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Limits of the Known
by David RobertsA celebrated mountaineer and author searches for meaning in great adventures and explorations, past and present. David Roberts, "veteran mountain climber and chronicler of adventures" (Washington Post), has spent his career documenting voyages to the most extreme landscapes on earth. In Limits of the Known, he reflects on humanity’s—and his own—relationship to extreme risk. Part memoir and part history, this book tries to make sense of why so many have committed their lives to the desperate pursuit of adventure. In the wake of his diagnosis with throat cancer, Roberts seeks answers with sharp new urgency. He explores his own lifelong commitment to adventuring, as well as the cultural contributions of explorers throughout history: What specific forms of courage and commitment did it take for Fridtjof Nansen to survive an eighteen-month journey from a record "farthest north" with no supplies and a single rifle during his polar expedition of 1893–96? What compelled Eric Shipton to return, five times, to the ridges of Mt. Everest, plotting the mountain’s most treacherous territory years before Hillary and Tenzing’s famous ascent? What drove Bill Stone to dive 3,000 feet underground into North America’s deepest cave? What motivates the explorers we most admire, who are willing to embark on perilous journeys and push the limits of the human body? And what is the future of adventure in a world we have mapped and trodden from end to end?
Limonov: The Outrageous Adventures of the Radical Soviet Poet Who Became a Bum in New York, a Sensation in France, and a Political Antihero in Russia
by Emmanuel Carrère“The amazing, improbable life of [the] Ukrainian writer, adventurer and would-be revolutionary . . . Carrère has turned it into an equally spectacular book.” —Michael Dirda, The Washington PostThis is how Emmanuel Carrère, the magnetic journalist, novelist, filmmaker, and chameleon, describes his subject: “Limonov is not a fictional character. There. I know him. He has been a young punk in Ukraine, the idol of the Soviet underground; a bum, then a multimillionaire’s butler in Manhattan; a fashionable writer in Paris; a lost soldier in the Balkans; and now, in the fantastic shambles of postcommunism, the elderly but charismatic leader of a party of young desperadoes. He sees himself as a hero; you might call him a scumbag: I suspend my judgment on the matter. It’s a dangerous life, an ambiguous life: a real adventure novel. It is also, I believe, a life that says something. Not just about him, Limonov, not just about Russia, but about all our history since the end of the Second World War.”So Eduard Limonov isn’t fictional—but he might as well be. This pseudobiography isn’t a novel, but it reads like one: from Limonov’s grim childhood to his desperate, comical, ultimately successful attempts to gain the respect of Russia’s literary intellectual elite; to his immigration to New York, then to Paris; to his return to the motherland. Limonov could be read as a charming picaresque. But it could also be read as a troubling counternarrative of the second half of the twentieth century, one that reveals a violence, an anarchy, a brutality, that the stories we tell ourselves about progress tend to conceal.“A picaresque gonzo biography.” —Rachel Donadio, The New York Times
Limping with God: Jacob & The Old Testament Guide to Messy Discipleship
by Chad BirdJacob seems to be anything but a model disciple. He's a trickster, liar, and selfishly ambitious man who fathers children with four women and leads a dysfunctional family rife with jealousy and backstabbing. But Jacob is also Israel, the namesake of the Old Testament community of God, chosen and blessed. As such, this sinner-saint, who limps along with the Lord, burdened by weakness and beset by problems, is the mirror image of all of us who follow Jesus. In his life we see our lives, our struggles, our failures, and most especially the God who loves us and chooses us as his own. As we explore his bio, from his wrangling in the womb with Esau to his death as an old man in Egypt, we will learn more about ourselves and the God who is with us and for us in Jesus the Messiah.
