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Lincoln

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It all began with a visit to the Lincoln Memorial. There the man sat, with his oversized arms and legs, his face inscrutable, having both a firm grip on the ground and towering above the earth, reaching heaven. Emotions were overwhelming, and in my confusion I was reminded all at once of a scene from a Greek tragedy, of Oedipus having met his fate as prophesized by the Delphi Oracle, or of the Pythia who delivered that sentence. The proximity of the Washington Monument also evoked the distant civilization of Egypt, with its symbolic constructions that are a powerful testimony to the transience of human endeavors. There he was, the American Sphinx, seating near the obelisk, surrounded by lapidary inscriptions, who seemed to greet every visitor with a riddle echoing on the temple's walls: "whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."

Having had my curiosity aroused, I turned to biographies of Lincoln in order to understand the man behind the myth, so as to begin to answer the riddle of America's endurance. Richard J. Carwardine's book is by far the best biography I stumbled across. He analyzes Lincoln within his unique historical and political context, arguing that Lincoln was as much a product of his era as he was a producer of historical events.

The distinctive mark of this essay is to uncover and explain the sources of Lincoln's power. In mid-nineteenth-century America, the world's first mass participatory democracy, political success derived from the effective interplay of three elements: Lincoln's personal ambition, his sensitivity to public opinion and ability to shape it, and his skill in using the organizing machinery of the political party and other networks of communication. Carwardine argues that Lincoln was not squeamish about utilizing the power of his political office and the circumstances of war to press the limits of the constitution, as in the suspension of habeas corpus. However, he also asserts, although somewhat indirectly, that Lincoln's moral center guided his political actions and, at least by the war's end, religion played a significant role in Lincoln's conduct of the war.

Another original feature of this study is to focus on Lincoln's inner religion and his relationship with Protestant evangelicalism. This is a particularly touchy subject, since Lincoln left no diary or private journal and was rather secretive on this issue. As did his opinion on slavery, his religious beliefs evolved, particularly in the course of his presidency which took a tremendous toll on him. But as a friend testified, "the sense of right and wrong was extremely acute in his nature," and much of his political force came from his ability to shape the debates of the day in moral terms. Another constant was Lincoln's fatalism and his belief in the operations of providence. In the end, he came to see emancipation as mandated by God and necessary to abate the terrible punishment represented by the war.

Lincoln's religious credentials and role as liberator of an enslaved people cast him as a latter-day Moses. His death transformed him into a Christ-like martyr, slain on Good Friday, sanctifying America into what he prophesied in the Gettysburg address as "a new birth of freedom."

This clearly written book is by a true expert in the politics and history of the antebellum and Civil War eras. Carwardine, Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford University, presents a balanced, thoughtful, well-informed treatment of Lincoln as a political leader, expertly placing him in the full context of his times. Carwardine is especially wise on the subject of Lincoln's religious beliefs and their influence on his words and conduct as president. This book is an outstanding work of history and interpretation, based on the best primary and secondary sources.

Abraham Lincoln's life and career continue to fascinate and inspire Americans. Richard Carwardine's recent study: "Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power" joins a select number of outstanding works on Lincoln written by a non-American scholar. Richard Carwardine is the Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford University. His book, fittingly, was awarded the Lincoln prize, the first work of a British writer to be so honored.

Professor Carwardine's study tells little of Lincoln's private life: his marriage, prior relationships with women, his personal interests, his depression, his sexual orientation, and other issues that have been explored in some recent works. He seems to presuppose a knowledge in his readers of the rudimentary facts of Lincoln's life. (A duel in which Lincoln participated as a young man is mentioned twice in passing but never developed.) Instead, Professor Carwadine explores Lincoln's public career, before and during his presidency, and tries to develop the traits of character and the circumstances that made Lincoln what he was.

Thus, Professor Carwardine devotes a great deal of attention to Lincoln's overwhelming ambition -- noted by virtually every writer on this subject -- and his desire to make something of his life through work and effort. Professor Carwardine also emphasizes Lincoln's shrewdness, knowledge of human nature, ability to present himself, and facility at working with and blending together disparate groups and ideas. These pragmatic, practical abilities would prove essential to the tasks Lincoln was called upon to perform as president.

