Lincoln's America: 1809 - 1865 / Edition 2

by Joseph R. Fornieri, Sara Vaughn Gabbard, Herman Belz, Allen C. Guelzo, Harold Holzer

Overview

To fully understand and appreciate Abraham Lincoln’s legacy, it is important to examine the society that influenced the life, character, and leadership of the man who would become the Great Emancipator. Editors Joseph R. Fornieri and Sara Vaughn Gabbard have done just that in Lincoln’s America: 1809-1865, a collection of original essays by ten eminent historians that place Lincoln within his nineteenth-century cultural context.

Among the topics explored in Lincoln’s America are religion, education, middle-class family life, the antislavery movement, politics, and law. Of particular interest are the transition of American intellectual and philosophical thought from the Enlightenment to Romanticism and the influence of this evolution on Lincoln's own ideas.

By examining aspects of Lincoln’s life—his personal piety in comparison with the beliefs of his contemporaries, his success in self-schooling when frontier youths had limited opportunities for a formal education, his marriage and home life in Springfield, and his legal career—in light of broader cultural contexts such as the development of democracy, the growth of visual arts, the question of slaves as property, and French visitor Alexis de Tocqueville’s observations on America, the contributors delve into the mythical Lincoln of folklore and discover a developing political mind and a changing nation.

As Lincoln’s America shows, the sociopolitical culture of nineteenth-century America was instrumental in shaping Lincoln’s character and leadership. The essays in this volume paint a vivid picture of a young nation and its sixteenth president, arguably its greatest leader.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780809328789
Publisher:	Southern Illinois University Press
Publication date:	11/07/2008
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Joseph R. Fornieri is a professor of political science at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the director of the Center for Statesmanship, Law, and Liberty. He is the author or editor of five books, the most recent of which is Abraham Lincoln, Philosopher Statesman (SIU Press), which won a prize for superior scholarship from the Illinois State Historical Society.

Sara Vaughn Gabbard is the executive director of the Friends of the Lincoln Collection of Indiana and editor of Lincoln Lore. She is a coeditor of three books, including 1865: America Makes War and Peace in Lincoln’s Final Year, and received the Order of Lincoln Award from the governor of Illinois in 2015.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface Sara Vaughn Gabbard xi

Introduction: Interpreting Lincoln the Man and His Times Joseph R. Fornieri 1

1 A. Lincoln, Philosopher: Lincoln's Place in Nineteenth-Century Intellectual History Allen C. Guelzo 7

2 Tocqueville and Lincoln on Religion and Democracy in America Joseph R. Fornieri 28

3 Schooling in Lincoln's America and Lincoln's Extraordinary Self-Schooling Myron Marty 55

4 American Religion, 1809-1865 Mark Noll 72

5 The Middle-Class Marriage of Abraham and Mary Lincoln Kenneth J. Winkle 94

6 Abraham Lincoln: The Making of the Attorney-in-Chief Frank J. Williams 115

7 "No Such Right": The Origins of Lincoln's Rejection of the Right of Property in Slaves James Oakes 135

8 Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Movement Richard Striner 151

9 "As Good as It Can Be Made": Abraham Lincoln's Heroic Image in Nineteenth-Century Art Harold Holzer 169

10 Lincoln and the Nature of "A More Perfect Union" Herman Belz 191

Appendix: Chronology of Lincoln's America 225

Contributors 231

Index 233

Editorial Reviews

"Each of the ten essays in Lincoln's America is the work of an acknowledged authority on Abraham Lincoln, and each has something new and enlightening to tell us about the most celebrated American." —Douglas L. Wilson, author of Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words

From the Publisher