Customer Reviews

Abraham Lincoln: The Observations of John G. Nicolay and John Hay

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A book for the person with an existing fair understanding of the White House years of Abraham Lincoln.

Professor Burlingame provides a great service to those of us who are keenly interested in this great president, but who do not have the time to read the imposing and very dated ten-volume history produced by his two close aides, Nicolay and Hay. This book fills a specific void; it certainly should not be confused with a full biography.

While it is surprising that so little was directly said by Nicolay and Hay about their chief in their history, I am happy that Professor Burlingame did the hard work of mining its ten volumes for the benefit of lazy readers like me.

This book was a tremendous disappointment, and not at all worth the price. Less than half of the very slim volume is made up of observations from Nicolay and Hay. The balance is a long introduction and commentary by the author. Much of the contextual material provided is a duplication of the N&H section that follows. Only the first two years of the Lincoln administration is included, and the book ends abruptly.

The book was very short and only covered areas of limited interest on Lincoln's Presidency. Beside other titles on Lincoln that I have bought this was a major disappointement. There was no flow of quality prose to create interest in specific story lines which were too sketchy. The book's objectives were too limited from the outset and it's main merits are that it may serve as a useful reference book for later purchases. It will do little to add or detract to the legacy of Lincoln.
Lorenzo
Ireland