Customer Reviews

Freedom

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Safire's "Freedom" gives the E.L. Doctorow fact/fiction treatment to the period of the Civil War from Lincoln's inauguration to the Emancipation Proclamation.

By weaving fact in with invented dialogue, guessed-at meetings and more than a few dreamed-up liaisons, Safire creates a seamless and fascinating tale that is as compelling as good fiction but with historical accuracy.

Most striking is it's honest treatment of Honest Abe, who we find was shrewd, crafty, manipulative, micromanaging, melancholy, pedantic and in general could be anything but honest.

Any fan of Safire's OpEd columns in the NY Times will appreciate the fact that White House intrigue isn't limited to the late 20th century, but is nearly as old as the Republic. If the reader ever feels Safire's trying to modernize the political intrigue of the Lincoln White House-well, perhaps. But his facts are well documented. He admits to inventing dialogue by the duplicitous Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a Hamlet-like former Vice President John Breckenridge, a scheming Salmon P. Chase and several other key characters. Yet his story fits precisely with the historical record.

The best part is the concurrent reference in the back of the book. Instead of burdening the reader with intrusive footnotes, Safire scrupulously documents what is fact and what is fiction, then organizes it by book and chapter. He lets you turn the pages to find what is truth, what is made up and what falls in-between. If you don't care, you'll be no worse off.

My only disappointment is "Freedom" doesn't cover the entire Civil War, only the first two years, when the Emancipation Proclamation and a Union victory at the Murfreesboro, seems, by the book's inference, set the Union on an inevitable course toward victory. Left out is Gettysberg, Sherman's march on Atlanta, the NY riots and several other battles and political events that kept the outcome in doubt up to Sept. 1864. No matter. One can only hope that someday Safire will write an equally fascinating sequel covering this period.

Even if you've seen Ken Burns' "Civil War" a thousand times and read all types of Civil War books, you'll find "Freedom" informative and entertaining. It's one of the best books I've ever read.

Freedom professes to be "A Novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War," but it has a much more specific purpose than that, dealing with the political machinations that resulted in the Emancipation Proclamation. More than any other account that I have, biographical or fictional, William Safire constructions a complete portrait of Lincoln. This is a Lincoln who is always thinking and talking, so there is more depth than you find in Sandburg, but also a Lincoln grounded in the historical record of the time, and therefore more grounded than you find in Vidal. In "Freedom" you will find your best appreciation of Abraham Lincoln as the only political figure in the entire country who would have taken the political tack that saved the nation.

I should confess that I am extremely jealous of this book. Years ago I thought of writing a book on the Civil War dealing specifically with the attempt to get McClellan to march on Washington and take over the government as a military dictator. I also thought that it was be fun to have a work of historical fiction that contained photographs of those characters who really existed as well as a bibliography and footnotes. Imagine my surprise when I discovered this was, for all intents and purposes, the book I had in mind, down to the scene where the two non-commissioned officers discover Lee's orders before the battle of Antietam. Did I mention I was extremely jealous?

Safire spent eight years researching and writing this book, which has an Underbook of over 100 pages of sources and commentary. When he takes historical liberties, such as the mutual attraction of Lincoln's secretary John Hay for Kate Chase, ambitious daughter of the Secretary of the Treasury, he takes pains to explain his purposes. Safire masterfully weaves recorded and imagined conversations dealing with the personages and events, the issues and demands of the time. By the end of "Freedom" you look back and see the chess match that has been played out with the endgame being the need for the slightest military victory to allow Lincoln to sign his proclamation, thereby changing the nature of the Civil War and altering the future of the nation. From now on, when you see a painting of Lincoln sitting with his Cabinet and holding that piece of parchment in his hand, you will have a much greater appreciation for how he managed to construct that particular moment in history.

My personal preference was to read each chapter of the Underbook as I completed the corresponding chapter of the novel. Even if you are not interested in the minutiae of history as to where Safire found which particular tidbit, the frequent insights into the author's thinking is a rare treat, both illuminating and interesting.

This is the Abraham Lincoln you don't learn about in high school, the one who leveraged his tenuous power in ways that seem almost unimaginable. Reading this phenomenal book gave me huge appreciation for Lincoln and his capacity to free the slaves in the context of the Civil War. (I also never realized how pathetic his cabinet was!) Whenever I pass by the Lincoln Memorial, I now get a chill thinking about his greatness. Our country came so close to permanent division, and was saved almost singlehandedly by this remarkable man.

William Safire has a wonderful habit of selecting a definitive act in our country's history and weaving a tale which instructs the reader as to how and why our country is so great. The key tools used in Freedom are Abraham Lincoln and The Emancipation Proclamation. Do not expect the definitive work on Lincoln but do expect the definitive work on The Emancipation.