Lina & Serge: The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev
by Simon MorrisonThis account of the renowned composer&’s neglected wife—including her years in a Soviet prison—is &“a story both riveting and wrenching&” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Serge Prokofiev was one of the twentieth century&’s most brilliant composers yet is an enigma to historians and his fans. Why did he leave the West and move to the Soviet Union despite Stalin&’s crimes? Why did his astonishing creativity in the 1930s soon dissolve into a far less inspiring output in his later years? The answers can finally be revealed, thanks to Simon Morrison&’s unique and unfettered access to the family&’s voluminous papers and his ability to reconstruct the tragic, riveting life of the composer&’s wife, Lina. Morrison&’s portrait of the marriage of Lina and Serge Prokofiev is the story of a remarkable woman who fought for survival in the face of unbearable betrayal and despair and of the irresistibly talented but heartlessly self-absorbed musician she married. Born to a Spanish father and Russian mother in Madrid at the end of the nineteenth century and raised in Brooklyn, Lina fell in love with a rising-star composer—and defied convention to be with him, courting public censure. She devoted her life to Serge and art, training to be an operatic soprano and following her brilliant husband to Stalin&’s Russia. Just as Serge found initial acclaim—before becoming constricted by the harsh doctrine of socialist-realist music—Lina was at first accepted and later scorned, ending her singing career. Serge abandoned her and took up with another woman. Finally, Lina was arrested and shipped off to the gulag in 1948. She would be held in captivity for eight awful years. Meanwhile, Serge found himself the tool of an evil regime to which he was forced to accommodate himself. The contrast between Lina and Serge is one of strength and perseverance versus utter self-absorption, a remarkable human drama that draws on the forces of art, sacrifice, and the struggle against oppression. Readers will never forget the tragic drama of Lina&’s life, and never listen to Serge&’s music in quite the same way again.
Lincoln
by David S. ReynoldsLincoln's Selected Writings includes a rich selection of his public and private letters, speeches, eulogies, proposals, debate transcriptions, addresses (including the First and Second Inaugurals), and more. The texts are accompanied by explanatory annotations, a detailed preface, a note on the texts, and a list of abbreviations. Lincoln's writings are followed by contemporary responses to him in poems, songs, and articles; representations of Lincoln in modern imaginative and nonfiction writing; and selections from recent cross-disciplinary studies of Lincoln--including discussions of his literary techniques and oratorical style as well as examinations of his political evolution in new cultural and social contexts. Among the many contributors are Horace Greeley, Jesse Hutchinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Karl Marx, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Victor Hugo, and Walt Whitman. "Modern Views" presents sixteen major interpretations of Lincoln's life, work, and legacy carefully chosen to promote discussion. The contributors are Carl Sandburg, Allen C. Guelzo, James Oakes, Gillian Silverman, Richard N. Current, Harold Holzer, Sean Wilentz, Eric Foner, Manisha Sinha, Robert A. Ferguson, Gabor Boritt, James McPherson, Stephen Cushman, Faith Barrett, David S. Reynolds, and Richard Carwardine and Jay Sexton. A chronology, selected bibliography, and index are also included.
