Customer Reviews

Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President

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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 !

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.

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.

This book is a compilation of excerpts from interviews of both well-known and obscure authors and other Lincoln-connected individuals, who have appeared on C-Span over the last fifteen years, primarily on the "Booknotes" program conducted by Brain Lamb. The seventy-four inclusions range widely, covering subjects from Lincoln's childhood, young adulthood in New Salem, Ill, his romances and marital life, his early political career and activities as a lawyer, his campaign for the Senate and debates with Douglas, his views on race and religion, his dealings with his Cabinet and generals, his life in Washington, Gettysburg and his reverence for the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, his image making especially through photography, his assassination, and more.

Some of the entries are so short and authored by such obscure individuals that they could have easily been left out. The reader will find represented noted Lincoln scholars such as David Donald, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Allen Guelzo, James McPherson, Stephen Oates, Harold Holzer, and Douglas Wilson. In two of the longer entries, Lerone Bennett, Jr., and Thomas Dilorenzo take issue with the deification of Lincoln, the notion that he ended slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation, his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and his pro-Hamilton economics.

The book conveniently includes a time-line of Lincoln's life and maps showing where he lived, the cities where he debated Douglas, and the railroad routes of his inaugural journey from Springfield to Washington in 1861 and the funeral train back to his home in April, 1865. Also, his more noted speeches are included.

If one would expect that a book that is so wide-ranging, in terms of subjects and authors, would seem quite choppy, he would be correct. Yet, the interview format does give authors a means of expressing understandings beyond their more systematic, formal efforts. Exacting standards of quality are a bit misplaced: the chapters are mere informal conversations. Because the book includes so many great authors, it undoubtedly will stimulate further reading: for example, Edward Steers' entry on the assassination was quite interesting.

Because the book is so uneven and makes no real effort at completeness, it cannot be seen as a must-read book. Even some of the key authors' interviews are unnecessarily broken into two chapters. Anyone desiring a comprehensive look at Lincoln would be far better served by a serious biography, such as the one by David Donald. The book is perhaps best labeled as a Lincoln sampler, which is not without its usefulness.

It wasn't clear to me when I ordered this C-Span produced book that the information inside was going to be a rehash of what various historians had said over the years about Lincoln. Some were just a few paragraphs long and were excerpted from interviews which may have been about Lincoln but also interviews which may have had something entirely different as the main topic. So, in one sense I was disappointed; I had expected new essays from a number of Lincoln scholars. However it was very readable and still interesting and the appendix with many of Lincoln's speeches was a nice addition to my library.

This is an excellent book that is full of perspectives from today's noted authors, historians, and other people of note on their perspective, opinions and thoughts about Abraham Lincoln. These were mostly taken from C-SPAN interviews and shed a great light on the life of Abraham Lincoln and his legacy, and times of which he lived. From a one page perspective, to several pages, each contributor added his or her viewpoint on Abrhaham Lincoln. My favorites are from James McPherson who tells about the Civil War and its impact, also Harold Holzer who sheds light on Abraham Lincolns's character and thoughts. All of these essay's are interesting to read. Personally, the editor of Ebony Magazines tries to "slam" Abraham Lincoln, but in my opnion he falls short and the proof is in the other essay's this book has that talks about Lincoln's genius, forsight, wisdom, and strategy. A great book for any American History enthusiast or scholar and those interested about Abraham Lincoln. Highly Recommended!

With the 200th anniversary of his birth coming up in February, interest in Abraham Lincoln is on the rise, and rightly so. Maybe the most written about man in history, Lincoln inspires examination and scholarship unlike any other figure we've had in American History. Is it because his greatness comes from his humble roots? An intellect not formed in America's prestigious universities? A passion for patriotism by holding the union together with threads? Whatever the reason, we cannot get enough Lincoln. This book, "Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President" is an important part of the record this year.

Complied and culled from the vast historical repertoire of CSPAN, this book is a collection of essays by many of the most current Lincoln scholars: Harold Holzer, James McPherson, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Stephen Oates, and many others. Some of the essay are long and detailed, some a merely a paragraph of thought.

Grouped in four categories, this is a great book to "dip into" from time to time when you want a sip of water to quench your Lincoln thirst, but don't have time for a full bottle, so to speak. While there is very little new information here, it is always refreshing to read from the most knowledgeable Lincoln devotees.

This is a great book for a casual Lincoln fan wanting to refresh their knowledge, for a person who doesn't know a thing about the man, and for the Lincoln fan in your life. Thanks to CSPAN for this compilation of some very important Lincoln voices!

And, often, not for the better.

First, the "rush job" complaint? Some of the interviews or comments are nearly 20 years old, yet none of them were edited to read well, rather than anything beyond a simple explanatory parenthesis. They read way too much like TV-level spoken English.

More substantively, the "all over the place, often not for the better"?

Bennett Lenore is deliberately antihistorical, with axes to grind. He ignores Lincoln's clear evolution on racial issues. He claims Lincoln wanted to forcibly deport blacks rather than just pushing voluntary colonization. He claims Lincoln pushed colonization to the end of his life. He claims Seward would have been less of a compromiser, ignoring his work with Sen. Crittenden and other compromise efforts during the Buchanan-Lincoln interregnum. In short, just about nothing Lenore says is trustworthy.

Shelby Foote? Still blaming post-Civil War racism on Northern carpetbaggers rather than people like his ancestors.

Thomas DiLorenzo? No, sir, not true that nearly everybody in the Union in 1860 viewed it as voluntary. Try running that by Andy Jackson. Or Dan'l Webster. Your "Lost Cause" in the name of libertarianism colors show elsewhere; at least you admit being a libertarian.

That said, I'll still give this three stars.

First, learning that there are still active Lincoln haters out there, some of them nutty, is nice.

Second, seeing that within the Lincoln cult (and, I won't deny such a thing exists, but one can state that and still not be or become a Lincoln hater) there are cracks and fissures.

Third, I actually learned some things. For example, I read that perhaps the Confederate secret service was certainly more involved in at least Booth's original kidnap plot than is often told. And that Dr. Mudd probably was pretty knowledgeable about the plot. And perhaps Mary Surratt. And maybe even Confederate elected officials.

So, this has its good points. Just be prepared to wade through poor editing and some inanity, even some idiocy, in spots.

What a wonderful & interesting collection on Lincoln, serves to inform, stimulate & encourage further research just as CSPAN itself does! What more could a book do?

No one really knew him! His vision held us together. Good reading varied views.