Which Abraham Lincoln biography is the Best One?

June 15, 2010 | Winstonwolf33

[winstonwolf33]

I'm planning on reading a biography of Abraham Lincoln for a nice non-fiction change of pace. As you can imagine, there's so many Lincoln biographies out there I wouldn't know where to begin! Certainly, I would like to begin with the cream of the crop, but which one would it be? Even if I do a search in Amazon.com for Abraham Lincoln biographies sorted by five-star average customer reviews, a truckload of titles pop out.

Here's just a few of those titles:

Lincoln and His Admirals by Craig L. Symonds

Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words (Vintage) by Douglas L. Wilson

Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography by Jr. Philip B. Kunhardt, Philip B. Kunhardt III, Peter W. Kunhardt, and David Herbert Donald

The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words by Ronald C. White

Lincoln as I Knew Him: Gossip, Tributes and Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemies by Harold Holzer

A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours by W. Emerson Reck

The Physical Lincoln Complete by John G. Sotos

Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years & the War Years (Library of the Presidents) by Carl Sandburg

The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: The Story of America's Most Reviled President by Larry Tagg

Abe's Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Doreen Rappaport and Kadir Nelson

Lincoln's Other White House: The Untold Story of the Man and His Presidency by Elizabeth Smith Brownstein

Abraham Lincoln For The Defense by Warren Bull (Paperback - June 9, 2003)

Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life : The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln by William Henry Herndon and Jesse William Weik

Abraham Lincoln: The Man & His Faith by G. Frederick Owen

Tell Me of Lincoln: Memories of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and Life in Old New York by James Edward Kelly, William B. Styple, and James E. Kelly

The Essential Lincoln by Tim Davidson

With Charity for All: Lincoln and the Restoration of the Union by William C. Harris (Paperback - June 24, 1999)

So after a while, I pretty much gave up on Amazon and decided to just jump in here and see if I can get some feedback from my fellow Freepers. Any recommendations?

[Genoa]

I gladly stand corrected!

[Genoa]

Necessity was indeed the mother of invention, and many on both sides of the conflict were perfectly happy to deceive the gullible if given half a chance.

[mel]

yes and south at least parts of may still secede, what we see today is a part of that

[mel]

well, considering that i wish south would have won, not that war. thanks

[Genoa]

I think the dissolution of the United States, either into two smaller nations or into a collection of independent states or combinations of states, would surely result in conquest by a foreign power.

Who do you think our new masters would be? Russia? China? An Arab federation of some kind?

[rockrr]

File under “same as it ever was”.

Just as ripping us apart would invariably make us more vulnerable to our enemies now, the same is (was) true of the United States in 1860. It is beyond foolish to ignore the sharks that circled and lurked and waited to see what who would be the first to succumb during the Civil War. And it even more idiotic to presuppose that a seceded south, having slunk away from its commitments and obligations, would find much in the way of forbearance in a very hostile world.

I lament the loss of so many citizens but thank God the union prevailed.

[ml/nj]

It came to mind with ml/nj’s post, replete with his note of certainty (”Of this there is little doubt”).

Another one who has difficulty with the English language. That of which there is little doubt is that Lincoln left his family to ride on on a train that he feared would be attacked. About the "unpleasantness" I, myself, cited a footnote that suggested that it might not have occurred.

ML/NJ

[ml/nj]

You remind me of a man who opens a Bible to one page, doesn't see the Ten Commandments on them and announces that they are nowhere to be found in the book.

Your judgment isn't very good then. I read it in the original language. About those "ten commandments" see this!.

ML/NJ

[Colonel Kangaroo]

I wish the South would have won

Considering the quality of the people running the Confederacy and the principles behind the secessions, a strong case can be made that the South was the biggest winner when the Confederacy lost.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Just how willfully obtuse are you? It’s a metaphor. You don’t see the comparison between someone who glances at a Amazon preview of a book and announces that it has no footnotes because he didn’t see any and someone who glances at a Bible and announces that it has no commandments because they weren’t on the page he looked at?

[Genoa]

Were you expecting 150 posts? LOL! I'm looking forward to the Civil War sesquicentennial on FR. Should be an interesting diversion between now and 2015, if we last that long.

[Non-Sequitur]

well, considering that i wish south would have won, not that war. thanks

But had the South won its rebellion then magically, miraculously all those deaths would suddenly have been worth it, right?

[Non-Sequitur]

That of which there is little doubt is that Lincoln left his family to ride on on a train that he feared would be attacked.

Lincoln feared he might be attacked, which is why he changed his travel plans. Long before Mrs. Lincoln and family left Pennsylvania, Lincoln had publicly appeared in Washington and his presence there was well known. Mrs. Lincoln and family were not in any danger...except from rebel sympathizers who might single her out and boobs who didn't get the news.

But while we're on the subject of scumbagness and husbands fleeing danger and leaving their families to their fate, still no comment on Jeff Davis and the fact that he used a female cloak to disguise himself so he could flee the Union soldiers while leaving his wife and children to their clutches? Or is that considered brave behavior in the southland?

[mac_truck]

Actually the NY Times was a pro-Lincoln paper and the Times reporter was one of five people who knew about Lincoln's plans in advance. He was there. He was a witness.

It turns out your 'witness' was a known hoaxter who ended up in prison. Why should anything he wrote be believed, much less relied on for accuracy?

[ml/nj]

Just how willfully obtuse are you? It’s a metaphor.

I think you mean analogy, but thanks for playing.

As for the footnotes, I went to look again at the pages Amazon reproduces. I think there are quite a few more pages there now than the last time I looked seven or eight years ago. I would note that if you look at the Amazon pages NOW for the first chapter, you wouldn't know there were any footnotes. You have to go to the pages at the end of the book which reproduce (some of) the notes. And at least as reproduced by Amazon these are a bit strange. E.g. there are notes for things on page 19, but on the reproduced page 19 there is no evidence that I see would indicate that there are endnotes.

ML/NJ

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

So it was seven or eight years ago that you looked at an Amazon preview and came to the conclusion that it didn't have footnotes?

As for the style of the footnotes, that's a well established form for writers who are trying to emphasize a readable narrative and don't want to clutter up their pages with superscript numbers. Maybe you've never seen it before, but I can pull twenty books off my shelves right now that use a similar style.

[mac_truck]

You might ask yourself why you never learned of these things.

I have and the conclusion I'm reaching is it's because they are unsubstantiated fabrications, at least as it concerns the NY Times.

[ml/nj]

unsubstantiated fabrications

So you think it might not have happened that Lincoln secretly got off a train that he thought might be attacked and let his family continue riding on that train?

ML/NJ

[Colonel Kangaroo]

You still haven’t answered the question about Jeff Davis dressing up in women’s clothes and abandoning his family to the enemy.

[ml/nj]

You still haven’t answered the question about Jeff Davis dressing up in women’s clothes and abandoning his family to the enemy.

When was I asked about this? And what does it have to do with "Honest Abe" if Jeff Davis was a scumbag too?

ML/NJ