Lincoln
by Richard CarwardineCarwardine (American history, Oxford U. ) received the Lincoln Award--the first British scholar to do so--for this biography, originally published in 2003 by Pearson/Longman. Half of it addresses Lincoln's (1809-65) career and the roots of his political ambition before he became president of the US. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
Lincoln & Churchill: Statesmen at War
by Lewis E Lehrman&“With penetrating insight, Lehrman unfolds the contrasts and similarities between these two leaders . . . I savored every page of this magnificent work.&”—Doris Kearns Goodwin, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Winner of the Abraham Lincoln Institute of Washington&’s 2019 book prize Lewis E. Lehrman, a renowned historian and National Humanities Medal winner, gives new perspective on two of the greatest English-speaking statesmen—and their remarkable leadership in wars of national survival. Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, as commanders in chief, led their nations to victory—Lincoln in the Civil War, Churchill in World War II. They became revered leaders—statesmen for all time. Yet these two world-famous war leaders have never been seriously compared at book length. Acclaimed historian Lewis Lehrman, in his pathbreaking comparison of both statesmen, finds that Lincoln and Churchill—with very different upbringings and contrasting personalities—led their war efforts, to some extent, in similar ways. As supreme war lords, they were guided not only by principles of honor, duty, and freedom, but also by the practical wisdom to know when, where, and how to apply these principles. Even their writings and speeches were swords in battle. Gifted literary stylists, both men relied on the written and spoken word to steel their citizens throughout desperate and prolonged wars. And both statesmen unexpectedly left office near the end of their wars—Lincoln by the bullet, Churchill by the ballot. They made mistakes, which Lehrman considers carefully. But the author emphasizes that, despite setbacks, they never gave up. &“Deeply researched and elegantly written. . . . a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the past. By expertly conjoining two great leaders in a single volume, he has enhanced our understanding of both.&” ―The Wall Street Journal Includes illustrations and photographs
Lincoln & Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages
by Lucas E. MorelEssays exploring the sixteenth president&’s political philosophy. Generations of Americans have studied Abraham Lincoln&’s life, presidency, and leadership, often remaking him into a figure suited to the needs and interests of their own time. This illuminating volume takes a different approach to his political thought and practice. Here, a distinguished group of contributors argue that Lincoln&’s relevance today is best expressed by rendering an accurate portrait of him in his own era. They seek to understand Lincoln as he understood himself and as he attempted to make his ideas clear to his contemporaries. What emerges is a portrait of a prudent leader who is driven to return the country to its original principles in order to conserve it. The contributors demonstrate that, far from advocating an expansion of government beyond its constitutional limits, Lincoln defended both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In his introduction, Justice Clarence Thomas discusses how Lincoln used the ideological and structural underpinnings of those founding documents to defeat slavery and secure the liberties that the Republic was established to protect. Other chapters reveal how Lincoln upheld the principle of limited government even as he employed unprecedented war powers. Featuring contributions from leading scholars such as Michael Burlingame, Allen C. Guelzo, Fred Kaplan, and Matthew Pinsker, this innovative collection presents fresh perspectives on Lincoln both as a political thinker and a practical politician. Taken together, these essays decisively demonstrate that the most iconic American president still has much to teach the modern-day student of politics.
Lincoln And His Boys
by Rosemary Wells P. J. LynchA warm, moving portrait of Abraham Lincoln told through the eyes of his children and captured in exquisite full-color illustrations. Historians claim him as one of America's most revered presidents. But to his rambunctious sons, Abraham Lincoln was above all a playful and loving father. Here is Lincoln as seen by two of his boys: Willie, thrilled to be on his first train trip when Lincoln was deciding to run for president; Willie and Tad barging into Cabinet meetings to lift Lincoln's spirits in the early days of the Civil War, Tad accompanying him to Richmond just after the South's defeat. With the war raging and the Union under siege, we see history unfolding through Willie's eyes and then through Tad's -- and we see Lincoln rising above his own inborn sadness and personal tragedy through his devotion to his sons. With evocative and engaging illustrations by P. J. Lynch, Rosemary Wells offers a carefully researched biography that gives us a Lincoln not frozen in time but accessible and utterly real. Celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, February 2009.
Lincoln And Mcclellan: The Troubled Partnership Between A President And His General
by John C. WaughThere was no more remarkable pair in the Civil War than Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan. At only 35 years old, McClellan commanded the Ohio troops early in the war, and won skirmishes for the Union in western Virginia. After the disastrous Union defeat at Bull Run in the summer of 1861, Lincoln sent word for McClellan to come to Washington, and soon elevated him to commander-in-chief of the Union army. But in the late summer and fall of 1861, things took a turn for the worst. Meticulous in his planning and preparations, McClellan began to delay attacking the enemy and developed a penchant for vastly overestimating the Confederate forces he faced. All of this hampered his ability to lead an aggressive force in a fast-moving battlefield environment. Finally losing his patience, Lincoln was famously quoted as saying, "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time." Lincoln and McClellan takes an in-depth look at this fascinating relationship, from the early days of the Civil War to the 1864 presidential election when McClellan ran against Lincoln on an anti-war platform and lost. Here, award-winning author John C. Waugh weaves a tale of hubris, paranoia, failure, and triumph, illuminating as never before this unique and complicated alliance.
