Richard Carwardine, Lincoln

Lincoln

Richard Carwardine

Knopf, Jan 2006, $27.50

ISBN: 1400044561

Though there is a powerful glance at Lincoln's Illinois legislative days, this is an incredible insightful look at Lincoln during the election of 1860 and his subsequent years in the White House. The deep discerning background into the various splinter groups competing in 1860 is fully laid out so that the reader understands how divided the nation truly was; not just a simple north-south split over slavery. The relatively new Republican Party for instance became the host of an open tent philosophy with many varying opinions. Interestingly, Lincoln was a strong advocate of moralistic (much of that religious in nature) constitutional conservatism, which cut across the vast spectrum of key groups that made up his political party. Also intriguing is the evolution of Lincoln on the slavery issue. Richard Carwardine provides an excellent biography of the White House years of a man considered by most historians as the best or second best president of the United States, while leaving a lingering feeling today that we are all Americans who get ahead through merit and are not specific state citizens. This is biography at its best.