Professor Carwardine emphasizes as well another, more thoughtful side of Lincoln. His book describes Lincoln's role as a leader who endeavored to shape and mold public opinion rather than to be led by it. Professor Carwarding describes the fundamental role that moral conviction played in Lincoln's political career -- in his lifelong belief in the evil of slavery and in his devotion to the cause of democracy and the union. The book describes well the development of Lincoln's religious convictions as he assumed the burdens of his presidency. From his origins as a skeptic and freethinker, Lincoln developed a sense of a just and providential God directing the course of human events for reasons of His own. Lincoln's theology dovetailed at some point with America's evangelical Protestantism, even though Lincoln never became a traditional believer or practicing Christian. Lincoln's religious sense and moral fervor, for Professor Carwardine, became essential to the leadership he provided during the Civil War, as evidenced by the Emacipation Proclamation and the Second Inaugural Address, among much else.

Professor Carwardine offers an insightful portrayal of American life during Civil War times, particularly in middle-America as he discusses Lincoln's rise to power in Illinois and the 1858 debates with Stephen Douglas. He shows how Lincoln evolved during his years as president and how both his moral vision and his sense for the politically practicable were essential to holding the Union together and creating a sense of American nationalism.

As does much modern history and biography, Professor Carwardine is at pains to separate Lincoln, the hero and the cultural icon, from Lincoln the man, and from the facts of his life. But in spite of these efforts and of Professor Carwardine's own understated conclusions, this book presents the reader with a remarkable man and a remarkable life. Professor Carwardine concludes: "While he was certainly not reluctant to wield political authority, his practical policy grew from a strong sense of moral purpose, and his course as president was shaped not by impouslive, self-aggrandizing action or self-righteousness, but by deep thought, breadth of vision, careful concern for consequences, and a remarkable lack of pride." (p.321)

Robin Friedman

I concur with other reviewers who praise this book for its organization, clarity, and insight. It departs from the usual chronological order followed by most biographies to concentrate on the development of Lincoln's character, party connections, and administrative abilities. At different times Lincoln is described as "shrewd," "cunning," "inefficient," "firm," "diligent," "energetic," and hard-working.

I also concur with Christian Schlect's review that Professor Carwardine's conclusion seems to conflict with his text. Carwardine sums up: "Lincoln is best understood not as the extraordinary figure of the iconographers, but as a man of his times, politically wise but capable of misjudgments, too, and powerful largely because he was representative" (p. 319), as if only iconographers could consider Lincoln extraordinary. One need only look at President Buchanan before Lincoln and President Johnson after him to see that the times also called up some very mediocre figures.

Carwardine's conclusion comes as a surprise, but the surprise is softened by an afterword that explains his desire to convey a "neutral" view. His book is praised by many of the best Lincoln scholars alive, and they are right: with the exception of his page about exceptionality, his book is exceptionally good.

As a warning, this book isn't a standard biography. Reading it as an introduction to Lincoln would be simply disappointing. Instead, Carwardine has written a tightly focused essay on the president in the context of moral authority and power. The story centers around the development of Lincoln's moral thought, his growth as a politician, and how Lincoln's ideas and actions played out against the grand conflagration of slavery.

This is why Lincoln's earlier political career makes up a relatively large portion of the book, as it was then that Lincoln clearly distinguished his political positions. At this time what distinguished Lincoln politically was his refusal to allow any compromise with slavery's expansion into new states: he refuted the idea that slavery could coexist with the idea of a nation based on individual liberty. Where others (such as Stephen Douglas) were trying to negotiate compromise, Lincoln staked out a position that slavery allowed no in-between with freedom; the country must "become wholly one thing or the other."

Carwardine is particularly excellent on 19th century politics, describing in detail how political parties operated at that time, how the political public was formed and how electioneering was so different from today. He is also very good at describing the political maneuvering that resulted in Lincoln's election to the presidency - showing it not as a surprise win by a dark horse but instead as a deliberately plotted, calculated event.

Where this book might frustrate some is the narrowness of its focus - for instance as it lacks much discussion about of the military events of the Civil War, the book seems strangely detached from it. There is a brilliant chapter on the moral authority of the Union Army itself, but beyond this and the more usual descriptions of Lincoln's arguments with his generals, the war seems an oddly distant event.

Richard Carwardine's previous works dealt with Evangelical Christians in America, and he brings his knowledge of this movement into nearly every chapter of this study of Abraham Lincoln. The first three chapters of the book deal with Lincoln's pre-Presidential years: his ambitions, his ability to interpret public opinion, and his involvement with the nascent Republican Party. I take issue with the section on the religious roots of Lincoln's moral power. From the outset of his political career he aspired to the moral high ground opposing the expansion of slavery in the new territories. Although his knowledge of the Bible stemmed from his formative years, and he used passages frequently in speeches and conversations, he confessed he had been a religious skeptic. He only progressed toward serious Christian inquiry during the soul-wrenching years of the Civil War, and never shook his skepticism. It seems that if there's any relation, it's that his moral power served as a gateway to faith, and not vice versa.