Lincoln At Home: Two Glimpses of Abraham Lincoln's Family Life
by David Herbert DonaldThis little book offers two glimpses of President Lincoln's life as a family man. The first section describes the Lincolns' life in the White House during the war whilst the second represents a collection of all the known letters exchanged by Abraham and Mary Lincoln and their children. Though most of the vast literature about Abraham Lincoln deals with his public life it is important to remember that Lincoln, during these critical events, also led a private life, defined by his intimate relationship with his wife and by his devotion to their children. Thus, by bringing these letters together, this book seeks to offer a portrait of Mrs. Lincoln unmarred by gossip and Abraham Lincoln as a devoted, if often desperately busy and distracted, family man.
Lincoln Clears a Path: Abraham Lincoln's Agricultural Legacy
by Peggy ThomasThroughout his life, Abraham Lincoln tried to make life easier for others. Then during the darkest days of the Civil War, when everyone needed hope, President Lincoln cleared a path for all Americans to a better future.As a boy, Abraham Lincoln helped his family break through the wilderness and struggle on a frontier farm. When Lincoln was a young man, friends made it easier for him to get a better education and become a lawyer, so as a politician he paved the way for better schools and roads. President Lincoln cleared a path to better farming, improved transportation, accessible education, and most importantly, freedom. Author Peggy Thomas uncovers Abraham Lincoln's passion for agriculture and his country while illustrator Stacy Innerst cleverly provides a clear look as President Lincoln strives for positive change.
Lincoln Funeral Train, The (Images of America)
by Michael LeavyThe effective end of the American Civil War on April 9, 1865, had hardly sunk in when, only five days later, another disaster stunned the battered and bloodied nation. On the night of April 9, Pres. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. There would be time for vengeful thoughts later, but first the Great Emancipator was going to get a royal send-off. At the center of what would become a three-week national funeral was a spectacular train that would carry Lincoln's remains, and those of his deceased son, from Washington, DC, to Springfield, Illinois. "The Lincoln Special" steamed slowly out of spring mists, allowing thousands of mourners lining the tracks a lingering view. It was a logistics miracle; a romantic pageant of sorrow and wonder, carried off flawlessly. Through the tears, however, was a sense that America's identity had turned a corner and was about to enter a dynamic and hopeful future. Author of nine books, Michael Leavy is an avid Civil War and railroad historian. Leavy has searched through archives to locate rare photographs and new details and dispel some lingering myths surrounding this tragic but formative American event.
