What Lincoln Believed: The Values and Convictions of America's Greatest President [Paperback]

Michael Lind (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 2006

Countless books have been written about Abraham Lincoln, yet few historians and biographers have taken Lincoln seriously as a thinker or attempted to place him in the context of major intellectual traditions. In this refreshing, brilliantly argued portrait, Michael Lind examines the ideas and beliefs that guided Lincoln as a statesman and shaped the United States in its time of great crisis.In a century in which revolutions against monarchy and dictatorship in Europe and Latin America had failed, Lincoln believed that liberal democracy must be defended for the good of the world. During an age in which many argued that only whites were capable of republican government, Lincoln insisted on the universality of human rights and the potential for democracy everywhere. Yet he also held many of the prejudices of his time; his opposition to slavery was rooted in his allegiance to the ideals of the American Revolution, not support for racial equality. Challenging popular myths and capturing Lincoln’s strengths and flaws, Lind offers fascinating and revelatory insights that deepen our understanding of this great and complicated man.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

People from across the political spectrum are embracing Lincoln in the ongoing debate over our 16th president's political philosophy. Several months after Mario Cuomo's Why Lincoln Matters: Today More Than Ever, political commentator Lind (The Next American Nation) endeavors with some success to disassemble Lincoln as a liberal icon and reclaim him as a hero for American conservatives. Lind argues that a raft of biographies written by left-wingers during FDR's New Deal identified Lincoln with a progressivism he would have found abhorrent. As Lind cogently points out, Lincoln repeatedly identified himself as a Henry Clay Whig. "Henry Clay had helped organize the Whig Party in opposition to Jackson, the hero of New Deal Democrats.... Cut off from his political predecessors, Lincoln was also separated from the Republican presidents who succeeded him, such as William McKinley and Herbert Hoover." Likewise, Lind quite correctly places Lincoln in the conservative Federalist tradition of Hamilton, Jay and Adams: men who worried about the tyranny of the majority and the risk to property inherent in democracy, and therefore sought to maintain democracy by building in limitations. Thus Lincoln as shown here remains the champion of government of the people, by the people and for the people—but with a few major asterisks.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Liberal political writer Lind contributes a provocative viewpoint to the body of Lincoln commentary. Yet Lind's conclusions about the Great Emancipator's politics are not entirely novel: it's not news that Lincoln modeled himself after Henry Clay. Lind parses Lincoln's oeuvre and synthesizes his selections to shape Lincoln not as an original but as a legatee, albeit an exceptionally articulate one, of Clay's constitutional and economic vision of America. Clay's "American System" promoted protectionism, central banking, and subsidized transportation improvements. Lind maintains that dividing Lincoln from the Gilded Age that followed his death, including the imposition of racial segregation, is a misinterpretation of Lincoln's entire career. Lind's Lincoln is a white supremacist. Lind supports his theory by quoting Lincoln on colonizing American blacks abroad and, although he regards Lincoln's opposition to slavery as genuine, minimizes any sentiments indicating Lincoln was favorable toward civil rights for blacks. Ready for inevitable attacks from upholders of an "evolving" Lincoln, Lind presents his critics with evidence they must overcome. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (May 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400030730
• ISBN-13: 978-1400030736
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,443,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening Analysis of Abe's Views on Race, October 2, 2005

By 

Neil Cotiaux (North Canton, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Lincoln Believed: The Values and Convictions of America's Greatest President (Hardcover)

"What Lincoln Believed" is part of a line of recent presidential biographies (Jefferson, Jackson) taking what some readers think is a hypercritical look at some of this country's leading political personalities. It's no exaggeration to say that "What Lincoln Believed" will, for many, be an eye-opener, especially those who haven't focused on our greatest president since high school.

While I had been familiar with some of Lincoln's motivations for the Emancipation Proclamation as well as his Free-Soil views, this remarkable work brought to light numerous other facets of Abe's views on slavery including the relative rights of "free" slaves (his support of the Black Laws) and various details of his support for black colonization in both Africa and the Caribbean.

While some reviewers believe author Lind went out of his way to excoriate Lincoln based on 20th Century views of race, my own belief is that he has very honestly widened the historical record on this shrewd, passionate and courageous man, ultimately paying him the highest tribute by comparing him to the leading figures of his day and explaining how Lincoln was the right man at the right time to preserve the Union and perpetuate the philosophical seeds of democratic republicanism - seeds that could easily have been cast aside as our nation continued to enter the world stage.

