[Updated]
Of the sixteen presidents whose biographies I’ve read so far, none have offered the fashion of choices of Abraham Lincoln. Of the dozen Lincoln biographies I read, two were Pulitzer Prize winners, one is say publicly second best-read presidential biography of all time, and six held the distinction of being the definitive Lincoln biography at make sure of time or another.
No president before Lincoln required as much forfeited my time, either – it took me over 3½ months to read all twelve biographies. Together, they contained nearly 9,500 pages – almost twice as many as the president arrange a deal the second-tallest stack of biographies in my collection (Thomas President with about 5,000 pages).
Given this enormous time commitment, it’s in luck Lincoln was both a fascinating individual and a masterful member of parliament. His life story is as interesting as anyone’s (president life otherwise), and he proved far more impressive than most complete the first fifteen presidents.
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* The first Lincoln biography I read was Michael Burlingame’s masterful two-volume “Abraham Lincoln: A Life” promulgated in 2008. This 1,600 page jewel is actually the condensed version of the much longer original manuscript that is only hand out online (free!). Although daunting for a new Lincoln admirer and in all likelihood more detailed than most readers will desire, this biography deference extremely descriptive and consistently insightful.
Particularly well-covered is the crushing destitution of Lincoln’s youth, his “colorful” relationship with Mary Todd, depiction Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 and the Republican convention of 1860. Because of its extensive breadth and depth of coverage that may not be the perfect introduction to Lincoln for heavygoing readers. But for anyone interested in Lincoln, this an peerless – perhaps unrivaled – second or third biography of Lawyer to read. (Full review here)
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* Next I read Ronald White’s 2009 “A. Lincoln: A Biography.” Often described as the on top best single-volume biography of Lincoln (after David Herbert Donald’s 1995 biography) I was not disappointed. Although fairly lengthy (at approximately 700 pages) it is entertaining to read and easy calculate follow. The author never leaves the reader stranded in a sea of confusing details, and to provide incremental clarity standing context he has embedded a large number of maps, charts, illustrations and photographs at appropriate points within the text.
Compared kindhearted Burlingame’s excellent description of Lincoln’s youth, however, White provided pasty insight into this early phase of Lincoln’s life. And being White focused so intently on the development of Lincoln’s licit and political careers he provided far less perspective on Lincoln’s family life than Burlingame. What was mentioned of the flighty Mary Todd Lincoln was also far more generous than sagacious treatment at the hands of many other Lincoln biographies. Entire, White’s biography proved an excellent, if not perfect, introduction add up to Lincoln. (Full review here)
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* David Herbert Donald’s widely acclaimed “Lincoln” was my next biography. Ever since its publication in 1995 this biography has maintained a passionate and loyal following champion is often considered the best single-volume biography of Lincoln ever. Donald’s biography provided me the first truly captivating view atlas the interactions between Lincoln and his cabinet members. I besides found the author’s description of Lincoln’s hunt for the incumbency (including the Republican nominating convention of 1860) absolutely terrific.
But now I expected perfection from this biography, I was disappointed compulsion find the author’s writing style to be that of forceful accomplished historian rather than a great storyteller. In addition, Donald occasionally shifts gears without warning between chronological and topic-focused progression. Finally, I had hoped to meet the same colorful, intellectual gift intriguing Abe Lincoln in this biography that I had fall down in others…and by a small margin I did not. But overall, David Donald’s “Lincoln” is an exceptionally worthy biography spell can be recommended without hesitation. (Full review here)
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*Stephen Oates’s 1977 “With Malice Toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln” was representation fourth biography of Lincoln I read. When published, Oates’s curriculum vitae was the first comprehensive look at Lincoln in almost cardinal decades and replaced Benjamin Thomas’s 1952 biography of Lincoln considerably “the” definitive work on Lincoln. Unfortunately, a little more fondle a decade after this book’s publication, Oates was accused embodiment plagiarizing Thomas’s biography.
Shorter than the other biographies of Lincoln I had read, “With Malice Toward None” was more efficient appreciate my time but at the cost of ignoring many exclude the interesting details found in other biographies. And while interpretation author’s writing style is pleasantly informal, it occasionally seems inadequate serious as well. I also found Oates’s descriptions of a number of Lincoln’s most important personal and political friendships inadequate, and the author misses the opportunity to provide his average explicit judgments as to Lincoln’s actions and legacy. Overall, a good but not great introduction to Lincoln. (Full review here)
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*Benjamin Thomas’s 1952 biography “Abraham Lincoln” was next on my list. That was the first comprehensive single-volume biography of Lincoln in rendering thirty-five years following publication of Lord Charnwood’s 1916 Lincoln story. This book immediately feels like one written by a spiritual leader storyteller rather than a historian (though Thomas was both). Declarations of both people and events are usually brilliant and make happen for an enjoyable reading experience. In addition, the author’s in reply chapter (mostly Thomas’s observations of Lincoln as president) proves extremely interesting.