An instance of Lincoln's ability to curry the favor of various religious factions occurred during the formation of the Illinois Republican party. He was able to position himself strategically among the delicate issues of the day (abolition, temperance, immigration) to gain the support of abolitionist, nativist Protestants without disturbing the constitutionally conservative and foreign-born elements of the young and fragile party. Carwardine illustrates this point well.

I did not like the way the Civil War years were covered. One chapter discussed how the objective of the war evolved from preserving the Union to instituting emancipation. The next chapter then backtracked and discussed the presidential powers exercised by Lincoln from the beginning of the war, which seemed disjointed. And Carwardine's continuous harping of Evangelical involvement detracted from the story of one of the greatest leaders in American history. On the reasons leading to emancipation, he devotes as many pages to the necessity of the war as he does to Lincoln's growing faith. During his discussion of presidential powers, he devotes much of the chapter to the church groups that stayed true to the Union cause. I was looking for more of a biography about Lincoln, the way he interacted with his family, his party, his cabinet, and his army.

Professor Cardwardine gives his take on the most written about man in U.S. history. The professor focuses on political power--how it was formed in America the mid-part of the 19th century, how Lincoln acquired it, to what uses this power was directed. A good book.

I do find it odd that in summing up, the professor says he sees Lincoln as mainly exceptional only in that he was in a very difficult job in extraordinary times. A man who had no money by birth, only a few years of formal education, who becomes president, steers his country through its greatest crisis, and writes the Second Inaugural Address--this man is not exceptional?

A helpful section pointing interested readers to other books on Lincoln's era and a useful glossary of terms close this volume.

There is no shortage of biographies and other studies on Abraham Lincoln, America's Sixteenth President, often ranked as America's greatest president. Richard Carwardine's book is not, as he states, a personal biography of Lincoln, but rather analyzes the forces both internal and external that shaped Lincoln into the leader he became and how he used those forces. Carwardine's book is a well conceived and very well written book on a truly remarkable man.

The author looks at Lincoln's personal ambitions, his understanding of public opinion and the usefulness of party organization as some venues for understanding how Lincoln rose to the highest office in the land. We see Lincoln through the main points in his career from practicing law to becoming a state legislator, Congressman, and first Republican President in 1860, then reelected in 1864. We learn of Lincoln personal traits as well as the development of his political ideology.

The author gives due attention to the times Lincoln played a part in as well, which is necessary in helping the reader understand the nature of American society in a politically divisive time, especially over the economic, political and social aspects of slavery. The issues brought forward with the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the popular sovereignty idea espoused by Stephen Douglas, and other highly charged political issues are discussed. But the real focus comes to center on Lincoln's attitudes and beliefs on these issues and his own grappling with the issue of slavery. Lincoln could gauge public opinion very keenly and was cautious to avoid being too 'out of the mainstream'. In short, Lincoln played the part of a very intelligent politician, but as Carwardine makes clear, he was genuine in the beliefs he reached.

The formation of the Republican Party helped provide Lincoln with the organizational and structural support to advance his political ambitions, through party meetings and public speaking, Lincoln's name became more well known to the populace. Lincoln, ever the wise politician, worked hard to cultivate a broad base of support among former Whigs, Union Democrats, radical Republicans and the likes, not only during his campaign for president, but during his presidency. As the author also discusses, Lincoln appealed to evangelical Protestants through his belief in the necessity of Union and the principles espoused by Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

Lincoln used the powers of the Presidency to preserve the Union and declare freedom for slaves, though in actuality that would happen gradually. His concern for maintaining the integrity of the Constitution did not prevent him from taking controversial measures on occasion, which as history has proven time and again, isn't unusual in times of war. Lincoln made enemies, but he also was viewed as a father figure to many who found comfort in his purposefulness during trying times. His leadership, without a doubt, helped steer the Union to victory. His death at the hands of an assassin, as the author states, perhaps even enhanced Lincoln's status in the memories of Americans as one of its greatest leaders..

