22, 1861)
20. "I Am Now Going To Be Master": Inauguration (February 23-March 4, 1861)
21. "A Man So Busy Letting Rooms in One End of His House, That He Can't Stop to Put Out the Fire that is Burning in the Other": Distributing Patronage (March-April 1861)
22. "You Can Have No Conflict Without Being Yourselves the Aggressors": The Fort Sumter Crisis (March-April 1861)
23. "I Intend to Give Blows": The Hundred Days (April-July 1861)
24. Sitzkrieg: The Phony War (August 1861-January 1862)
25. "This Damned Old House": The Lincoln Family in the Executive Mansion
26. "I Expect to Maintain This Contest Until Successful, or Till I Die, or Am Conquered, or My Term Expires, or Congress or the Country Forsakes Me": From the Slough of Despond to the Gates of Richmond (January-July, 1862)
27. "The Hour Comes for Dealing with Slavery": Playing the Last Trump Card (January-July 1862)
28. "Would You Prosecute the War with Elder-Stalk Squirts, Charged with Rose Water?": The Soft War Turns Hard (July-September 1862)
29. "I Am Not a Bold Man, But I Have the Knack of Sticking to My Promises!": The Emancipation Proclamation (September-December 1862)
30. "Go Forward, and Give Us Victories": From the Mud March to Gettysburg (January-July 1863)
31. "The Signs Look Better": Victory at the Polls and in the Field (July-November 1863)
32. "I Hope to Stand Firm Enough to Not Go Backward, and Yet Not Go Forward Fast Enough to Wreck the Country's Cause": Reconstruction and Renomination (November 1863-June 1864)
33. "Hold On with a Bulldog Grip and Chew and Choke as Much as Possible": The Grand Offensive (May-August 1864)
34. "The Wisest Radical of All": Reelection (September-November 1864)
35. "Let the Thing Be Pressed": Victory at Last (November 1864-April 8, 1865)
36. "This War Is Eating My Life Out; I Have a Strong Impression That I Shall Not Live to See the End": (April 9-15, 1865)
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

"Lincoln scholars have waited anxiously for this book for decades. Its triumphant publication proves it was well worth the wait. Few scholars have written with greater insight about the psychology of Lincoln. No one in recent history has uncovered more fresh sources than Michael Burlingame. This profound and masterful portrait will be read and studied for years to come."—Doris Kearns Goodwin

"The remarkable breadth of Burlingame's research has resulted in a book unlike anything else written about Lincoln. It will be a major contribution to the field."—Gerald J. Prokopowicz, East Carolina University

"Burlingame has developed a familiarity with the details of Lincoln's life that is truly authoritative, even definitive, and he has genuinely earned his reputation for knowing more about Lincoln than just about anyone who has ever studied him."—Kenneth J. Winkle, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Kenneth J. Winkle

Burlingame has developed a familiarity with the details of Lincoln's life that is truly authoritative, even definitive, and he has genuinely earned his reputation for knowing more about Lincoln than just about anyone who has ever studied him.

Kenneth J. Winkle, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Lincoln scholars have waited anxiously for this book for decades. Its triumphant publication proves it was well worth the wait. Few scholars have written with greater insight about the psychology of Lincoln. No one in recent history has uncovered more fresh sources than Michael Burlingame. This profound and masterful portrait will be read and studied for years to come.

Gerald J. Prokopowicz

The remarkable breadth of Burlingame's research has resulted in a book unlike anything else written about Lincoln. It will be a major contribution to the field.

Gerald J. Prokopowicz, East Carolina University

From the Publisher

To read the peerless Michael Burlingame on Abraham Lincoln is as close as we can conceivably come to spending time with our greatest president in the years of our nation's greatest crisis. In this abridged volume of his two-volume masterpiece, Burlingame gives us a brilliant work of depth and detail. A monumental and indeed vital achievement.
—Jon Meacham, author of And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle

The deep research is still evident. The detailed knowledge of every facet of Lincoln's life remains impressive. But now, thanks to this expertly crafted abridgement Michael Burlingame's, monumental biography of Lincoln is more readily accessible to the broad range of readers it deserves.
—James Oakes, author of The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution

When Michael Burlingame's Abraham Lincoln: A Life appeared in 2009, it was recognized at once—and not just by Lincoln admirers—as one of the best Lincoln biographies. This skillful one-volume abridgement by Jonathan W. White now adds the attraction of accessibility to greatness.
—Allen C. Guelzo, Princeton University

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