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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:
Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President
For the 2009 bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth C-SPAN host Lamb and C-SPAN president Swain offer this cornucopia of observations from such notables as Doris Kearns Goodwin, David Herbert Donald, Harold Holzer, Merrill Peterson, Richard Norton Smith, and James McPherson-all culled from and edited from interviews on C-SPAN's Booknotes, In Depth and other programs. Topics range from Lincoln's boyhood to his role as commander-in-chief, his assassination and his place as a cultural icon. Although sprinkled with interesting insights, this miscellany suffers a bit from its diversity, delivering a portrait of Lincoln that is at once fragmented and redundant. Not all these historians talk as well as they write. Nor do their comments always blend well. Dividing the book thematically in sections entitled "Log Cabin to White House," (a "Wartime President," "Character," and "In Memory." This approach lends some coherence, but the result is nevertheless uneven. True Lincoln aficionados will probably find this collection of comments-filled as they are with cogent details and knowledgeable appraisals-quite intriguing and engaging. However, general readers will miss having an informed, integrated, linear presentation of Lincoln's complex and often troubled story.
KIRKUS:
Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President
Essays crafted from C-SPAN interviews of 55 writers on Lincoln.
As the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth approaches, this collection serves as a useful introduction to the startling depth of the Lincoln discussion among scholars during the past decade and a half. Many of the contributors-e.g., Allen C. Guelzo, David Herbert Donald, Stephen B. Oates, Harold Holzer, James M. McPherson, Mark Neely Jr.-are either Lincoln or Civil War-era specialists. Others are notable historians who have written important Lincoln-centered books-e.g., Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Jay Winik's April 1865: The Month That Saved America, Garry Wills's Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. These scholars offer illuminating insights, all more gracefully explained and profitably explored in the books that prompted the conversations captured here, as Lamb (Booknotes: Life Stories: Notable Biographers on the People Who Shaped Our World, 1999, etc.) and C-SPAN president Swain readily acknowledge. The collection's chief delight, particularly for readers already well-versed in Lincolniana, lies in the odd-angle assessments contributed by historians better known for their work apart from Lincoln, such as Merrill D. Peterson, Gordon S. Wood, Robert Remini, Richard Norton Smith, David Reynolds and H.W. Brands, or in the nuggets offered by observers from different disciplines such as art, economics, criticism and journalism. The essays are roughly divided into groups centering on Lincoln's path to the White House, his character, his performance as a wartime president and his iconic historical status. The editors' big-tent presentation makes room for dissenting voices from "the church of Lincoln"-the sometimes self-serving scholarly "industry" that's grown up around the 16th president-and they allow Lincoln to speak for himself, reprinting seven of his speeches and an excerpt from the Charleston debate with Stephen Douglas. Mini-biographies of the contributors serve both as a tribute to the variety and distinction of the assembled voices and as a helpful guide for those eager to learn more.
An appealing tasting menu for the banquet that is Lincoln.
BOOKLIST:
Issue: October 15, 2008
Abraham Lincoln: Great American Historians on Our Sixteenth President.
There are about 16,000 books on Abraham Lincoln, and authors of about 50 of them (augmented by several non-Lincoln historians with opinions about the sixteenth U.S. president) appear in this edited compilation of C-SPAN interviews. Culled from the network's various book programs, they omit the questions put by host-editor Brian Lamb and his colleagues, but the relaxed directness that is his signature is detectable in the historians' replies. Answers by anecdote abound, indicating Lamb perhaps asked "Who was Ann Rutledge?" or "Was Lincoln a racist?" in addition to covering every other curiosity the reading public has about Lincoln. That curiosity shows no signs of subsiding and every one of surging for the February 2009 bicentennial. This volume's review of the past 15 years of Lincoln authorial effort demonstrates how interpretively vibrant the subject remains, still capable of producing original research such as Matthew Pinsker's Lincoln's Sanctuary (2003), despite or perhaps due to Lincoln's "biographical inaccessibility," as Mark Neely comments. With content from history heavyweights David Herbert Donald, James McPherson, and Doris Kearns Goodwin, this will be in high demand for the bicentennial.
- Gilbert Taylor
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