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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lincoln's "day job", September 11, 2007
This review is from: Lincoln the Lawyer (Hardcover)
Although Lincoln's contribution to history is his handling of public policy, governance, and war, probably most of his time prior to the White House was devoted to his law practice. This book will reward anyone seeking to know how one of America's greatest minds was occupied in the troubled affairs of one ordinary person after another. The solid account is highly knowledgeable but not at all technical, written for inquiring readers rather than legal professionals. Using assorted cases as examples, the author examines the role of attorneys in what was then the American West, giving the book broader scope than just Lincoln's law practice. This is one of the first studies to exploit a recently collected mass of documents relating to Lincoln's law career.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well researched insight into a part of Lincoln too often ignored, February 20, 2010
This review is from: Lincoln the Lawyer (Hardcover)
Abraham Lincoln is one of the most written about Presidents in American history. Every facet, one would think, has been covered many times over. That said, his 25-year legal career is woefully underrepresented in the biographical literature. Author Brian Dirck examines Lincoln's substantial time as a lawyer and in doing so gives Lincoln scholars substantial insight into the career that was nearly half of his life.
Dirck takes us back in time to a period in history before the American Bar Association, formal legal training, and the emphasis on legal precedent. In Lincoln's time one could become a lawyer by showing some scholarship and convincing the local judge that you were "honest" and "of good moral character." Frontier lawyers (as Illinois at the time was "in the west") were more rustic than their eastern counterparts, and not always as well regarded. But Lincoln was a successful and busy lawyer. Dirck gives us a flavor of Lincoln's love of the circuit, the traveling road show of lawyers and judges that for months on end would move around the various rural districts to deliver justice. The camaraderie between Lincoln and his fellow jurists is well described.
In large part Lincoln's legal career was rather mundane. While there are the occasional high profile cases (e.g., the Almanac trial), the vast majority of his thousands of cases were of the debt collection variety. Petty (at least by our modern standards) cases of promissory notes unpaid, divorces, and breach of contract abounded. While many post-presidency recollections by others of Lincoln's grandiose legal career were common, the reality is that most of his career was unremarkable. He had lots of business and made a comfortable living, but as Dirck remarks, Lincoln was "a middle class lawyer," not some obvious prophetic attorney clearly destined for greatness. In contrast to the dry middle sections where Dirck recounts Lincoln's caseload, the chapter "Storytelling" shows how his career seemed much greater post-mortem than in reality. That chapter and the next "Grease" are exceptionally insightful and interesting.
In Grease, Dirck adds his own perspective to show how Lincoln learned in his legal career to facilitate resolution, i.e., to apply grease to the gears in order to keep things running smoothly. This concept is summed up best perhaps by Lincoln himself in his "Notes for a Law Lecture" in which he states that lawyers should "Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser - in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity for being a good man. There will still be business enough." Dirck goes on to draw parallels between the lessons Lincoln learned during his legal career - compromise, lack of animosity, hard work, facilitating resolution by "greasing" to dissipate friction - and the way in which he managed one of the most difficult and brutal times in our history.
While not a quick or particularly riveting read despite its relative brevity (about 175 pages of text), the insights into Lincoln's thinking gained from this are well worth the time. Dirck has clearly researched this book well, and we are all the more knowledgeable for it.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lincoln and the Practice of Ante-bellum Law, April 13, 2009
I think this book should appeal to several audiences of readers. I am not a Lincolnholic, but there are zillions of folks who are, as demonstrated by the mountains of Lincoln books and articles. They should find this personalized view of Lincoln of interest. For myself, I am interested in the development of American law, and there are relatively few books that involve the pre-Civil War period of legal practice. That is the primary focus of this book and this is a second dimension of its value. Certainly there are a number of books out on Lincoln as a lawyer; this is the first one to be based in part on the Lincoln Legal Papers ("LLP") project which sought to locate and incorporate every piece of documentation relating to Lincoln's law practice. A huge CD-ROM of 5,000 cases resulted, as well as a 4-volume printed edition issued by the University of Virginia Press.
The book begins with an explanation of how Lincoln became a lawyer in the first place and what he hoped to accomplish by so doing--basically, a solid and comfortable middle class existence. So initially we see how the ethos of Jacksonian democracy made it relatively painless (in comparison to what I had to go through) to join the bar. The printed resources that Lincoln learned to rely upon are discussed, as well as how new lawyers in these developing areas formed partnerships and opened offices. The author then moves on to a series of individual chapters on the particular areas of Lincoln's practice. Mostly it was debt collection involving promissory notes. The author effective relates Lincoln's outlook to that of the evolving market economy driven by enterpreneuers and new technology. Lincoln was a big believer in internal improvements, railroads, and minimal restrictions on economic growth. Other practice areas are discussed including probate, criminal law (not too much involvement), partnership dissolutions, and Lincoln as a mediator and arbitrator. How Lincoln conducted himself in and out of court is another theme.
The author wraps up his book with a most interesting discussion, which may upset some Lincoln students but which I found most interesting. How does the real Lincoln the lawyer compare to the often mythological portrayals of Lincoln in the literature? Basically, the author concludes that Lincoln was not a "superlawyer," was not particularly distinguished, but much as President Obama rated his own performance overseas, Lincoln did "ok." He was successful, a good competent lawyer, but that was about it. The author also disputes that there are ties between Lincoln the lawyer and Lincoln the president--some have suggested this in connection with the Emancipation Proclamation. This very useful volume is supported by 34 pages of notes and a solid bibliography. A valuable introduction to Lincoln the man and the lawyer.
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