Customer Reviews

Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Our marked characteristics, accomplishments, disasters, and loves do not exist in a vacuum. They, and we, are inextricably linked. The ancient Chinese knew: may you live in interesting times. A curse. Because those interesting times could tangle up your great efforts, lofty dreams and turn them rancid.
Or you might roar through your twenties on champagne and ever-rising stocks, your id, ego, and super-ego maturing, gaining strength and height to rival le tour eiffel. It would surely take some mean, yea, heartless crash at home and hearth to alter your greatly-lived life.
Our Lincoln, edited by Eric Foner, is collected essays from eleven multi-credentialed scholars of our day, Foner among them, who examine, and so illuminate, Abraham Lincoln in his day. Of his day. His psyche smashed by war. Himself rejected by men. His intellect and talent tearing through the horrors of it all like a wild stallion. His emotions seared and blackened in many a moment.
Were it not for his backwoods nobility and his noble deeds that have made us better than we ever would have been, one would think those interesting times could lead him only to a cold and heartless death.
Foner considers, "He was a man of his time yet able to transcend it, probably as good a definition of greatness as any."
And Our Lincoln is probably as good a read re: Lincoln as one could hope for in these early days of the Obama presidency.

Far above the usual run of edited collections, this work combines first-rate analysis with clear and direct prose. The essays, where they agree and where they do not, offer a kaleidoscopic portrait of the best thinking about Lincoln.

If you think there is nothing new and interesting to be written about Lincoln your wrong. "Our Lincoln" is insightful and fun to read. Each essay has a different perspective.

Our sixteenth president remains unique in his continued ability to inspire study and reflection among a broad group of Americans beyond the class of professional historians. For example, living in the Washington, D.C. area, I am fortunate to have access to the programs of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, a scholarly organization which aptly describes itself as presenting "The Latest in Lincoln Scholarship" to a broad audience. Every year, the Institute hosts a day-long Symposium in which Lincoln scholars share their research and thoughts about Lincoln with an audience consisting of people from all backgrounds, walks of life, and parts of the United States. (Typically, the Seminar also includes a delicious free lunch.) It is a day I look forward to every year.

I was reminded of the Lincoln Symposium and its approach by "Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and his World" (2008) edited by Eric Foner. The book consists of eleven new essays written by distinguished scholars on various aspects of Lincoln's life, achievement, and legacy. Foner is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. He is best-known for his study "Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution", a book which markedly changed Americans's understanding of the difficult Reconstruction Era. The contibutors to the volume include James McPherson, Mark Neely, Sean Wilentz, Harolds Holzer, James Oakes, Eric Foner, Manisha Sinha, Andrew Delbanco, Richard Carwardine, Catherine Clinton, and David Blight.

The essays are divided into four parts, including four essays on Lincoln as President, three essays on Lincoln as Emancipator, three essays on Lincoln the Man, and a conluding essay by David Blight on Lincoln in current politics and public memory. If there is a singly theme connecting the essays it is that of change and growth. Several of the essays show how Lincoln ideas and programs evolved during his life and during his presidency as circumstances changed and he grew wiser.

James McPhersons's essay "A. Lincoln, Commander in Chief" is the only one in the volume with a predominantly military focus. It shows in its brief scope how Lincoln developed as a military leader during the Civil War.
Mark Neely's essay "The Constitution and Civil Liberties under Lincoln" stresses change as well. Neely shows how Lincoln changed from repressive activities towards civil liberties in the early and middle parts of the war to a much more open stance as he moved late in the conflict, against the advice of his generals, to end martial law in Missouri.

The three essays on Lincoln as Emancipator form a valuable triolgy, not least because the authors do not share the same perspectives. James Oakes takes a close look at a complex subject: Lincoln's attitudes towards slavery and towards race, in a careful essay which differentiates various forms of "rights", including natural rights, citizenship rights, states's rights and black rights, and showing how Lincoln's attitides developed towards each. Eric Foner's own essay "Lincoln and Colonization" examines the extent of Lincoln's support for the movement to colonize American blacks in Africa or in Central America. Many Americans remain unfamiliar with this aspect of Lincoln. Lincoln supported the colonization movement, to a greater or lesser degree, at least through the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Manisha Sinha's essay, "Allies for Emancipation"? examines Lincoln's changing attitudes towards emancipation by comparing them with the program of African American abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass. She argues that Lincoln became close to these Abolitionists as the war proceeded.

Additional essays with the broad theme of change include Richard Carwardine's study of Lincoln's changing attitude towards religion from the free-thinking of his youth to the apparent belief in divine providence (but not in any traditional religious denomination or creed) late in his life. Catherine Clinton's essay "Abraham Lincoln: The Family that Made him, the Family he Made" examines Lincoln's early years and his marriage. Both these subjects are enshrouded in controversy. Clinton argues that Lincoln moved from his frontier roots and his awkwardness with women in his early years to enjoy a modern and essentially happy form of companionate marriage with Mary Todd Lincoln.
Of the articles which I haven't mentioned above, Andrew Delblanco's "Lincoln's Sacramental Language" is particularly valuable for its study of the literary quality of Lincoln's speeches and writings.

In general, the essays in this book synthesize and explain recent thinking about Lincoln rather than striking out in new directions. They will be of greatest value to the serious lay reader who wants to reflect on Lincoln's accomplishments and continued importance.

Robin Friedman

New perspectives, as claimed by this book's sub-title, are not to be found to any great extent in this collection of essays.

While not a bad book to purchase for a person who has not read much lately about Mr. Lincoln, I would suggest most readers will be better off buying one or more of the many new full biographies or book-length examinations of parts of this great man's life being published as a result of next year's 200th anniversary of his birth.

In this book I found the essays by Eric Foner and Sean Wilentz the strongest. David Blight's is just a rant against the modern Republican Party. Finally, Catherine Clinton authors one of the poorest examples of writing I have seen lately in any serious book. As an example, here is one sentence from her essay: "Lincoln's penchant for melancholy might have allowed him to sink into gloom, but apparently he reined in his emotions and forged ahead with legal work."

Although darkly troubled after reading Professor Clinton's essay, I reined in my deep gloom and forged ahead until I reached book's end.