Safire's research is awesome. His detailed chronology depicting the major and minor players and, more importantly, the events leading up to the Proclamation's issuance, is very complete. His patience in developing his points and their interrelationships is truly amazing. This is a complex read but it is also a very easily understood one. This author is gifted with clarity and a writing style which flows easily, naturally.

Today, looking back, it is difficult to understand that The Emancipation Proclamation, a document which is so unerringly correct, could generate as much, if not more fear and intrigue in the North as in the South. And therein lays the crux of this work. This book analyses the impact the Proclamation had, not on the South, but on the North and, more importantly, within the North. Getting this Nation to guarantee freedom to all its citizens was no easy task. It was a complex and difficult birth. Safire's description of the events, the scheming and the intrigues is a journey you will not want to overlook.

I give this book 5 stars for its subject matter and detail, but two stars for the quality of writing, averaging to 4 stars overall.

This book will literally overwhelm you with detail, and to that extent it is a staggering achievement. There is a huge amount of detail here about political, military, and social figures of the Civil War era--more than most readers frankly would ever want to know. Is it accurate? Beats me. Is it interesting? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. For example, Safire creates an unforgettable characterization of Albert Sidney Johnston, the great Confederate general of the Western theater. On the other hand, there is far more detail here about Rose Greenhow, Kate Chase, and others too numerous to mention than I can imagine anyone wanting to know. And I speak as a Civil War buff of sorts.

This is in fact the story of the Civil War from the election of Abraham Lincoln to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. A pivotal time in America's history, and Safire is right to assume that this subject merits close attention. This is a book you can truly immerse yourself in.

Unfortunately, the novel is pretty heavy going as a consequence of the vast amount of detail, and the rapidly and constantly changing characters and points of view. Safire's prose is heavy almost as though he himself is staggering under the weight of the details he presents. Well, that's how it seemed to me anyway.

This is not a book for the casual reader. But there is a lot here, and if you put in the effort (and it can be a pleasent effort) you will be both entertained and educated.

This is a good book about the politics of the Civil War. It begins with first battle of Bull Run and ends with the signing of the emancipation proclamation.

Almost immediately in the war there was conflict between the Lincoln Administration and the Taney Court, over the suspension of habeus corpus. In fact, the first two years of war were beset by political intrigue, cabinet infighting, military setbacks, and the near treasonous behavior of General McClellen.

The book includes many interesting side issues such as the opposition of former Vice President John Cabell Breckinridge to the war and his eventual turn to the confederacy. Time is also spent on the relatively minor characters in the politics of civil war including Anna Ella Caroll, Rose O'neal Greenhow, Kate Chase, John Hay, and Isachar Zacharie, the President's foot doctor. Of course, some of the stories are fictional but they lend the feeling that can be lost in recorded history.

I found the book excellent and was sad to finish it. However, I think it could have been trimmed down somewhat without losing the flavor it gave to this epic period. I recommend this book to anyone interested in getting a good understanding of the attitudes and motivations of the major and minor players in the civil war.

Far be it for me to even attempt to review a book by Mr. Safire but this is truly a classic. At over one thousand pages, it is quite the tome. However, once you start you will not be able to put it down. It took me a number of weeks to read this book; seven or eight years less than it took Safire to write it. His research was extensive and thorough for what must have been truly a labor of love. Beware: he dickers a little with time and characters but the truth is laid out clearly in an underbook.I can only say that anyone who has an interest in Lincoln and his times should read this book.

This is a beautifully written historical novel, one of the best I've ever read, and I've read quite a few.

Whether it's because of the author's skill or simply because the story of Abraham Lincoln is so captivating, is hard to say.

Before picking up Safire's book I thought of Lincoln simplistically as "the good guy who freed the slaves". Now I think of him as one of the greatest ever masters of the art of politics.

We see here that the man who became president in 1861 was quite the nobody. He was a good "stump" speaker from backwoods Illinois, not a terribly high level Republican and something of an eccentric.

His tall hat and long beard, accentuating an already tall frame, was remarkable even in those days and not, as many tend to assume, simply a fashion of the era.

He was known to carry documents in his hat, as if it were a brief case. He was also reputedly prone to bouts of depression.

Anyway, even though Lincoln had some standing he was not the logical choice as Republican nominee for President in the election of 1860.

The really high men in the GOP, people like Salmon P. Chase (founder of the Chase bank and, as Lincoln's Treasury Secretary, inaugurator of the greenback), figured that the Democrats had a lock on the presidency that year.

So they nominated Lincoln, the ambitious bumpkin from Illinois, as a sacrificial lamb.

The only reason Lincoln then won the election was because the Democrat Party - incredibly - split. Effectively, two Democrat candidates instead of one opposed Lincoln for the presidency.

The Republican then won the election with less than 50% of the vote.

After the shock of his victory had sunk in, the north-eastern US establishment (including the New York media) treated Lincoln with disdain. Never mind, they said: he won't last long.

If you think George Bush has problems today, you won't believe what Lincoln had to face.

