Lincoln and the fight for peace

CNN anchor Avlon (Washington's Farewell) studies in this revelatory history the "unfinished symphony" of Abraham Lincoln's efforts to forge a just and lasting peace in the waning days of the Civil War. Promoting a vision of national reconciliation rooted in the "absence of malice" and the notion that "decency could be the most practical form of politics," Lincoln defused volatile situations with Bible verses, humor, and logic, according to Avlon. He spotlights a visit Lincoln made in the last weeks of his life to City Point, Va., where he shared his desires for generous peace terms with Union Army commander Ulysses S. Grant, and, in one of the book's most moving chapters, depicts Lincoln's arrival in the fallen Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., where teeming, cheering throngs of freed Black slaves surrounded and followed the president through the streets. Skillfully drawing on Lincoln's voluminous speeches and correspondence during this time, Avlon reveals a man of inestimable character ("character," Avlon writes, "is the single most important quality in a president") whose pragmatic plans for peace inspired future wartime presidents including Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman. Vividly told and expertly researched, this inspiring history draws on Lincoln's example to chart "a path away from violent polarization and toward reconciliation in defense of democracy." Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM Partners. (Feb.)

In this latest book, Avlon (Washington's Farewell) argues that Abraham Lincoln thought as much about how to achieve peace as to how to win the Civil War. Lincoln knew that binding up the nation's wounds from a civil war required more than raw power to impose on the defeated; it especially required magnanimity to bring the defeated back willingly to the national fold. But magnanimity would only count if it came from a position of strength and clear purpose. In Avlon's telling, Lincoln's approach to peace rested on three "indispensable conditions" that the Confederates were required to accept, from which he never deviated: unconditional surrender, restoration of the Union, and the end of slavery forever. In his very readable, if sometimes meandering, book, Avlon does not break new interpretive ground, but he does provide many personal, policy, and political details of Lincoln's thought and actions. VERDICT Avlon sometimes strains to make Lincoln's Civil War-era approach to peace applicable to world wars, and relies too much on post-assassination memoirs for his Lincoln tales, but he does make the case that to win a war one must also know how to win the peace and invest in doing so.--Randall M. Miller

A solid exploration of Lincoln's clear intention to create a firm peace after the Civil War. By April 4, 1865, as the president toured the fallen Confederate capital of Richmond, after four years of political, military, and personal crisis, he had a vision for a lasting, nonpunitive peace. "In this twilight between war and peace, the outcome was certain, but the terms were not yet determined," writes CNN anchor and senior political analyst Avlon. "Lincoln repeated his three 'indispensable conditions' for peace: no ceasefire before surrender, the restoration of the Union, and the end of slavery for all time. Everything else was negotiable." Having just been confidently reelected, Lincoln knew his mission was to turn quickly from war to peace and secure the reattachment of the former Rebel states to the newly affirmed union. The author traces the evolution of Lincoln's pioneering vision of reconciliation and reconstruction. "Working without a historic parallel to guide him," writes Avlon, "Lincoln established a new model of leadership." First and foremost, he insisted on unconditional surrender, followed by the establishment of the rule of law. He sought to rededicate the South to representative democracy and then move the country's focus to the great Western expanse. The author points out how Ulysses S. Grant's famously generous terms of surrender to Robert E. Lee at Appomattox were a direct expression of Lincoln's wishes. Avlon also shows how the president, who was honest, pious, humble, and fond of speaking in parables, modeled his concept of peace on the golden rule. His focus sharpened in the last six weeks of his life, a period that the author examines in fascinating detail. Tough-minded but tender-hearted, Lincoln created a blueprint that has been used in a variety of scenarios since, from the Marshall Plan to the political reconciliation effected in South Africa after the defeat of apartheid. A rich, readable historical study of Lincoln's thinking, which remains timely. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.