Lincoln Legends: Myths, Hoaxes, and Confabulations Associated with Our Greatest President
by Edward Steers Jr.&“Succinctly and eloquently debunks 14 popular myths about the Great Emancipator's life and death [with] solid documentation.&” —Publishers Weekly In the more than 150 years since his death, Abraham Lincoln has become America&’s most revered president. The mythmaking about this self-made man began early, some of it starting during his campaign for the presidency in 1860. As an American icon, Lincoln has been the subject of speculation and inquiry as authors and researchers have examined every aspect― personal and professional ―of the president&’s life. In Lincoln Legends, noted historian and Lincoln expert Edward Steers Jr. carefully scrutinizes some of the most notorious tall tales and distorted ideas about America&’s sixteenth president. Did he write his greatest speech on the back of an envelope on the way to Gettysburg? Did he appear before a congressional committee to defend his wife against charges of treason? Was he an illegitimate child? Did he have romantic encounters with women other than his wife—or love affairs with men? What really happened in the weeks leading up to April 14, 1865, and in the aftermath of Lincoln;s tragic assassination? Lincoln Legends evaluates the evidence on all sides of the many heated debates about the Great Emancipator, and also traces the often fascinating evolution of flawed theories about Lincoln and the motivations of the individuals―occasionally sincere but more often cynical, self-serving, and nefarious―who are responsible for their dispersal. Based on extensive primary research, Lincoln Legends will settle many of the enduring questions and persistent myths about Lincoln&’s life once and for all. &“Fascinating reading.&” —Tucson Citizen
Lincoln President-Elect
by Harold HolzerOne of our most eminent Lincoln scholars, winner of a Lincoln Prize for his Lincoln at Cooper Union, examines the four months between Lincoln's election and inauguration, when the president-elect made the most important decision of his coming presidency -- there would be no compromise on slavery or secession of the slaveholding states, even at the cost of civil war. Abraham Lincoln first demonstrated his determination and leadership in the Great Secession Winter -- the four months between his election in November 1860 and his inauguration in March 1861 -- when he rejected compromises urged on him by Republicans and Democrats, Northerners and Southerners, that might have preserved the Union a little longer but would have enshrined slavery for generations. Though Lincoln has been criticized by many historians for failing to appreciate the severity of the secession crisis that greeted his victory, Harold Holzer shows that the presidentelect waged a shrewd and complex campaign to prevent the expansion of slavery while vainly trying to limit secession to a few Deep South states. During this most dangerous White House transition in American history, the country had two presidents: one powerless (the president-elect, possessing no constitutional authority), the other paralyzed (the incumbent who refused to act). Through limited, brilliantly timed and crafted public statements, determined private letters, tough political pressure, and personal persuasion, Lincoln guaranteed the integrity of the American political process of majority rule, sounded the death knell of slavery, and transformed not only his own image but that of the presidency, even while making inevitable the war that would be necessary to make these achievements permanent. Lincoln President-Elect is the first book to concentrate on Lincoln's public stance and private agony during these months and on the momentous consequences when he first demonstrated his determination and leadership. Holzer recasts Lincoln from an isolated prairie politician yet to establish his greatness, to a skillful shaper of men and opinion and an immovable friend of freedom at a decisive moment when allegiance to the founding credo "all men are created equal" might well have been sacrificed.
Lincoln Reconsidered: Essays on the Civil War Era (Vintage Civil War Library)
by David Herbert DonaldA &“brilliant&” look at America&’s sixteenth president by the New York Times–bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lincoln (American Historical Review). First published in 1956 and revised and updated for the twenty-first century, Lincoln Reconsidered is a masterpiece of Civil War scholarship. In a dozen eloquent, witty, and incisive essays, the author of the definitive biography of Abraham Lincoln offers a fresh perspective on topics previously shrouded in myth and hagiography and brings the president&’s tough-mindedness, strategic acumen, and political flexibility into sharp focus. From Lincoln&’s patchwork education to his contradictory interpretations of the Constitution and the legacy of the Founding Fathers, David Herbert Donald reveals the legal mind behind the legend of the Great Emancipator. &“Toward a Reconsideration of the Abolitionists&” sheds new light on the radicalism of the antislavery movement, while &“Herndon and Mary Lincoln&” brilliantly characterizes the complicated relationship between two of the president&’s closest companions. &“Getting Right with Lincoln&” and &“The Folklore Lincoln&” draw on the methods of cultural anthropology to produce a provocative analysis of Lincoln as symbol. No historian has done more to enhance our understanding of Lincoln&’s presidency and the causes and effects of the Civil War than Donald. Lincoln Reconsidered is an entertaining and accessible introduction to his work and a must-read for every student of American history.
