JON GRAND, one of The Book Stall’s resident history experts, weighs in on Lincoln.
As we approach the 200th anniversary of his birth, our interest in Abraham Lincoln remains unabated. Yet despite the fact that he is perhaps the most studied of our Presidents, he is still in many ways a mystery. The number and range of new books on Lincoln reflect continued fascination with this enigmatic giant.
Perhaps the most revealing and important of the newer works is Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (hardcover/paper, $34.95/$21). Goodwin traces how Lincoln used his political acumen, his powers of persuasion, and the certainty of his vision to meld a group of talented individuals, who often had no love for each other or him, into a formidable team of advisors.
Two new books, Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James McPherson ($35) and Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan ($27.95) answer questions about Lincoln's persona. McPherson focuses on Lincoln's development as commander in chief, his growing confidence in his own decisions, and redefinition of the presidential role that resulted. Kaplan traces the maturation of Lincoln's ideas and his skill as a writer through letters, speeches, and notes. It is, thus, a somewhat more intimate biography.
If we are fascinated with Lincoln's public life, his private life has the elements of soap opera. The excess shopping of Mary Todd, her screaming rages, the death of their sons, not to mention Lincoln’s own brooding visions of his own death—these serve less to titillate us than to draw us to his humanity. In The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, author Daniel Mark Epstein (new in paperback, $16) traces a relationship that although turbulent and difficult, was nonetheless based on love.
Finally, I suggest The Last Lincolns: The Rise and Fall of a Great American Family by Charles Lachman ($24.95). This is an interesting look at the descendants of Abraham Lincoln until the line dies out and brings a closure to a Lincoln history that I had not read before.
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