Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years

This book ended up being a conundrum for me. At times I really liked it, at times it drug on and at other times I did not care for it. This large volume is a condensation of a six volume set, which cannot be an esay task and I'm sure it suffered in some details as all condensations must. At times this resulted in certain details just being recited as bullet points on a list which did nothing for me. The language at times does tend to get flowery as you would expect from a poet, but did not juxtapose well with the horrific civil war subject matter, I felt. I was appalled at some of the re-enactments of slaves speaking in Brer Rabbit/Uncle Remus style dialects. I also did not appreciate the obvious bias favoring Lincoln, as if we must show more view every word and action of his in a positive light. Lincoln was a superb leader and a genius; but he was also human and not infallible and not without flaws. Likewise, I did not like the negative bias given to those who opposed Lincoln in any way. I, for one, don't think those who advocated for peace or for total and immediate abolition of slavery should have been cast in a negative light. Some of those portrayals really bothered me, such as with Sumner.

But at the end of the day, this is truly a great and historic work. It is in particular a collection of seemingly endless anecdotes of Lincoln, and ultimately I ended up truly feeling that I got a flavor for Lincoln, the person, through these anectodes he was nearly constantly telling. He had one for every occasion, it seems. Though it was relatively brief in this volume, I most enjoyed the portions covering The Prairie Years of Lincoln. I think I should have enjoyed the volumes devoted to just that subject quite a bit better than this condensation of Prairie Years and War Years. Of course, the War Years were just too depressing but there is much history here with list after list of battles and casualties and who won what, as well as strategy and military personnel turnovers.

The end of the book covers Lincoln's assasination in detail. show less

This book has been on my shelf for years and I've just never gotten around to it. I was not expecting much. I was very surprised. Joyfully surprised. To say this was better than I had hoped would be an understatement. After completing this book I feel like I know the man. It was also very cool to read about a distant relative of mine (Nancy Hanks).

The part leading up to the assassination through his death was incredibly well done. I found myself near tears a half dozen times over the course of the final 40-50 pages.

The sense of fatigue that Lincoln felt during his presidency was astonishing and after completing the book, David Locke's words remain in my mind.

"I saw him, or what was mortal of him in his coffin. The face had an show more expression of absolute content, of relief, at throwing off a burden such as few men have been called upon to bear - a burden which few men could have born... Wilkes Booth did Abraham Lincoln the greatest service man could possibly do for him - he gave him peace." show less

Carl Sandburg's famous biography of Lincoln. It's difficult to know how accurate or comprehensive this biography is; Sandburg wrote it in the 1920's; historical scholarship may not have been what it is today, and Sandburg may have had stars in his eyes when he wrote this too. On the other hand, it is certainly an enthralling read; Sandburg can certainly belt out a bio. And he may have had access to living contemporaries of Lincoln; at any rate, his sources were certainly fresher than they would be now.

Fascinating read from beginning to end