Lincoln Revisited: New Insights from the Lincoln Forum
by Harold Holzer Dawn VogelIn February 2009, America celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, and the pace of new Lincoln books and articles has already quickened. From his cabinet’s politics to his own struggles with depression, Lincoln remains the most written-about story in our history. And each year historians find something new and important to say about the greatest of our Presidents.Lincoln Revisited is a masterly guidePub to what’s new and what’s noteworthy in this unfolding story—a brilliant gathering of fresh scholarship by the leading Lincoln historians of our time. Brought together by The Lincoln Forum, they tackle uncharted territory and emerging questions; they also take a new look at established debates—including those about their own landmark works.Here, these well-known historians revisit key chapters in Lincoln’s legacy—from Matthew Pinsker on Lincoln’s private life and Jean Baker on religion and the Lincoln marriage to Geoffrey Perret on Lincoln as leader and Frank J. Williams on Lincoln and civil liberties in wartime.The eighteen original essays explore every corner of Lincoln’s world—religion and politics, slavery and sovereignty, presidential leadership and the rule of law, the Second Inaugural Address and the assassination.In his 1947 classic, Lincoln Reconsidered, David Herbert Donald confronted the Lincoln myth. Today, the scholars in Lincoln Revisited give a new generation of students, scholars, and citizens the perspectives vital for understanding the constantly reinterpreted genius of Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln Road Trip: The Back-Roads Guide to America's Favorite President
by Jane Simon Ammeson“An engagingly written, personable, and intimate portrait of a president that walks in his footsteps and creates a cultural contextual lens through travel.” —Library JournalAmerica’s favorite president sure got around. Before Abraham Lincoln’s sojourned to the Oval Office, he grew up in Kentucky and began his career as a lawyer in Illinois. In fact, Lincoln toured some amazing places throughout the Midwest in his lifetime. In Lincoln Road Trip: The Back-Roads Guide to America’s Favorite President, Jane Simon Ammeson will help you step back into history by visiting the sites where Lincoln lived and visited.This fun and entertaining travel guide includes the stories behind the quintessential Lincoln sites, while also taking you off the beaten path to fascinating and lesser-known historical places. Visit the Log Inn in Warrenton, Indiana (now the oldest restaurant in the state), where Lincoln stayed in 1844 when he was campaigning for Henry Clay. Or visit key places in Lincoln’s life, like the home of merchant Colonel Jones, who allowed a young Abe to read all his books, or Ward’s Academy, where Mary Todd Lincoln attended school.Along with both famous and overlooked places with Lincoln connections, Ammeson profiles nearby attractions to round out your trip, like Holiday World, a family-owned amusement park that goes well with a trip to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial and Lincoln State Park. Featuring new and exciting Lincoln tales from Springfield, Illinois; Beardstown, Kentucky; Booneville, Indiana; Alton, Illinois; and many more, Lincoln Road Trip is a fun adventure through America’s heartland that will bring Lincoln’s incredible story to life.
Lincoln Steffans
by Justin KaplanThe acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winning biographer of Mark Twain and Walt Whitman brings alive the life and world of Lincoln Steffens, the original Muckraker and father of American investigative journalism. Early 20th century America was a nation in the throes of becoming a great industrial power, a land dominated by big business and beset by social struggle and political corruption. It was the era of Sinclair Lewis, Emma Goldman, William Randolph Hearst, and John Reed. It was a time of union busting, anarchism, and Tammany Hall. Lincoln Steffens—eternally curious, a worldwide celebrity, and a man of magnetic charm—was a towering figure at the center of this world. He was friends with everyone from Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson to Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce. As an editor at McClure’s magazine—along with Ida Tarbell he was one of the original muckrakers—he published articles that exposed the political and social corruption of the time. His book, Shame of the Cities, took on the corruption of local politics and his coverage of bad business practices on Wall Street helped lead to the creation of the Federal Reserve. Lincoln Steffens was truly a man of his season, and his life reflects his times: impetuous, vital, creative, striving. In telling the story of this outsized American figure, Justin Kaplan also tells the riveting tale of turn-of-the-century America.
