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"LINCOLN" "Lincoln" draws heavily on the personal papers of Abraham Lincoln, long sealed to the public, and makes full use of the voluminous unpublished documents collected by the Lincoln Legal Papers. These sources enabled author David Herbert Donald to trace Lincoln's absolute determination as a young man to make something of himself; his struggle to eke out a living as a storekeeper, postmaster, and surveyor; his years as the leading Illinois Whig legislator; and his notable career as a lawyer.
After one undistinguished term in the United States House of Representatives, Lincoln retired from active politics, but the renewed agitation of the slavery issue in the 1850's brought him back into public life. Morally outraged by efforts to extend slavery into the national territory, he became one of the principal organizers of the Republican Party in Illinois, and in 1858 his brilliant performance in a series of debates with Stephen A. Douglas gave him national recognition.Donald devotes the bulk of his narrative to the story of Lincoln during the Civil War. In effect, sitting behind the President's desk and reading his mail every day, Donald brings to life the drama and the poignancy of Lincoln's presidency as he warmed almost reluctantly to a seemingly impossible task. But Lincoln is more than an account of a public career. It integrates the public and the private man, showing, for instance, how Lincoln's absorption in politics fueled bitter disruptions in his family life and how, in turn, Lincoln's often tumultuous marriage affected his political career. It provides the fullest account of Lincoln's law practice, revealing how his years at the bar affected both his habits of thought and his political career. Donald's Lincoln offers a portrait strikingly different from that presented in other biographies. He depicts a youthful and vigorous Lincoln--one of the youngest men to occupy the White House. Physically exuberant, active, inquiring, flexible, and generally high-spirited, he was the husband of a vivacious young wife and the father of rambunctious children. Even more original is Donald's view that Lincoln was an essentially passive personality--a man who preferred to react to events rather than take a position that might put him far in advance of public opinion. Throughout his career Lincoln was aware how often chance or accident shaped his course, and he willingly admitted contradictions and inconsistencies in his policies. In one of his most memorable letters, he explained to a friend his changing course on emancipation and slavery: "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me." Lincoln summarized that attitude in his motto: "My policy is to have no policy." It was a doctrine that infuriated his critics, who claimed that it showed the President had no principles. But his fatalism also produced some of his most lovable traits: his compassion, his tolerance, and his willingness to overlook mistakes. It also made for a pragmatic approach to problems, a recognition that if one solution was fated not to work, another could be tried.
"A grand work -- the Lincoln biography for this generation."
ABOUT THE BOOK:  Click here for David Herbert Donald's dialogue with David Gergen.
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