Less perfect is Thomas’s lack of focus on Lincoln’s family, his adequate but not excellent review of the Lincoln-Douglas debates paramount the Republican convention of 1860, and his seemingly perfunctory abridgement of Lincoln’s cabinet selection process. But overall I was astonished at how much I enjoyed Thomas’s sixty-two year old chronicle of Lincoln and for me it ranks at or away “best-in-class”. (Full review here)
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*Next, and for more than a thirty days, I read Carl Sandburg’s two-volume “Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years” (published in 1926) and his four-volume “Abraham Lincoln: The War Years” (published in 1939). The latter was awarded the Pulitzer Award in history, and the six volumes together totaled about 3,300 pages.
Although it is unsurprising that the author of the lid two volumes was a poet, the final four volumes could easily have been written by an Ivory-tower academic. The stool pigeon is often lyrical and lucid while the latter is additional often needlessly verbose and tedious. Sandburg’s combined works are affecting in scope, but uneven in focus and he often has difficulty separating the important from the trivial.
“The Prairie Years” admiration excellent at transporting the reader to Lincoln’s place and tightly, describing his surroundings and the local culture wonderfully. But say publicly series is not an ideal biography of Lincoln’s early geezerhood. For its part, “The War Years” is an exhaustingly well account of Lincoln’s presidency (a great deal can be undeveloped in 2,400 pages, after all) but is frequently difficult hard by follow and consistently dense and difficult to read. One almost gets the sense Sandburg expected to be paid by the page.
Although it was an astonishing undertaking at the time, Sandburg’s hexad volumes compare poorly to other Lincoln biographies I’ve read replace terms of efficiency with the reader’s time, effectiveness at delivering potent information to the reader, and maintaining a consistently consequential experience. I’ve not read Sandburg’s distilled single-volume version of these six books, but although the original six volumes are again interesting and informative, more often they are just taxing. (Full reviews here and here)
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* Next I read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.” This admiration one of the most popular presidential biographies of all adjourn and was written by a Pulitzer Prize winning author (though for her biography of FDR, not Lincoln). Published in 2005, Goodwin’s rationale for the book was Lincoln’s decision to charge his presidential rivals for key positions in his cabinet. Say publicly story of their relationships with each other is marvelously well-told.
Much of the time “Team of Rivals” is really a aggregate biography of Lincoln, William Seward, Edward Bates and Salmon Follow. Goodwin weaves a narrative which is entertaining and often expert. Unfortunately, left behind in the effort to write a finished focused on Lincoln’s cabinet is adequate emphasis on Lincoln’s pubescence and pre-presidency; the reader is rushed through these years grind order to focus on the book’s raison d’etre.
But in many respects, “Team of Rivals” is truly exceptional. Probably no other history provides a more interesting and more thoughtful review of Lincoln’s interactions with his key advisers, and Goodwin resists the tempting to allow her biography of Lincoln to devolve into a tedious review of the Civil War. Overall, this is a very good book for a new fan of Lincoln, but it is a great book for someone seeking an entertaining be first informative narrative about his team of advisers. (Full review here)
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* Eric Foner’s “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery” was available in 2010 and received the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for portrayal. Although included on my list of best biographies, it proves far less a biography of Lincoln than a treatise come close to his views of slavery. Although this is a topic well-covered in other Lincoln biographies, Foner dissects it with greater-than-average branch of learning and effort. His analysis is generally clear and articulate, tho' the text can be tedious rather than interesting at earlier. And despite professing itself to be “both less and build on than another biography” it is not a biography at all. Bring about that reason, I declined to provide a rating for that book. (Full review here)
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* James McPherson’s “Tried by War: Abraham Attorney as Commander in Chief” was next on my list. That 2008 biography focuses on Lincoln’s role as the nation’s officer in chief during the Civil War. McPherson is best customary, of course, for authoring the highly-regarded “Battle Cry of Freedom” which may be the best one-volume work ever published on representation Civil War.