Carwardine's book offers many insightful glimpses into the man and how he gained and wielded power. Perhaps most original, at least to me, was the discussions of Lincoln's own religious views as well as the relationships he effectively cultivated with evangelical Protestants; sometimes it was hard to see where politics and religion separated. Lincoln was an exceptional man, though not perfect. It seems to be hard to find much fault with the man besides some of his political decisions. This book is a wonderful addition to the already profuse scholarship available on Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln was born dirt poor on a farm near Hodgenville, Ky in 1809. He died with a bullet in his head on April 15, 1865 in a boarding house in Washington DC where he had been taken following Booth's fatal shot. Lincoln had been attending Ford's Theatre for a performance onf
"Our American Cousin." As Richard Carwardine shows in his Lincoln Prize winning biography Mr. Lincoln is our our peerless American hero whose marytdom and mythic life have made him an iconic figure of democratic freedom throughout the world.
Carwardine's book is not a traditional biography in which author follows the outward events of a figure's life. Instead, the author looks with Sherlock Holmes microscopic inquiry at the moral development of the great man. He shows that Lincoln felt slavery was wrong; issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 and defended the Constitution and Union throughout our most destructive war. Lincoln was kind, compassionate and moral. He gave up his plan for gradual compensated emancipation for slaves and plans to send African-American colonists abroad to live free of the taint of blatant racism and slavery. Carwardine opines that Lincoln grew stronger in his advocacy for full citizenship for African Americans as he made of the Civil War a moral crusade for freedom. Lincoln, says Carwardine, received support from Protestant evangelicals, the new Republican party and friendly editors in the press. (Lincoln was also reviled by Democrats and unfriendly newspaper editors). He was a strong president who would suspend habeas corpus and go to the limit of presidential power to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and preserve the United States.
This is the best book on Lincoln by an Englishman since the early twentieth century biography by Lord Charnwood. The book deals with Lincoln's moral development and evinces his sharp political skills. Lincoln, like the great politician he was, knew how to read the mind of the public in his effort to win rights for African-Americans and keep the quarreling north together and patriotic in winning the Civil War.
I found the book to be similar to the fine two volume work on Lincoln recently published by William Miller. Similar in that they focus on the mind of Lincoln and the major themes running throughout his career. Those two major themes were Union and the abolition of chattel slavery. Carwardine writes in a scholarly but comprehensible style. His book is worthy of your time and effort in perusing its wise pages. One longs for a man or woman of Lincoln's stature in today's world!

If one were to approach Richard Carwardine's "Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power" and expect an exhaustive review of Lincoln's life then it would be easy to be critical of Carwardine's treatment of the life of Abraham Lincoln. Carwardine's focus is quite narrow and the biographical details of his personal life are, at best, sparse. Instead, Carwardine elucidates Lincoln's political life and his apparent spiritual growth over the course of his political life. The reader in search of a full picture of Lincoln would actually be better served to read Carwardine's book in conjunction with David Herbert Donald's fine biography Lincoln.

Lincoln presided over the most tumultuous time in the history of the United States and Lincoln's presidency witnessed (and contributed) to the greatest Constitutional crisis in the history of the United States. In order to confront the tumult, Lincoln assembled a gifted cabinet made up of rivals. Carwardine expertly depicts the rivalries as well as the achievements of this extraordinary cabinet. If one is looking for a fuller treatment of Lincoln's cabinet, one should read Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Carwardine also take great pains to portray Lincoln's great respect for the rule of law and precedent. For Lincoln, it was not as simple as emancipating the slaves. While the ideals of liberty and equality were enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the sanctity of property rights were enshrined in the Constitution, most notably the Due Process clause in the Fifth Amendment. Whether rightly or wrongly, slaves were considered "property" and to emancipate the slaves would be to deprive the salveholder of property "without due process." Carwardine shows Lincoln struggling with legal justifications (e.g. military necessity) for emancipation and means of emancipation (e.g. compensated emancipation). The only way to rightfully square the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution would be to enshrine the ideal of liberty and equality in the Constitution and, thus, the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery was passed.

Carwardine also spends some time on Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Many find it ironic that the "Great Emancipator" was also responsible for the suspension of habeas corpus and the detention of thousands of people without trial. For a fuller treatment of Lincoln suspension of habeas corpus (as well as the exegencies of war) check out William Rehnquist's All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime.

I would also be remiss not to direct you to the Amazon review of Etienne ROLLAND-PIEGUE.

Dick Hill's narration begins quite flat and in using vocal inflections to denote the words of Lincoln, Hill had a tendency to make Lincoln sound like "crazy uncle Jethro." However, Hill's narration picks up steam in Chapter 2 and by the end you can see why he has been named a "Golden Voice" by Audiofile Magazine.