Abraham Lincoln
A Life
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Johns Hopkins University Press
Published:7th Apr '09
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Lincoln scholars have waited anxiously for this book for decades. Its triumphant publication proves it was well worth the wait. Few scholars have written with greater insight about the psychology of Lincoln. No one in recent history has uncovered more fresh sources than Michael Burlingame. This profound and masterful portrait will be read and studied for years to come. -- Doris Kearns Goodwin The remarkable breadth of Burlingame's research has resulted in a book unlike anything else written about Lincoln. It will be a major contribution to the field. -- Gerald J. Prokopowicz, East Carolina University Burlingame has developed a familiarity with the details of Lincoln's life that is truly authoritative, even definitive, and he has genuinely earned his reputation for knowing more about Lincoln than just about anyone who has ever studied him. -- Kenneth J. Winkle, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A biography of Abraham Lincoln. It covers Lincoln's early childhood, his experiences as a farm boy in Indiana and Illinois, his legal training, and the political ambition that led to a term in Congress in the 1840s. It examines Lincoln's life during his presidency and the Civil War.In the first multi-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln to be published in decades, Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame offers a fresh look at the life of one of America's greatest presidents. Incorporating the field notes of earlier biographers, along with decades of research in multiple manuscript archives and long-neglected newspapers, this remarkable work will both alter and reinforce current understanding of America's sixteenth president. Volume 1 covers Lincoln's early childhood, his experiences as a farm boy in Indiana and Illinois, his legal training, and the political ambition that led to a term in Congress in the 1840s. In volume 2, Burlingame examines Lincoln's life during his presidency and the Civil War, narrating in fascinating detail the crisis over Fort Sumter and Lincoln's own battles with relentless office seekers, hostile newspaper editors, and incompetent field commanders. Burlingame also offers new interpretations of Lincoln's private life, discussing his marriage to Mary Todd and the untimely deaths of two sons to disease. But through it all-his difficult childhood, his contentious political career, a fratricidal war, and tragic personal losses-Lincoln preserved a keen sense of humor and acquired a psychological maturity that proved to be the North's most valuable asset in winning the Civil War. Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, this landmark publication establishes Burlingame as the most assiduous Lincoln biographer of recent memory and brings Lincoln alive to modern readers as never before.
This book supplants [Carl] Sandburg and supersedes all other biographies. Future Lincoln books cannot be written without it, and from no other book can a general reader learn so much about Abraham Lincoln. It is the essential title for the bicentennial. -- James L. Swanson Publishers Weekly 2008 A complete view of Lincoln's life... thorough. -- Diane Cole U.S. News & World Report 2008 A monumental boxed effort that weighs in at 10 pounds... The result is a picture of Lincoln from all sides, in a style that is relentless but not daunting. Bloomberg News 2008 A magisterial enterprise. -- William Safire New York Times 2009 If you aspire to Ultimate Lincoln Knowledge this is a must-read. Chicago Tribune 2009 These monumental volumes deserve a wide readership. St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2009 Burlingame is a towering figure in Lincoln scholarship, and students of the 16th president have been waiting for this book for years. For all his learning-Burlingame may know more about Lincoln and his era than anyone in the world-his take on his subject is fresh, and he doesn't gloss over Lincoln's less appealing attributes. Abraham Lincoln comes as close to being the definitive biography as anything the world has seen in decades. Time.com An exhaustive and stylishly written biography. -- Greg Rienzi Gazette 2009 A stunning feat of research. -- Michael F. Bishop Publishers Weekly 2009 The two-volume set is being heralded as the ultimate new biography of Lincoln, an essential work to be used by all future biographers of the 16th president. -- Anne Byle Grand Rapids Press 2009 The granddaddy of all the recent books [on Lincoln] is Michael Burlingame's Abraham Lincoln: A Life... monumental in size, depth and scholarship, this is the new standard biography of our time and surpasses all other life portraits of our 16th president, and is the most important book of the bicentennial. -- James L. Swanson Washington Times 2009 No review could do complete justice to the magnificent two-volume biography that has been so well-wrought by Michael Burlingame. -- Christopher Hitchens Atlantic Monthly 2009 The bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth has generated a plethora of Lincoln-related items, but none impresses more than this two-volume biography... Essential. Choice 2009 The author knows more about Lincoln than any other living person. New York Review of Books 2009 Most thorough account of the development of Lincoln as a man and politician against the backdrop of America's struggle to mature as an idea and a nation... Not a Lincoln for our times, but the Lincoln of his times, and future biographers would do well to take note(s). Books and Culture: A Christian Review 2009 This magisterial work tells a rich, thoroughly documented, birth-to-death story of America's greatest president. Its bulk is formidable, but it holds countless rewards for undaunted readers. -- Jane Henderson St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2009 Burlingame very likely knows more about Lincoln than anyone who's ever lived, including Mary Todd, and his biography, 20 years in the writing, has a revelation on every page, dug out during the biographer's tireless research into musty libraries and forgotten attics that no one has ever thought to look in before. If there is anything knowable that you want to know about Lincoln, this is the place to find it. -- Andrew Ferguson American Spectator 2010
- Winner of One of the 5 Best Books of 2009 2009 (United States)
- Winner of One of the 10 Top Lincoln Books 2009 (United States)
- Winner of PROSE Awards: U.S. History 2008 (United States)
- Winner of Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize 2010 (United States)
ISBN: 9780801889936
Dimensions: 254mm x 178mm x 109mm
Weight: 4128g
2032 pages