Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World [Hardcover]

Eric Foner (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2008

Our best historians offer fresh insights on Abraham Lincoln and his time to mark the upcoming bicentennial of Lincoln's birth.

In 1876 the abolitionist Frederick Douglass observed, "No man can say anything that is new of Abraham Lincoln." Undeterred, the contributors to Our Lincoln believe it is possible even now, especially if the starting point is the interaction between the life and the times. Several of these original essays focus on Lincoln's leadership as president and commander in chief. James M. McPherson examines Lincoln's deft navigation of the crosscurrents of politics and wartime strategy. Sean Wilentz assesses Lincoln's evolving position in the context of party politics. On slavery and race, Eric Foner writes of Lincoln and the movement to colonize emancipated slaves outside the United States. James Oakes considers Lincoln's views on race and citizenship. There are also brilliant essays on Lincoln's literary style, religious beliefs, and family life. The Lincoln who emerges is a man of his time, yet able to transcend and transform it—a reasonable measure of greatness. 10 illustrations

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

As the bicentennial birthday of Abraham Lincoln approaches, there will undoubtedly be an increase in the normal (that is, high) publication rate of new Lincoln titles. This anniversary entry assembles some of America’s most eminent historians, whom editor Foner, author of the standard Reconstruction (1988), assigned to write on topics that have concerned Lincoln scholars in recent years. James McPherson sums up Lincoln as commander in chief (and expands in Tried by War, reviewed in this issue); every other historian tackles a nonmilitary topic. Three authors (including Foner on black colonization) address Lincoln and racial prejudice, and Mark Neely looks at Lincoln and habeas corpus, which are two active arenas of scholarship. In a popular-interest vein are interesting articles by Harold Holzer on famous photos of Lincoln, which Holzer argues were sittings intended to assist sculptors and painters; by Catherine Clinton (biography-in-progress of Mary Lincoln) on Abe’s family life; and by Race and Reunion (2001) author David Blight on the political uses of Lincoln in the present. The 12 essays offer insightful variety to Civil War readers. --Gilbert Taylor

Review

Each portrait is a reminder that Lincoln’s warm glow in history was a raging fire of controversy during his lifetime. (Dallas Morning News ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (October 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393067564
• ISBN-13: 978-0393067569
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #634,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "New" perspectives?, October 20, 2008

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Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World (Hardcover)

As we approach the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, I suppose we can expect the already busy Lincoln book industry to go into hyperdrive. That necessarily means that a lot of stuff will get recycled and called "new." For the most part, this is what's happened with Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World. There's very little that's new in these essays, although nearly all of them are well worth reading insofar as they offer convenient overviews of well-established theses.

Mark Neely, for example, who won a Pulitzer for his booklength treatment of Lincoln's troubled relationship with civil liberties, returns to the topic here. James Oakes, editor James Foner, and Manisha Sinha take a look at Lincoln and race. All three essays are good--particularly Oakes'--but none of them break new ground. Harold Holzer offers up yet another essay on visual images of Lincoln. James McPherson offers an essay culled from his newly-published (and quite good) book on Lincoln as commander in chief. Catherine Clinton and Richard Carwardine re-examine, respectively and rather conventionally, Lincoln's family relations and religion.

Again, these essays are all solidly researched, well-written, and interesting. But they hardly offer new perspectgives. Three essays in the collection, however, are especially noteworthy. Sean Wilentz really does, I think, break some new ground in his exploration of the influence of Jacksonian democracy on Lincoln the politician (a startling and therefore fascinating thesis). Andrew Delbanco's essay on Lincoln's rhetorical style--his "sacramental language" as Delbanco calls it--is also a genuine contribution. The third noteworthy essay in the collection is memorable for its odd out-of-placeness: David Blight's rather bizarre piece that begins, rightfully, by warning readers against Lincoln triumphalism (as represented, Blight thinks, by historians such as Guelzo) as well as Lincoln bashing (of the DiLorenzo variety), but then explodes in an angry anti-Bush W. polemic (with which I'm totally sympathetic, by the way, but find inappropriate here).

Three and a half stars. Stay tuned for scores more of "new perspectives" on Lincoln as we enter into the 200th year of his birth.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Coterie of Essays, December 7, 2008

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Anthony L. Zacchino (Hamilton NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World (Hardcover)

This newest publication from the eminent Eric Foner is an early gift to avid readers of the Civil War and Lincoln. A Many of us know, we are fast approaching the bicentennial of Lincolns birth. As such this is but one of dozens of new volumes expected to arrive. Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer estimates at least 40 new works on Lincoln between November of 2008-Feb of 2009 will be published, yet this one will not get lost amongst the crowd.

Foner's volume "Our Lincoln; New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World," does in fact offer new information. McPherson starts the volume off with a chapter dealing with Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief. While this is also the topic of McPherson's newest book, Tried by War, the topic of Lincoln as the Commander of both political and military America has been long over looked.

Mark Neely, in the subsequent chapter, returns to an old debate which Neely has dominated for years- Civil Liberties. Neely does not necessarily conclude anything startling new; however he does bring to light two obscure letters which directly lead to Civil War policy and help demonstrate Lincoln's sincerity for emancipation.

James Oakes has included a beautiful essay on Lincoln and Race. This is one of three essays on the subject of 'Lincoln as Emancipator'. Oakes' essay is perhaps the most original within the entire collection. Well-conceived and stunningly convincing, Oakes demonstrates that for Lincoln, race was typically a State issue. In fact, as Oakes proves, nearly every non-egalitarian statement Lincoln made concerning jurors, education, suffrage where all State Right issues in the middle of the 19th Century. The stunning conclusions this leads us to helps exemplify why Oakes is quickly becoming one of the fore-most Civil War historians.

Foner contributed an excellent essay on Lincoln and Colonization. This topic, often overshadowed by scholars is now, and in my view rightly, returning to its prominence. Again this topic, nor this 'perspective' is all that 'new;' yet it does bring an old issue to new light. Foner concludes that Lincoln was sincere in his belief in Colonization, probably up until his death, however he also grew to embraced uncompensated emancipation at the same time.

Two of the more original essays come from Andrew Delbanco and Sean Wilentz. Wilentz writes about Lincoln's relationship to Andrew Jackson and the Jacksonian world. Undeniably more work in this area is still needed. Delbanco discusses Lincoln's role in shaping literature but far more importantly, reflects on if Lincoln's voice is still heard as his contemporaries heard him.

In 1876, Frederick Douglass spoke, "No man can say anything that is new of Abraham Lincoln." The statement remains as untrue today as it was when Douglass spoke it. Foner, McPherson, Oakes and a score of other prominent historians disagree with Douglass; yet, perhaps a more appropriate title would be "Our Lincoln; Perspectives on Lincoln and His World."

This book is an excellent source for Licolnian scholars as well as novices to Lincoln and the Civil War.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great depth, April 12, 2009

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Lamplighter "Ray out west" (Worcester County, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World (Hardcover)

This book digs deeper into several important aspects of Lincoln's life than any one history I have read, and the extensive notes can take me into years of study in the sources referenced. Very broad and deep at once. A good starting point for anyone interested in Lincoln, in this bicentennial or any year.