Review by Choice Review
The most heralded American biography in a decade, Donald's Lincoln has been lauded as the definitive single-volume treatment of Lincoln's life and clearly belongs on the shelves of every academic and public library in the US. Although a literary masterpiece, Donald's study is unlikely to replace Benjamin P. Thomas's classic Abraham Lincoln (1951). This is because Donald relies essentially on primary sources, eschewing an impressive body of secondary scholarship and avoiding commentary thereon. His analyses of Lincoln's conflicted youth, struggles with depression, and troubled marital life could have been strengthened by taking into account Michael Burlingame's The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln (CH, Mar'95), and his judgmental treatment of Lincoln on wartime civil liberties might have been informed by Mark E. Neely Jr.'s The Fate of Liberty (CH, Jul'91). A more serious flaw is Donald's portrayal of Lincoln's personality as extremely passive, a premise belied by Donald's own accounts of Lincoln's odyssey from obscurity to the White House, his aggrandizement of wartime executive powers, and his aggressive management of military strategy. What Donald (emeritus, Harvard) has given readers is not the definitive biography of our greatest president, but rather a compelling, provocative interpretation to be weighed carefully by scholars pondering the definitive Lincoln opus. All levels. R. A. Fischer; University of MinnesotaDSDuluth
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
The man who became our greatest president seems, from our vantage point, to have been an obvious choice for the job. But as esteemed Lincoln scholar Donald indicates in this magisterial yet intimate new biography, when people first began discussing the idea of Lincoln for president in 1860, the prairie lawyer had few of the usual qualifications for the office. There was no inevitability about his progress from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington, D.C., a path Donald nonetheless follows in luxuriant detail. Writing as complete and as believable a psychological portrait as possible from this distance, the author tells of a man who started with few advantages but spent his whole life learning and growing. Ironically, Lincoln was by nature a reactor, not an instigator; he believed his existence was controlled by a higher authority. From the deprivations of his frontier childhood, Lincoln "carried away from his brief schooling the self-confidence of a man who has never met his intellectual equal." Lincoln took considerable time, though, finding the niche whereby he could support himself; the legal field eventually drew him, and drew out his talents, as did his interest in politics. How he eventually became the leading Republican in Illinois, then president, and then successful commander-in-chief is a wondrous story, and it is brilliantly interpreted here. (Reviewed August 1995)0684808463Brad Hooper
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Donald, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished scholar of the Civil War era (Charles Sumner), offers here a provocative reinterpretation of Abraham Lincoln's career and character. Donald presents Lincoln's nature as essentially passive. Throughout his life, according to Donald, Lincoln believed his destiny was controlled by some larger force or ``higher power.'' This conviction generated both an underlying fatalism and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving. If one approachor one generalfailed, another could be tried. Although the information available to Lincoln was often significantly limited by modern standards, bold plans based on a priori reasoning were foreign to his thought process. Instead, it was Lincoln's ability to respond to events and actions that brought the U.S. through its greatest crisis and established the matrix for successful, if imperfect, reunification. BOMC split main selection; History Book Club main selection. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, most recently for Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe (LJ 12/86), Donald proves himself the superb biographer of Lincoln, though two recent biographies, Michael Burlingame's The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln (LJ 4/1/94) and Merrill Peterson's Lincoln in American Memory (LJ 10/1/94), are both important studies. Donald's profile of the 16th president focuses entirely on Lincoln, seldom straying from the subject. It looks primarily at what Lincoln "knew, when he knew it, and why he made his decisions." Donald's Lincoln emerges as ambitious, often defeated, tormented by his married life, but with a remarkable capacity for growthand the nation's greatest president. What really stands out in a lively narrative are Lincoln's abilities to hold together a nation of vastly diverse regional interests during the turmoil and tragedy of the Civil War. Donald's biography will appeal to all readers and will undoubtedly corral its share of book awards. Highly recommended for all libraries.Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In a significant contribution to Lincoln scholarship, distinguished historian and Pulitzer Prize--winning biographer Donald (Harvard; Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe, 1987, etc.) draws a richly detailed, absorbing portrait of our 16th president. The Lincoln that Donald gives us is an inexperienced, ill-prepared, and essentially passive man who nonetheless quickly grew into greatness as president during the nation's worst crisis. Lincoln, Donald argues, was by temperament and philosophy fatalistic and reactive, with a lifelong belief in the Doctrine of Necessity (human destiny controlled by a higher power) that finds expression in his assertion that ""the Almighty has His own purposes."" Nonetheless, Lincoln was from childhood insatiably ambitious. Donald deftly traces Lincoln's rise from his hardscrabble frontier beginnings through his growth into an important local legislator and lawyer. Although Lincoln, a conservative Whig and devotee of Henry Clay, was for many years as unsuccessful as a politician as he was wealthy and prominent as an attorney, Lincoln's brilliant debating performance in his 1858 Senate race against Stephen A. Douglas catapulted him to national renown in the infant Republican party. Donald devotes most of his account to the story of Lincoln as war president--his at first inept, and gradually more skillful, stewardship of the armies, diplomacy, and other national affairs during the Civil War--through his assassination. Donald makes his case for his subject's passivity. However, Lincoln emerges as a chief executive who, with steadfastness of purpose and constant humor, resisted political pressures and personal attack from Democrats and Republicans alike, made bold decisions, and, although flexibly pragmatic about means, remained faithful to his inner vision of popular government and indissoluble union. A magisterial work, destined to assume its place with those of Beveridge, Sandburg, Thomas, and Oates as a standard life of Lincoln. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