Lincoln Steffens Speaking
by Lincoln SteffensAlong with Ida Tarbell, Steffens attacked the corruption then rampant in municipal government. He was known for his strong, passionate leftist views. On August 9, 1936, right after proofing this book, Steffens died of food poisoning at age 70
Lincoln Tells a Joke
by Kathleen KrullPoor Abraham Lincoln! His life was hardly fun at all. A country torn in two by war, citizens who didn’t like him as president, a homely appearance-what could there possibly be to laugh about? And yet he did laugh. Lincoln wasn’t just one of our greatest presidents. He was a comic storyteller and a person who could lighten a grim situation with a clever quip. This unusual biography of Lincoln highlights his life and presidency, focusing on what made his sense of humor so distinctive-and so necessary to surviving his tough life and times.
Lincoln Unbound: How an Ambitious Young Railsplitter Saved the American Dream---And How We Can Do It Again
by Rich LowryIn this thoughtful mix of history and politics, the New York Times bestselling author and editor of National Review—the conservative bible founded by William F. Buckley, Jr.—traces Abraham Lincoln's ambitious climb from provincial upstart to political powerhouse and calls for a renewal of the Lincoln ethic of relentless striving.Revered today across the political spectrum, Abraham Lincoln believed in a small but active government in a nation defined by aspiration. Fired by an indomitable ambition from a young age, the man who would be immortalized as the "railsplitter" never wanted to earn his living with an ax. He educated himself in a frontier environment characterized by mind-numbing labor and then turned his back on that world. All his life, he preached a gospel of work and discipline toward the all-important ends of self-improvement and individual advancement. As a Whig and then a Republican, he worked to smash the rural backwardness in which he was raised and the Southern plantation economy that depended on human bondage.Both were unacceptably stultifying of human potential. In short, Lincoln lived the American Dream and succeeded in opening a way to it for others. He saw in the nation's founding documents the unchanging foundation of an endlessly dynamic society. He embraced the market and the amazing transportation and communications revolutions beginning to take hold. He helped give birth to the modern industrial economy that arose before the Civil War and that took off after it.His vision of an upwardly mobile society that rewards and supports individual striving was wondrously realized. Now it is under threat. Economic stagnation and social breakdown are undermining mobility and the American way. To meet these challenges, Rich Lowry draws us back to the lessons of Lincoln. It is imperative, he argues, to preserve a fluid economy and the bourgeois virtues that make it possible for individuals to thrive within it.
Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe
by Thomas DilorenzoWhat if you were told that the revered leader Abraham Lincoln was actually a political tyrant who stifled his opponents by suppressing their civil rights? What if you learned that the man so affectionately referred to as the "Great Emancipator" supported white supremacy and pledged not to interfere with slavery in the South? Would you suddenly start to question everything you thought you knew about Lincoln and his presidency? You should. Thomas J. DiLorenzo, who ignited a fierce debate about Lincoln's legacy with his book The Real Lincoln, now presents a litany of stunning new revelations that explode the most enduring (and pernicious) myths about our sixteenth president. Marshaling an astonishing amount of new evidence, Lincoln Unmasked offers an alarming portrait of a political manipulator and opportunist who bears little resemblance to the heroic, stoic, and principled figure of mainstream history. Did you know that Lincoln . . . * did NOT save the union? In fact, Lincoln did more than any other individual to destroy the voluntary union the Founding Fathers recognized. * did NOT want to free the slaves? Lincoln, who did not believe in equality of the races, wanted the Constitution to make slavery "irrevocable." * was NOT a champion of the Constitution? Contrary to his high-minded rhetoric, Lincoln repeatedly trampled on the Constitution--and even issued an arrest warrant for the chief justice of the United States! * was NOT a great statesman? Lincoln was actually a warmonger who manipulated his own people into a civil war.* did NOT utter many of his most admired quotations? DiLorenzo exposes a legion of statements that have been falsely attributed to Lincoln for generations--usually to enhance his image. In addition to detailing Lincoln's offenses against the principles of freedom, equality, and states' rights, Lincoln Unmasked exposes the vast network of academics, historians, politicians, and other "gatekeepers" who have sanitized his true beliefs and willfully distorted his legacy. DiLorenzo reveals how the deification of Lincoln reflects a not-so-hidden agenda to expand the size and scope of the American state far beyond what the Founding Fathers envisioned--an expansion that Lincoln himself began. The hagiographers have shaped Lincoln's image to the point that it has become more fiction than fact. With Lincoln Unmasked, DiLorenzo shows us an Abraham Lincoln without the rhetoric, lies, and political bias that have clouded a disastrous president's enduring damage to the nation.
