Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery

Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery

by Richard Striner
ISBN-10:
0195325397
ISBN-13:
9780195325393
Pub. Date:
05/18/2007
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0195325397
ISBN-13:
9780195325393
Pub. Date:
05/18/2007
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery

Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery

by Richard Striner
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Overview

Lincoln is the single most compelling figure in our history, but also one of the most enigmatic. Was he the Great Emancipator, a man of deep convictions who ended slavery in the United States, or simply a reluctant politician compelled by the force of events to free the slaves? In Father Abraham, Richard Striner offers a fresh portrait of Lincoln, one that helps us make sense of his many contradictions.
Striner shows first that, if you examine the speeches that Lincoln made in the 1850s, you will have no doubt of his passion to end slavery. These speeches illuminate the anger, vehemence, and sheer brilliance of candidate Lincoln, who worked up crowds with charismatic fervor as he gathered a national following. But if he felt so passionately about abolition, why did he wait so long to release the Emancipation Proclamation? As Striner points out, politics is the art of the possible, and Lincoln was a consummate politician, a shrewd manipulator who cloaked his visionary ethics in the more pragmatic garb of the coalition-builder. He was at bottom a Machiavellian prince for a democratic age. When secession began, Lincoln used the battle cry of saving the Union to build a power base, one that would eventually break the slave-holding states forever.
Striner argues that Lincoln was a rare man indeed: a fervent idealist and a crafty politician with a remarkable gift for strategy. It was the harmonious blend of these two qualities, Striner concludes, that made Lincoln's role in ending slavery so fundamental.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780195325393
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 05/18/2007
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 9.15(w) x 6.19(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Richard Striner is Professor of History at Washington College and is a Senior Writer with the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission. He has written for numerous publications, including The Washington Post, The Smithsonian Institution Press, and William & Mary Quarterly.

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     1
Lincoln and Slavery: The Problem     5
Lincoln and Free Soil, 1854-1858     35
Lincoln and Slavery: Containment, 1859-1861     89
Lincoln and Emancipation, 1861-1862     137
Lincoln and the War to the Death, 1863     189
Lincoln and the Worst-Case Future, 1864     217
Lincoln and the Best-Case Future, 1864-1865     241
Notes     265
Select Bibliography     293
Index     297
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