A. Lincoln: A Biography [DECKLE EDGE] (Hardcover)

~ Ronald C. White Jr. (Author)
Key Phrases: free negroes, superior opportunity, undistinguished families, White House, New York, Abraham Lincoln (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this excellent biography, veteran historian White emphasizes that Lincoln was our most likable major president, lacking Washington's aloofness and the deviousness of FDR and Jefferson. Many young men from the frontier overcame the handicaps of poverty and minimal education, but, White says, Lincoln did better than most, becoming floor leader in the Illinois legislature by age 30 and a prosperous lawyer. Contrary to the common view that Lincoln was a dark-horse for the 1860 presidential nomination after a single, undistinguished term in the House of Representatives, White stresses that Lincoln was an experienced politician, popular throughout Illinois, and known to national leaders. Few Republicans thought they had chosen badly. The author makes good use of Lincoln's voluminous private papers and those of his contemporaries to paint a vivid picture of Lincoln's thoughts as he matured and then guided the nation through the four worst years of its existence. White knows his subject cold and writes lucid prose, so readers choosing this as their Lincoln bicentennial reading will not go wrong. Illus., maps, photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by David W. Blight The famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass once declared: "It is impossible for . . . anybody . . . to say anything new about Abraham Lincoln." And that was in 1893! More than 100 years later, as we contemplate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth on Feb. 12, an avalanche of new books about the 16th president descends upon an eager reading audience. Why? Ronald C. White Jr., an astute scholar of Lincoln's religion and language, has an apt answer: Lincoln continues to fascinate us "because he eludes simple definitions and final judgments." In A. Lincoln -- the title is taken from the way Lincoln signed his name -- White does not portray a genius who seemed to figure out all things before other mortals. Rather, this is a Lincoln of self-doubt, an evolving personality and an emerging and curious mind. This is a Lincoln of growth from backwoods ignorance to Enlightenment thinker, from prejudice and caution to boldness and imagination. This is a Lincoln, White writes, on a "journey of self-discovery" to the very end of his life. As Douglass poignantly said, Lincoln "began by playing Pharaoh [but] ended by playing Moses." Now that is a story. White, a visiting professor at UCLA, has written two previous books on Lincoln's rhetoric. The signature feature of this full biography is White's treatment of Lincoln as reader, writer and orator, a terrain where new insights are still available. Abraham Lincoln loved books, an old trope in the Lincoln myth, but it is so very true. Among my favorite images in this work is that of Lincoln, the young congressman in 1847 in Washington, D.C. He did not drink, chew tobacco or gamble away hours at his boarding house across the street from the Capitol. Instead, he was observed walking out of the Library of Congress, carrying books wrapped in a scarf tied on a pole over his shoulder. His colleagues accused him of incessantly "mousing" around in the stacks. And this is White's core argument: Lincoln didn't just enjoy books, he craved them -- from Blackstone's Commentaries to Shakespeare, from many kinds of history to regular reading of the Bible (often aloud), political philosophy and the poetry of Robert Burns. The boy who first started reading in Sinking Creek, Ky., when he was 5 and then yearned to escape his father's Indiana farm as a teenager later said that in his youth "there was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education." White makes this "interior world of intellectual curiosity" the central theme of Lincoln's life. Given all the discussion of the legacy of the outgoing George W. Bush (not a curious reader) and the ambitions of the incoming Barack Obama (a well-read man), White's observation that it was in reading that Lincoln could "clarify" his evolving "ethical identity" is worth our contemplation. The book's other signature is White's treatment of Lincoln's use of private notes, often mere "scraps of paper" on which he constantly tried out ideas and phrasing, especially when preparing for a major speech. In these accumulated notes (sometimes whole pages of prose), White concludes, Lincoln kept his own kind of "journal." And these musings were never so important as when he wrote orations such as his "House Divided" or "Cooper Union" speeches, or the transcendent Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural (which White beautifully illuminates). White sees the origins of many famous speeches in earlier jottings, a window into how Lincoln "thinks his way into a problem." Moreover, White stresses the importance of Lincoln's public letters while president. A master ironist, Lincoln embodied paradox and ambiguity as a politician, and he was both fascinated with and knew the importance of public opinion. He also, usually, managed to sustain a moral clarity in the face of withering criticism and pressure. From a letter to Horace Greeley about "saving the Union" in 1862, to his letters to Erastus Corning about habeas corpus and to James Conkling about the emancipation policy in 1863, his missives were read by millions when published in major newspapers. In these unprecedented public letters, Lincoln made his case to the nation and even to the Confederacy, often through subtlety and lasting metaphors. White provides the full story down to the assassination. He examines Lincoln's private life, including his early insecurities with women, his troubled marriage to Mary Todd and the devastating deaths of their two young sons. Mary makes many appearances but is too often described as "pretty" and "perky." The presidency and the war, on the other hand, emerge with order and clarity. The detail sometimes is numbing (hotel room numbers, addresses, names of generals' horses) and sometimes exhilarating, as in the thorough coverage of Lincoln's debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858 or the dramatic balloting at the 1860 Republican convention that nominated Lincoln. White writes engaging narrative, occasionally at the expense of analysis. Sometimes, he simply lets Lincoln's words speak for themselves and sidesteps explanation. Why did Lincoln idolize Henry Clay or support colonization of blacks to foreign lands for so long? Why did he not fire Maj. Gen. George McClellan sooner, after McClellan's many battlefield failures? We are never told. White takes note of Lincoln's problem with "sadness" but does not take up historian Joshua Wolf Shenk's call to look deeper into the president's depression. And White movingly describes the final drafting of the Emancipation Proclamation, but he falls flat when discussing Lincoln's meeting with five black leaders in August 1862, at which he told them that the races must remain "separate," that they should emigrate from the United States and that their presence in the country had caused the war. How daunting it must be for any biographer to take on Lincoln's life in this crowded literary marketplace! But this thoroughly researched book belongs on the A-list of major biographies of the tall Illinoisan; it's a worthy companion for all who admire Lincoln's prose and his ability to see into, and explain, America's greatest crisis.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 816 pages
• Publisher: Random House; Book Club Edition edition (January 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400064996
• ISBN-13: 978-1400064991
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,577 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly researched, extremely well-written Lincoln biography, January 18, 2009