Lincoln and California: The President, the War, and the Golden State
by Brian McGintyThe ties that bound Abraham Lincoln to California, and California to Lincoln, have long been overlooked by historians. Although the great Civil War president has been the subject of thousands of books, his important relationship with the Western state, both before and during the war—the part it played in bringing on the great conflict and the help it gave him in winning it—have been little described and imperfectly understood. In Lincoln and California Brian McGinty explains the relationship between the president and the Golden State, describing important events that took place in California and elsewhere during Lincoln’s lifetime. He includes the histories of Lincoln’s close friends and personal acquaintances who made history as they went to California, lived there, and helped to keep it part of the imperiled Union. McGinty demonstrates that California was in large part responsible for beginning the Civil War, as the principal purpose of its conquest in the Mexican War was to acquire land into which the Southern states could extend their cotton-growing and slaveholding empire. <p><p>The decision of California’s first voters to exclude slavery from the state but to enact virulently racist legislation encouraged Southerners’ hope that, if they established a separate republic, it would become an independent slave nation with the power to extend its territory to the Pacific coast of North America and into the Caribbean and Latin America. Lincoln’s opposition to their plans unleashed the Civil War. <p><p>As the struggle played out, however, the hopes of the proslavery Confederates were ultimately defeated because California played a vital role in helping Lincoln save the Union. Lincoln and California shines new light on an important state, a pivotal president, and a turning point in American history.
Lincoln and Davis: Imagining America, 1809-1865
by Brian R. DirckAbraham Lincoln: the Great Emancipator, savior of the Union, and revered national hero. Jefferson Davis: defender of slavery, leader of a lost cause, and forlorn object of scorn. Both Lincoln and Davis remain locked in the American psyche as iconic symbols of victory and defeat. They presided over a terrible war that decided the fate of slavery and severely tested each man's resolve and potential for greatness. But, as Brian Dirck shows, such images tend to obscure the larger visions that compelled both men to pursue policies and actions that resulted in such a devastating national tragedy. Going well beyond most conventional accounts, Dirck examines Lincoln's and Davis's respective ideas concerning national identity, highlighting the strengths and shortcomings of each leader's worldview. By focusing on issues that have often been overlooked in previous studies of Lincoln and Davis-and of the war in general-he reveals the ways in which these two leaders viewed that imagined community called the American nation. The first comprehensive and detailed study to compare the two men's national imaginations, Dirck's study provides a provocative analysis of how their everyday lives-the influence of fathers and friends, jobs and homes-worked in complex ways to shape Lincoln's and Davis's perceptions of what the American nation was supposed to be and could become and how those images could reject or accommodate the institution of slavery. Dirck contends that Lincoln subscribed to the notion of a "nation of strangers" in which people never really knew one another's hearts, reflecting his wariness of sentimental attachment, while Davis held to a "community of sentiment" based on honor and comradeship that depended a great deal on emotional bonding. As Dirck shows, these two ideals are very much a part of the current national conversation-among citizens, scholars, and politicians—that has brought Davis back into the fold of great Americans while challenging many of the clichés that surround the Lincoln myth. Ultimately, Dirck argues, the imagined communities of these two remarkable men transcend the experience of war to illuminate the ongoing debates over what it means to be an American. Through this engaging and original work, he urges a restoration of balance to our understanding—not only of Lincoln and Davis, but also of the contributions made by North and South alike to those debates.