Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln

by Richard Brookhiser

Overview

Abraham Lincoln grew up in the long shadow of the Founding Fathers. Seeking an intellectual and emotional replacement for his own taciturn father, Lincoln turned to the great men of the founding-Washington, Paine, Jefferson-and their great documents-the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution-for knowledge, guidance, inspiration, and purpose. Out of the power vacuum created by their passing, Lincoln emerged from among his peers as the true inheritor of the Founders' mantle, bringing their vision to bear on the Civil War and the question of slavery.

In Founders' Son, celebrated historian Richard Brookhiser presents a compelling new biography of Abraham Lincoln that highlights his lifelong struggle to carry on the work of the Founding Fathers. Following Lincoln from his humble origins in Kentucky to his assassination in Washington, D.C., Brookhiser shows us every side of the man: laborer, lawyer, congressman, president; storyteller, wit, lover of ribald jokes; depressive, poet, friend, visionary. And he shows that despite his many roles and his varied life, Lincoln returned time and time again to the Founders. They were rhetorical and political touchstones, the basis of his interest in politics, and the lodestars guiding him as he navigated first Illinois politics and then the national scene.

But their legacy with not sufficient. As the Civil War lengthened and the casualties mounted Lincoln wrestled with one more paternal figure-God the Father-to explain to himself, and to the nation, why ending slavery had come at such a terrible price.

Bridging the rich and tumultuous period from the founding of the United States to the Civil War, Founders' Son is unlike any Lincoln biography to date. Penetrating in its insight, elegant in its prose, and gripping in its vivid recreation of Lincoln's roving mind at work, this book allows us to think anew about the first hundred years of American history, and shows how we can, like Lincoln, apply the legacy of the Founding Fathers to our times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465032945
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	10/14/2014
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and the author of eleven books, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, American, and Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Note on Spelling and Usage xi

Introduction Two Old Men, One Young Man 1

Part 1 11

1 1809-1830: Youth 13

2 George Washington and Liberty 25

3 1830-1840: Manhood 37

4 Thomas Paine, Laughter, and Reason 51

5 1840-1852: Maturity 67

6 Henry Clay and the Fourth of July 89

Part 2 103

7 1854: The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise 105

8 1855-1858: Running for Senate 119

9 1859-1860: Running for President 139

10 Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. The Towering Genius (I) 151

11 The Election of 1860. The Towering Genius (II) 171

Part 3 199

12 1861-1863: War, Emancipation 201

13 Preamble to the Constitution 229

14 1864-1865: War, Death 247

15 God the Father 267

16 1865: Victory. The Towering Genius (III) 285

Epilogue: One Old Man 297

Acknowledgments 303

Notes 305

Bibliography 327

Index 333

Editorial Reviews

09/22/2014
Historian Brookhiser (James Madison) argues that, with an ungainly, backwoods persona for which he endured ridicule and depression throughout his life, Abraham Lincoln sought refuge in the words and actions of the country's Founding Fathers, especially the duty-bound, multi-faceted George Washington. Brookhiser excels in describing Lincoln's political fights over government banks and in parsing his presidency in wartime—specifically, his detailed account of the complex evolution of the president's views on slavery. The infamous Lincoln-Douglas rivalry adds levity to this historical work, especially as each man positioned himself as the "Revolution's legitimate heir" in an attempt to reach the national political stage. Unfortunately, in aiming for casual readers, Brookhiser avoids nuances in favor of modern simplifications—for instance, in his brief background on Federalists and Republicans—and errs in playing psychologist to the young Abe. He demonstrates that the founders' struggles over slavery not only inspired the 16th president in navigating his own philosophical evolution, but also served as a crucial point of reference for Lincoln's history-altering oratory and leadership . Brookhiser's approach to examining this great American president is certainly a novel one, yet his research does not go far enough in proving Lincoln's close ties to the nation's founders. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

09/15/2014
Brookhiser (National Review, Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington) argues that to understand Abraham Lincoln accurately, one must comprehend his connection to and critical appreciation for our country's founding generation. Lincoln turned to founders such as George Washington, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson to chart his own political career and channel his ambition. As much as Lincoln was fueled by ambition, he was also motivated by a comprehensive curiosity about human nature, the founders' intentions, our country's past, and its imagined and hoped-for future. Lincoln read everything he could get his hands on, and his political touchstone was the Declaration of Independence. This self-educated politician asserted that one could likely create a path to the future (and through the fiery trials of the present) by appreciating the past but not being bound to it. Lincoln knew that history was both past and prolog, and he sought to appropriate the earlier age properly to guide the nation successfully through the Civil War. VERDICT This highly accessible read will appeal most to readers who desire to learn more about Lincoln and especially the ideas, dogmas, and dreams that moved him to his public career and life in the White House.—Stephen Kent Shaw, Northwest Nazarene Coll., Nampa, ID