By	Cory Geurts (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What a refreshing read and pleasant experience this book is. Mr. White has the ability to convey so much information in an intelligent yet clear and easy-to-understand style. White takes the time to explain words or concepts that otherwise would send most readers to the dictionary. He couples this friendly presentation with all of the complexity and coverage of any other well-written presidential biography.

The author obviously possesses a wide-ranging and thorough knowledge of President Lincoln, his times and his presidency. As a biographical text about Abraham Lincoln, White's "A. Lincoln" provides great detail without sacrificing the larger picture.

Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" is an excellent book about the history of and inner-workings of Lincoln and his cabinet - and I highly recommend her book. But White's "A. Lincoln" simply blows "Team of Rivals" out of the water in terms of being a well-focused yet richly detailed historical biography.

Here are a few things I didn't see mentioned in the editorial reviews praising this book: White liberally shares photographs, maps, illustrations, documents, even signatures of key characters. Unlike many history/biography books, these are not confined to a few glossy pages in the middle of the book, but appear frequently throughout the text, and really help give depth to the places, events, people, and times. This book includes an extensive notes section, the most thorough bibliography I've ever seen in a single-volume biography, and a 28-page index.

If you visit this book on randomhouse.com, you can find a link to Mr. White's personal web site. On his website, I found Mr. White's Speaking Dates calendar, which includes a visit here (Portland, Oregon) next week at the Oregon Historical Society. I will be there and I am looking forward to meeting and hearing from Mr. White.

37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Preeminent Lincoln Biography, February 2, 2009

By	Johnny "Uncle Johnny" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

`A. Lincoln' by Ronald C. White Jr.

In this extremely well researched and superbly readable biography, Ronald White brings our 16th US President to life with clarity rarely seen among contemporary biographers. Beginning with a breakdown of the subjects family tree - a family tree, I may add, with branches that remained a mystery to Lincoln during his lifetime - through his congressional, senatorial and finally a remarkable presidential campaign. `Father Abraham' comes to life with vivid imagery of his time spent logically analyzing matters, which in retrospect, were monumental in our nations history. Lincoln's compassion, integrity and honesty shine through clearly in his relationships with cabinet members, old friends such as Joshua Speed and luminaries like Frederick Douglass. Mr. White does a splendid job demonstrating the near dazzling likeability this president possessed; rarely, if ever, did a political friend or foe find Lincoln anything but gracious, kind and magnanimous in most trying of times.

The second half of this book deals with Lincoln's presidency and devotes significant time to his prosecution of the Civil War. Family life takes somewhat of a backseat in the latter 250 or so pages as this time is spent with Lincoln formulating policy and self-educating on military strategy. However, family tragedies are examined and the effect these events had on the Lincoln family are discussed and analyzed.

`A. Lincoln' is an absolutely spellbinding read that I found near impossible to put down. It is as entertaining as it is educational, as comprehensive as it is compelling. Definitely pick it up and enjoy each and every page. Wonderful!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short List A. Lincoln a Must Read!, February 16, 2009

By	Sacramento Book Review "SacramentoBookReview.com" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

Lincoln the President continues to fascinate people, and 2009 being the bicentennial of his birth, will just increase the number of books and TV shows about him, his life and his presidency. The trick will be picking and choosing which book to read, and which to skip. For avid readers of Lincolnia, it will be finding books with new information, insights and conclusions. "A. Lincoln: A Biography" should be on the short-list for anyone interested in spending some quality time, (and, at 800 pages, a commitment of a long weekend), reading the latest, and probably best new biography in the last decade or so. White has used the recently completed Lincoln Legal Papers, along with newly discovered letters and photographs, to give a comprehensive overview of a country lawyer who made connections throughout his career that eventually made him a pivotal player in the newly reformed Republican Party (and almost made him the Vice-Presidential in 1856.)

Lincoln often wrote down ideas and thoughts on scraps of paper and filed them in his top hat, or in the bottom drawer of his desk. The surviving notes work almost as a journal (an argument that White makes) and give another view into Lincoln's thoughts, apart from the public speeches and private letters. White also delves into Lincoln's family, particularly Lincoln's complex relationship with his father, and his step-mother Sarah Bush Lincoln, who encouraged him to continue his education however he could. The book is broken up into the years leading up to the Presidency, and Lincoln's time in office. There are a number of pictures, maps and editorial cartoon reprinted among the pages, and not in a series of plates, that adds to the layout and narrative. White's writing style is approachable and easy to read, particularly helpful when the book itself is as long as this one. While there will be other Lincoln biographies released this year, "A. Lincoln" is likely to be a standard for the next several years.