"What Lincoln Believed" will make you rethink some of your assumptions about a legendary figure, but you will close the book still knowing that our sixteenth president was the person America needed at its darkest hour.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What Did Lincoln Really Believe? (4.3 *s), February 17, 2006

By 

J. Grattan "Ideas can move the world" (Lawrenceville, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Lincoln Believed: The Values and Convictions of America's Greatest President (Hardcover)

Lincoln is an icon from our political past, but it seems that many groups want to claim him as exemplifying their beliefs: Democrats and Repubs, proponents of economic opportunity, civil rights advocates, etc. The author, by analyzing Lincoln's utterances and actions, demonstrates that none of them are entirely correct or wrong in their claims.

It cannot be forgotten when examining his life, that Lincoln, as any, was a man of his times. He did originate from very humble beginnings, as did many of his era, but he seemed to have an inordinate desire to make something of himself. Lincoln occasionally represented railroad interests in court, but it is quite a stretch to suggest, as the author does, that Lincoln was essentially a well-to-do lawyer for the fat-cats. If anyone can lay claim to advancing beyond log-cabin origins, it would be Lincoln.

Lincoln was first and foremost a Henry Clay Whig and adhered to his program of internal improvements, national banking, and the protection of industry by tariffs. He was not a free-trader as are the current Repubs. Furthermore, he constantly held that labor was more important than capital, hardly an idea held by modern Repubs or the slave-holding Southern oligarchs.

Lincoln had a lifelong reverence for the Declaration of Independence, especially in its advocacy of universal rights of liberty. And that fundamentally impacted his view on slavery, the burning issue of the times, yet Lincoln was essentially a racial segregationist. He was a "Free-Soiler," who advocated for the exclusion of slavery in new territories and states, as well as already freed blacks. Lincoln mostly hoped that freed blacks could form free societies outside of the US. It is only by stages, including attempts to get Southerners to end the insurrection with slavery intact, that Lincoln arrived at the final draft of the 13th Amendment, eliminating slavery in the US. For his times, Lincoln was a liberal voice on the issue of slavery, but he was a practical politician - not an abolitionist.

Lincoln was a staunch Unionist, seeing the gradual solidification of the US state culminate with the ratification of the US Constitution. Any right to leave the Union could only be achieved via constitutional amendment. He regarded the Southern secession as a criminal insurrection. One of the most controversial aspects of Lincoln's presidency was his suspension of writs of habeas corpus in cases where he or his field commanders felt the union's war efforts were being impeded - even via speech. There is no doubt that there was an excess of heavy-handedness in this policy - mindful of many other less than exemplary curtailments of freedom in this country during supposedly times of crisis.

For anyone believing in the purity or idealism of Lincoln's beliefs, this book will let the air out of that notion. On the other hand, the ante-bellum period had become increasingly polarized. For convincing, one need only examine the bloodshed that went on for years in Kansas primarily over the issue of slavery. Lincoln was the moderate compromise candidate among abolitionist Republicans and more conservative ex-Whigs and Democrats. What emerges is that Lincoln was a keen student of the American past. He instinctively knew what was needed and what was possible for his country relative to the times. Perhaps other paths could have been chosen, and the author does speculate on the possibility of other outcomes over the slavery and North/South divide. But finally, the author does hold Lincoln to be deserving as one of the foremost figures from our past in the rise of American democracy, bumpy though it has been.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An unique view of Lincoln, June 26, 2005

By 

John M. Lyons "Baseball Pack Rat" (Downingtown, Pa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What Lincoln Believed: The Values and Convictions of America's Greatest President (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book. The attempt to describe the character of Lincln in the context of his era was excellent, though I thought Lind at times got on his own soap box about race and how we as a country have been dealing with it. He does take Abe apart and bashs "historians" on their descriptions of him - who ever these "historians" are, but he also describes Abe in the global context on government theory - at the end Lind admits we were better off with Abe and with the diffcult situations he faced, the world and democracy couldn't have been in better hands.

This should be a must read for anyone who is studing Abe or political science. It provides an overview of Abe, his era, and the impact his decisions had on the world.

An excellent book - if the writer was able to avoid his soap book - I would have given it 5 stars.