2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a great concise biography, January 1, 2009
This review is from: Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography (Paperback)
Gienapp, William E. 'Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America; A Biography.' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
The recently deceased, William Gienapp's brief biography of Abraham Lincoln is in great need to be revisited. Since the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, nearly 50 new Lincoln books are set to come out, yet few will be as concise and well organized as Gienapps.
While Gienapp offers few new quotations in his work, his use of them as well as more well known ones is unparalleled; making for a new and refreshing read. Along the same lines as James M McPherson's Tried by War, Gienapp (6 years earlier) attempted to explain "why this man [Abraham Lincoln] turned out to be such an extraordinary war leader." (x)
Gienapp starts his book with Lincolns obscured early years. This section, nearly 80 pages worth of reading, seems characterless and stale. He merely follows the chronology of Lincoln, leaving the reader with an almost obsolete knowledge of the antebellum period. However, once Lincoln is elected president in 1860, the remaining of the book is a marvelous read.
Gienapp devotes large sections of his book to tracing the development and concept of Total War. Believing that the Civil War was the first total war, Gienapp writes that by 1864, "the Union army had confiscated private property in the South, expelled disloyal civilians from Union lines, emancipated slaves, utilized black soldiers, and waged a grinding, all-out form of warfare. To this mix was now added the dimension of psychological warfare designed to break the will of southern civilians. This was the nineteenth-century equivalent of the strategy of total war." (177) Gienapp's definition of total war is near the best offered. Other than McPherson's 1996 essay "From Limited to Total War," Gienapp comes the closest to understanding the concept. However Gienapp seems to forget the importance that new technology plays in total war which seems odd when one reflects on Lincolns interests and support for new advancements in technology. By 1864, most Union soldiers were equipped with the seven shot repeating carbine rifle, giving them a distinct and deadly advantage over their southern opponents. Also the appearance of Ironclad warships helped to change naval warfare. This component is important within the evolution of Total Warfare.
Following the trend of other historians, Gienapp heavily favors the war in the east. Gienapp also forgets about the harsh guerrilla warfare that was going on in Missouri and Kansas. Here, as Joseph Glatthar demonstrates in his Partners in Command, is were Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Porter (the major proponents of the hard war concept) were first exposed to the ruthless type of war which would be required to dispel the rebellion.
Curiously, Gienapp writes on several occasions that the Union never took any propaganda efforts to mobilize the public. This is not completely true, in an essay by William Hesseltine in 1935, Hesseltine convincingly demonstrates that in 1861, as a result of McClellan's inactivity, Senator Benjamin Wade created the Committee on the Conduct of the War which highly publicized Southern atrocities toward Union soldiers in an effort to enrage the Northern public opinion. While this propaganda may or may not have been influenced by Lincoln, it is spurious to write there were no attempts to create a war hysteria through propaganda. In fact, the Norths bellicose mood after the end of the war culminated in the hanging of Captain Henry Wirtz, is direct evidence of sustained war hysteria.
Gienapp demonstrates his overall ability as a scholar by effectively including small and obscure events such as Lincoln's Corning Letter into the text. Here Lincoln responds to Democrat Erastus Corning to defend his measures against civil liberties. Gienapp writes Lincoln was always more concerned with policy to end the war rather then policy to up hold an already sundered Constitution. It is these small inclusions which puts Gienapps work closer to the level of much larger Civil War study's such as McPherson's Pulitzer prize winning, 'Battle Cry of Freedom' and David Donald's 'Civil War and Reconstruction.'
In conclusion Gienapp's study is an effective biography given its relatively small breadth. The book offers a large punch and should be considered by both experts and laymen alike as an example of first rate scholarship. It's small size and relatively inexpensive price should make this book a standard within the field.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