For starters, he was confronted with the problem of geo-physics. We conveniently label the US Civil War as a battle between North and South, but in 1860 there may not have been a real "North".

Let alone a northern army to defend it.

When Lincoln first traveled by coach across Baltimore to reach the White House he disguised himself as a woman. He was laughed at across the nation when the press reported on this.

Shortly after he arrived in Washington a Stonewall Jackson-led southern force won a battle at the Potomac and would certainly have captured Washington and the incumbent president if they had advanced just a few more kilometres.

Jackson thought the then non-existent "northern army" would be there to protect Washington.

So Lincoln managed to survive and to painstakingly mould a northern coalition and raise an army, often against considerable odds.

Cabinet, Congress, the Europeans, the media, the States, his army generals - all had their own agendas and often dismissed Lincoln as a mere roadbump on the way to power.

Everyone seemed to take him for granted and to plot against him ruthlessly.

Often he would tackle provocateurs with a folksy "well, that reminds me of a story...." address that would drive listeners bananas with circumlocutory drivel before dovetailing mercilessly on a point.

As if the realm of public affairs wasn't enough, we see that Lincoln had immense personal tragedy, as well as not-insignificant health problems.

Yet somehow the country bumpkin from Illinois mastered all.

I was disappointed the novel stopped at the Declaration of Emancipation, and amazed that Lincoln was smart and crafty enough to leave everyone guessing as to his real feelings with respect to slavery.

He was motivated wholly and solely, he said, to protect the Union. Abolition was a tool, he said, only to this end.

But one wonders. Great man, Abraham Lincoln.

Great book, William Safire. One I'll be passing on to my children.

As the central figure in "Freedom", Abraham Lincoln is different things to different people. He's a ruthless tyrant to some, a prevaricating ditherer to others, a military meddler, a bumpkin, and a goader of strife. How this complexity of his time became a monolith to ours is at the core of this long, sprawling, fascinating historical novel.

Based on the historical record of the first two years of the Civil War, with many liberties taken that Safire explains in his 100-page "Afterbook" addendum, 1987's "Freedom" is entirely concerned with the politics of the moment, more so than their later implications. While Lincoln gets most of the attention, long sections are devoted to lesser-known figures of the time, such as the scheming war secretary Edwin Stanton, the stubbornly self-absorbed Union general George McClellan, and the writer Anna Carroll, a free-loving conservative Unionist leery of emancipation.

The word "Freedom" takes on many different shadings as played out over the course of the narrative, especially when set against the figure of Lincoln. Early in the novel, Kentucky senator John Breckinridge calls him a "despot and a hypocrite", calling attention to his willingness to suspend habeas corpus in order to pursue war: "Lincoln talks about freedom, and he rips away our most precious freedoms in the North. He talks about freedom, and he denies nine million of his fellow men in the South the freedom to start their own nation."

Breckinridge follows his conscience and chooses his beliefs over his country. As President, Lincoln enjoys no similar luxury. He must keep the country together, playing off different sides as the war plays out and the legitimacy of his presidency is challenged. Eventually he arrives at the decision to eradicate the right to own slaves, and acts promptly against the recommendations of most of his Cabinet. Does he do so for humanitarian reasons, or more Machiavellian motives? Safire suggests a blend of both.

A great political columnist who worked for one of the most contrarian of American presidents, Richard Nixon, Safire has a pundit's sense for teasing out complex ideas and getting to the core of what matters. At the same time, he has a historian's eye for the different cultural currents in play, including ones that mattered little in the final result.

The book is too long, and several chapters seem orphans to the larger narrative. Most of his best prose is saved for the Afterbook; there are some odd bits of narrative, like one involving Lincoln hitting up financiers for favors and another regarding the adventures of a Jewish chirpodist, where Safire surrenders the cause of advancing his story for a chance at offering some pungent "Afterbook" observations. Also, there's some descriptive repetitiveness, like a New York pol named Weed always being referred to as a "wirepuller".

Safire's engaging insights are often limned with humor, especially when Lincoln tells one of his many rustic stories. "Stanton closed his eyes in pain; another of those interminable, unfunny anecdotes that required the listener to laugh heartily at the conclusion and tell the world of its pertinence and profundity."

There's a few moments in the book that drone on enough for you to share some of Stanton's pain, but overall this is great company for anyone interested in the Civil War or the foundations of American democracy.

Safire has written what can only be described as "history nouveau'.At times soap opera, comedy, and tragedy that was the American Civil War, Safire has his pulse on what was. From the opening pages, to the conclusion the richness of the writing is outstanding. I recommend this book not only for the " weekend historian", but for the High School- College student as a historical primer. Don't be overwhelmed by the size of this Novel, once started it is impossible to put down, as the characters become alive in front of you. These "historical figures" were ordinary people caught up on extraordinary times, the humor is in the fact that when Safire if most serious he is fictitional, when most humorous he is historically accurate. The fun is trying to figure out which is which...