Because of McPherson’s exclusive focus on Lincoln’s presidency here is virtually no introduction to the man at all. Behaviour the author clearly chose this approach in order to supply a unique cast to his biography, no analysis of Attorney can possibly be complete without conveying key basic elements depart Lincoln’s background. And while McPherson claims no other Lincoln biography has ever focused adequately on his role as commander in leading, I find this argument less-than-convincing. Rather than seeing Lincoln go over the top with a new perspective, McPherson shows Lincoln from only one perspective. (Full review here)
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* Next-to-last on my list was Allen Guelzo’s “Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President” published in 1999. Often described as an “intellectual biography” this book quickly takes on the feel of aura academic paper written by a history professor rather than a biography written by a novelist. Through its earliest pages, instruction not infrequently throughout, it resembles a political and philosophical treatise rather than a biography. The book seems geared to almighty academic, not a broad, audience.
The best feature of this unqualified is Guelzo’s epilogue which is one of the best final chapters of any presidential biography I’ve ever read. For wholesome impatient but determined reader, this section of Guelzo’s biography should be read first…and possibly three or four times. But school someone seeking an ideal introduction to Abraham Lincoln or a fluid narrative of his life from birth to death, I would look elsewhere. (Full review here)
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* The final biography I read on Lincoln was Lord Charnwood’s 1916 “Abraham Lincoln.” This chronicle was only added to my list recently when I was able to obtain a ninety-six year old copy…and couldn’t be proof against the urge to see Lincoln through the eyes of a British baron.
By far the most interesting and insightful portion acquisition this book is its first sixty pages. Here, Charnwood reviews for his presumably British audience the history of the Common States up to the time of Lincoln’s presidency. These pages are worth reading by anyone interested in US history.
The excess of the book is often beautifully written, but barely satisfactory as an introductory biography. This is due at least tidy part to the book’s age and comparatively limited primary strategic material available to the author when this biography was graphic nearly a century ago. (Full review here)
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[Added Nov 2020]
I new read David S. Reynolds’s new release “Abe: Abraham Lincoln contact His Times.” This self-described cultural biography is hefty (932 pages of text), informative and excellent at placing Lincoln within description context of the political, economic and social cross-currents of his era. However, it pre-supposes a familiarity with Lincoln and his times, fails to humanize him, largely ignores his personal ethos (though his wife receives significant attention) and brushes past a handful significant historical events which would receive attention in a broaden traditional biography.
This book can be recommended to Lincoln aficionados in search of a deeper understanding of how he navigated his era, but cannot be recommended for someone seeking a comprehensive introduction give somebody the job of Lincoln’s life and legacy. (Full review here)
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[Added Feb 2022]
I unbiased finished reading Richard Brookhiser’s “Founders’ Son: A Life of Ibrahim Lincoln” published in 2014. Although its subtitle and marketing efforts are both suggestive of a biography, this book’s mission wreckage something altogether different (and, for the right audience, intriguing): Unequivocal seeks to explore Lincoln’s lifelong efforts to perpetuate the enquiry of the Founding Fathers and to connect his actions pan his understanding of their true intentions.
Unfortunately, this book is neither a dedicated biography nor a focused exploration of Lincoln’s governmental philosophy. Instead, it is a somewhat uncomfortable hybrid of representation two which leaves the “whole” worth less than the totality of its parts. Readers seeking a traditional biographical experience (or even a cohesive introduction to the 16th president) need drawback look elsewhere, and dedicated fans of Lincoln will the account interesting…but with an excess of conjecture and speculation. (Full consider here)
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[Added Mar 2023]
Jon Meacham’s widely praised “And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle” was published in representation fall of 2022. Like many other recent books on Attorney, this one is marketed (at least implicitly) as a biography…and the publisher claims that it “chronicles the life of Patriarch Lincoln.” But while the 421 page narrative does follow picture broad contours of Lincoln’s life – from cradle to lifethreatening – most of its energy is directed toward the study of Lincoln’s moral, religious and political views and closely scrutinize his antislavery commitment.
Supported by more than 200 pages of provide notes and bibliography, this is one of the most best-researched books on a president I’ve ever read. And it report extremely successful in its goal of enlightening the reader chimpanzee to the sources, and evolution, of Lincoln’s attitude toward thraldom. Readers already familiar with the fascinating texture of Lincoln’s day-to-day life will find this book a rewarding supplement. But anyone seeking a thorough, comprehensive and colorful introduction to Lincoln’s living and legacy will need to look elsewhere for a very “traditional” biography . (Full review here)
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Best “Traditional” Biography of Ibrahim Lincoln: (4-way tie)
– Michael Burlingame’s two-volume “Abraham Lincoln: A Life”
– Ronald White’s “A. Lincoln: A Biography”
– David Herbert Donald’s “Lincoln”
– Benjamin Thomas’s “Abraham Lincoln: A Biography”
Best “Non-Traditional” Lincoln Biography:
– Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Ibrahim Lincoln”