House of Abraham: Lincoln and the Todds, a Family Divided by War [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Stephen Berry (Author), Michael Prichard (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 3, 2007

For all the talk of the Civil War "pitting brother against brother," until now there has never been a single book that traces the story of one family ravaged by that conflict. And no family could better illustrate the personal toll the war took than Lincoln's own. Mary Todd Lincoln was one of fourteen siblings who were split between the Confederacy and the Union. Three of her brothers fought, and two died, for the South. Several Todds-including Mary herself-bedeviled Lincoln's administration with their scandalous behavior. Award-winning historian Stephen Berry tells their family saga with the narrative intricacy and emotional intensity of a novelist. The Todds' struggles haunted the president and moved him to avoid tactics or rhetoric that would dehumanize or scapegoat the Confederates. Drawing on his own familial experience, Lincoln was inspired to articulate a humanistic, even charitable view of the enemy that seems surpassingly wise in our time, let alone his.With brio and rigor, Berry fills a gap in Civil War history, showing how the war changed one family and how that family changed the course of the war. As they debate each other about the issues of the day and comfort each other in the wake of shared tragedy, the Todds become a singular microcosm and a metaphor for the country as a whole.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Historian Berry takes Abraham Lincoln's "house divided" to heart, detailing the president's own family fissions. The Todds, his wife's family, were longtime slaveholders, and their sympathies were split between the Union and the Confederacy during the war. The well-regarded Prichard reads Berry's tale of the Todds with long, significant pauses and a stentorian rigor. A taste of the old South's molasses creeps into Prichard's voice and into the respites he takes in the middle of a sentence, which often linger one beat longer than might be expected. Having recorded more than 450 audiobooks, Prichard knows that little tricks like these keep listeners on their toes, happily waiting for the next word or the next sentence. By stretching time out like taffy, Prichard manages to make it flow faster than it otherwise would. Simultaneous release with the Houghton Mifflin hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 3).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Review

"Stephen Berry's House of Abraham is a couldn't-put-it-down good read." --Allen C. Guelzo, author of Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation

"Reading Stephen Berry's House of Abraham is like putting the nation's Civil War first family on the analyst's couch . . . fascinating." --Mark Wetherington, director of the Filson Historical Society and author of Plain Folk's Fight

"Berry gives us one of the most deeply human portraits of Lincoln ever presented." --Steven M. Stowe, Indiana University, Bloomington

"A riveting account . . . Berry compels us to see this epochal conflict anew. House of Abraham is absolutely first-rate." --Peter A. Coclanis, Albert R. Newsome Professor of History, UNC-Chapel Hill

"Thoroughly researched, smoothly written . . . a poignant microcosm of the wrenching familial strains that tore the nation apart." --Michael Burlingame, author of The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln and Sadowski Professor of History Emeritus, Connecticut College

"Compelling . . . brings to vibrant life Lexington aristocrats never before studied in depth by Lincoln biographers . . . remarkable . . . a riviting account." Kirkus Reviews

"Gripping . . . House of Abraham offers amazing insights into a divided nation . . . [Berry's] eloquent prose makes this a delicious read." --Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History, Yale University

"A fast-paced, sobering story, never better told, of the pains of a clan and their significance for American history." Publishers Weekly, Starred

"This book is a revelation and a real treat for any Civil War fan." --Deirdre Donahue USA Today

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged edition (December 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400135729
• ISBN-13: 978-1400135721
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,635,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Filling in the gaps..., December 14, 2007

By 

Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: House of Abraham: Lincoln and the Todds, A Family Divided by War (Hardcover)

There is no shortage of books that have been written about Abraham Lincoln, but very little has been written about Mary Todd Lincoln's dysfunctional family and Lincoln's relationship with them. House of Abraham: Lincoln and the Todds, a Family Divided by War by Stephen Berry helps to fill in this gap.

Mary Todd Lincoln came from a prominent Lexington, Kentucky family. One of fourteen brothers and sisters, her family was fairly close-knit. Except for the death of her mother and her father's remarriage, Mary had a fairly happy childhood. Lincoln also took to Mary's large extended family and was closer to them in many ways than to his own. It wasn't until the beginning of the Civil War that this large clan showed just how selfish, conniving, materialistic and ill-tempered they could be. Berry claims that they weren't necessarily "a bad family; it made them a typical one" for that time period.

Berry gives as much detail as possible about each sibling, and how they interacted with Lincoln and his wife. The majority of them sided with the Confederates in the Civil War. Brothers Sam and Alexander and brother-in-law Benjamin Hardin Helm were killed in battle. Brother David was a sadistic jailer of Yankee prisoners of war. Brother George was known to loot from Yankee homes around battle sites. Brother-in-law Ninian Edwards was a Union profiteer, and brother-in-law Charles Henry Kellogg committed treason. Even sister Martha was accused of smuggling contraband to the Confederates through Washington, DC. "The Todds were a complicated swirl of affection and obligation, embarrassment and endurance. But they were, for better and often worse, Lincoln's family."

