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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Abraham Lincoln: A collection of 68 essays on the complex man who became our greatest president, November 17, 2008
This review is from: Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President (Hardcover)
Always count on C-Span for quality programming and publication of public affairs books! As the Lincoln birth bicentennial occurs in 2999 the network has published "Abraham Lincoln. Swain and Lamb took interviews they and others have conducted on C-Span and present them in the 68 essays in the book. The book is divided into four sections:
I. Log Cabin to White House. This section deals with the life of Lincoln from his Kentucky slave-state birth in 1809 to his election as president in November 1860.
Historian Mark Neely Jr. writes of Lincoln's early years; Harold Hozer focuses on the Lincoln-Douglas debates while other essays explore the friends Lincoln made as he chartered his course to the top of the political heap in Illinois and the nation.
II.Wartime President. This is the longest section of the book dealing with such varied topics as Lincoln's Soldier's Home retreat; Lincoln and Grant; the end of the war; the assassination and how he conducted his presidency during wartime. Scuh stalwart Lincoln scholars as David Herbert Donald, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jay Winik, Edward Steers Jr, Wayne Fields, Michael Barone and others are heard from.
III. Character:: We see how Lincoln viewed religion; how he was influenced by the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution and look at the complexity of his character. People like Frank J. Williams, Matthew Pinsker, Edna Green Medord, Shelby Foote and Allen C. Guezlo are the distinguished contributors in this area of Lincoln study.
IV. Memory: Essays include "Whitman's Lincoln" by David Reynolds' and insights into the Lincoln cult and Lincoln collecting. Essays included are by such collectors of as Frank Williams and Louise Taper. Thomas Dilorenzo has harsh words to say about the Lincoln cult and Lincoln.
Anytime you can buy a book featuring such scholars as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Richard Norton Smith, Harold Holzer, Jay Winik and James McPherson you should do so! All of these authors have at least one and sometimes more than one essay in this fine book!
The great Lincoln speeches are included such as the ones given at Cooper Union, Gettysburg, the Emancipation Proclamation and the two inaugural addresses.
The book includes well drawn maps, succinct but good biographical sketches of the authors and color photos of the author's and historical sites related to the story of Abraham Lincoln. Readers can look up interviews/essays which interest them by viewing the C-Span Website archive.
This is an excellent overview of the state of Lincoln scholarship. Lamb, Swain and the C-Span team are to be commended for compiling such a fine anthology of essays !
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Written from a variety of perspectives, pro and con, these essays provide a balanced view of a complex Lincoln, November 16, 2008
This review is from: Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President (Hardcover)
On February 12, 2009, our nation marks the Bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The present volume contains 68 essays by 55 writers who are among those best versed in the history of Lincoln and the Civil War.
Parts 1-4 discuss "Log Cabin to White House," "Wartime President," "Character," and "In Memory." Part 5 includes eight of Lincoln's speeches.
Writers include James M. McPherson, Harold Holzer, Stephen B. Oates, Shelby Foote, and Doris Kearns Goodwin, and critics such as Lerone Bennett, Jr. and Thomas DiLorenzo, who examine the many sides of Lincoln concerning presidential power, leadership, racial reconciliation, and American values.
These essays, both pro and con, help one gain a balanced view of a complex Lincoln, an alleged "racist" and "white supremacist" who grew and evolved into a statesman described by Mario Cuomo as a "progressive pragmatist."
Note: Complete transcripts of interviews with authors--along with video and other features--are available at [...].
About the Editors:
Brian Lamb is C-SPAN's chairman and CEO and longtime on-camera interviewer, noted for his "just the facts" style of interviewing. Many of the essays in this book are drawn from Booknotes, Lamb's long-running author-interview program, while others were conducted for C-SPAN's special history series on Lincoln and on the American presidency. Lamb lives in Arlington, Virginia.
Susan Swain is President & co-Chief Operating Officer of C-SPAN. For more than twenty-five years, she has been an on-air interviewer for the program. A regular moderator of Washington Journal, she's interviewed hundreds of members of Congress, policy experts, journalists, and several presidents. She lives in Northern Virginia.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lincoln on C-SPAN, November 18, 2008
This review is from: Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President (Hardcover)
A wonderful purchase for anyone with even a faint interest in Abraham Lincoln and his impact on America.
In this book, many notable scholars lend their thoughts and insights in a conversational style to various aspects of the Lincoln story. A reader will be delayed neither by scholarly jargon nor intrusive footnotes. Instead, that person is presented with the easy opportunity to be exposed to a wide breadth of the scholarship directly touching upon Mr. Lincoln. And afterwards, if interest is excited, he or she can go find and read one or more of the books written by these able past contributors to C-SPAN.
C-SPAN is a national treasure and this timely history book is a monument to that cable-industry company's talented staff and its work over the years in bringing Abraham Lincoln's life and times so vividly before a new generation of Americans.
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