Library Journal

2014-07-30
An author who specializes in biographies of the Founders looks at their influence on our 16th president.Only two of the men who fought in the Revolution, wrote the Declaration and framed the Constitution remained alive as Lincoln reached his 20s. By the time he departed Springfield in 1861, the president-elect had spent his political maturity pondering the lessons of the Founders, teasing out the principles that informed them as he faced a task he deemed "greater than George Washington's"—holding together a dangerously fragile union. Famously self-made, Lincoln learned most of what he knew from books. Byron, Shakespeare and the Bible account for the touches of poetry in his prose; to Euclid goes partial credit for the rigorous logic underpinning his arguments. The Founders, however, became Lincoln's most reliable instructors: Thomas Paine for plainspoken proofs; Washington as a model of virtue and for his love of liberty; the problematic Jefferson for the Declaration's perfect expression of the American purpose. National Review senior editor Brookhiser (James Madison, 2011, etc.) touches on many other influences that shaped Lincoln's mind, even throwing a little credit to Thomas Lincoln (something Abraham never did) for his son's talent for storytelling. If the author's attempt to link the figure of John Wilkes Booth to the dreaded and destructive "towering genius" prophesized in Lincoln's 1838 Lyceum Address doesn't quite work, his discussion of the second inaugural is genuinely moving and instructive. The narrative always smoothly returns, though, to the Founders and Lincoln's unceasing attempt to divine their intentions and to examine the institutions they built and the opportunity they created for someone like him to thrive. For years now, Brookhiser has helped bring the Founders back to life, precisely Lincoln's purpose as the president contemplated for his country a new birth of freedom, "the old freedom" they envisioned in 1776 but couldn't quite perfect.

Kirkus Reviews

"[Brookhiser's] melding of Lincoln with the founders yields significant implications for the interpretation of the American past—in both the Revolutionary and Civil War eras."—Drew Gilpin Faust, New York Times Book Review

"Beautifully written and choked with insights.... For Brookhiser, Lincoln's life was an encounter with a succession of fathers: his own, the Founding Fathers, and God the father. Can it be only a coincidence that in time he himself was regarded as Father Abraham?"—Boston Globe

"Mr. Brookhiser positions Lincoln as the self-conscious heir of the 18th-century Founders and thus fends off the claim (made in the fever swamps of both left and right) that Lincoln subverted the Constitution in the interests of creating an all-powerful central government."—Allen Guelzo, Wall Street Journal

"Brookhiser has done the seemingly impossible: He has written a life of Lincoln that is fresh, original, and ideal for those new to the subject.... With deft, epigrammatic phrases Brookhiser distills Lincoln's life to its essence."—National Review

"Since he is well-chronicled, and often mythologized, it is hard to expand our understanding of Lincoln. But Richard Brookhiser does an expert job of finding new room."—Weekly Standard

"Founders' Son is not just another Lincoln biography (more than 15,000 have already been published). Instead, it is a chronicle of Lincoln's mental and spiritual evolution, much of it written in his own words; indeed, Abraham Lincoln has almost all the best lines."—Washington Times

"Abraham Lincoln is the most written-about man in American history, yet Richard Brookhiser, a historian and writer of extraordinary talent, has written an analysis that is lively, incisive, novel—and brilliant. This book reminds us of Lincoln's reverence for the Founders, his 'stubborn concern for first principles' and—ultimately—the often-overlooked reverence for the Almighty God that guided him in America's darkest hours."—John Boehner, Speaker of the House

"With characteristic elegance and economy, Richard Brookhiser demonstrates that Lincoln assured America a future by reconnecting the nation with its past. With, that is, the world-shaking egalitarianism of the Founders' natural-rights doctrine. Hence this book is—whether Brookhiser meant so or not—a primer on the great topic of present-day politics, the relevance of the Declaration of Independence as a manifesto for limited government."—George F. Will

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