Berry shows great perception in how Lincoln viewed the Todds and how they defined the war for him. "Surveying the damage to his in-laws, Lincoln must have noticed here in one family, his family, was the nation and the war writ small...If the Todds did not help shape his interpretation of the war, they certainly resonated with it."

My one complaint with House of Abraham is that the body of the book is a bit short at 192 pages. In his epilogue, he includes only thumbnail sketches of the fates of Mary's siblings after Lincoln's assassination. However, in his defense, he also claims that after Lincoln's death, the family sort of disappeared from notice. Also, I have been to the Todd house in Lexington. Berry could have included some photos of this restored residence. Otherwise, House of Abraham is an interesting look at the personal battle Lincoln had to wage with his in-laws at the same time he was fighting the Civil War on the national stage.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Family and War, March 10, 2008

By 

James W. Durney (Tampa Bay area) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: House of Abraham: Lincoln and the Todds, A Family Divided by War (Hardcover)

Their have been some good Civil War family biographies lately. The Whalen's book on the Fighting McCook's and this book on the Todd family come to mind. Family biographies can help us understand the human cost of the Civil War as no other histories can. As family members die, we understand the war's causalities in very personal terms gaining an idea of what this costs those involved.

The McCook family had no conflicted loyalties, no question of who to fight for nor any hesitations in committing to a side. They were able to establish a record of service fighting for the Union that was unique. The Todd family had conflicted loyalties, questions on who to fight for and hesitated in committing to a side. A large slave owning family from Kentucky with an in-law in the White House would cause problems for everyone. Lincoln, his wife, her brothers & sisters their spouses created a series of confrontations, personal and political problems that make up this story.

The author introduces the Todd family and the principle people giving us a solid foundation for the story. Lincoln tries to keep as much of the family on the Union side as possible. His efforts delay some members "going South" and produce some real political problems in 1861 for him. Each year of the war is a chapter. This allows us to follow everyone from assignment to assignment or battle to battle. Against this backdrop, Lincoln's personal life and family problems becomes worse and worse. Each newspaper story, each battle death adds to Lincoln's problems and Mary's woes. However, at Springfield as Lincoln is buried, the Todd in-laws stand as family.

The author is easy to read and manages to keep all the story lines together. These are not likable people and he clearly does not like them. This come through in a number of places and may have colored the story. In addition, the author makes misstatements about the battle of Shiloh and the POW exchange. None of his mistakes are major but he is accepting of popular stories as opposed to good scholarship. A nice touch is to take each person from 1865 to his or her death. This is always something I look for in this type of book and feel is really important. The author does an excellent job on each person giving the reader a feel for who they were.

Overall, this is a very readable book. The people are well drawn allowing us to see their world and have some understanding of their choices. In addition, the author shows how the divisions in Lincoln's personal family helped him reach out to the national family as reflected in many of his speeches.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Perspective on Lincoln?, January 27, 2008

By 

Ted Stevens (Springfield, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: House of Abraham: Lincoln and the Todds, A Family Divided by War (Hardcover)

Abraham Lincoln is one of the most-written about men in the English language. As a long-time Lincoln-buff, I don't mind that there are so many books, but I have to admit, I occasionally wonder if we've reached diminishing returns. A lot of Lincoln books are what I'd call "old wine in new bottles."

But House of Abraham really is that rare thing: a truly new and important perspective on Abraham Lincoln. Having read most of what there is on Abraham and Mary, let me just say what I think is new here: First, the author fleshes out the Southern wing of the Todd family for the first time. These are some seriously colorful characters: David Todd was arrested for desecrating corpses in a Richmond jail; Samuel Todd and Alex Todd were Confederate soldiers killed in action; George Todd abused African-American prisoners who had been taken while storming Battery Wagner; Emilie Todd, widow of a Confederate Brigadier, spent a week in the White House, despite the scandal; Margaret Todd smuggled contraband through Union lines, on and on. In all my reading I'd never known any of this.

Second, the author connects these scandals to Mary's growing unpopularity in Washington. Many books have mentioned that Mary lost three half-brothers on the rebel side (the author proves that it was only two), but none have demonstrated so clearly why her family-ties became such a problem.

Finally, while House of Abraham begins as a book about the Todds, it becomes more and more a meditation on family, on the nation as a family, and on Lincoln's evolving understanding of the War. Ultimately, the author convinced me that Lincoln saw the Todds as a microcosm of the nation and that he understood the war as a "mosaic of family crises."

As some of the other reviewers have pointed out, the book isn't very long, but considering it limits itself to saying something actually new about the most-written-about-man-in-America, I don't think that's surprising. Team of Rivals (which I loved) was 900 pages, but not that much of it was new. It was really the framing that was so impressive. In fact, I'd recommend reading Team of Rivals and then House of Abraham in succession. They make a terrific pair.