[Updated]
Of the sixteen presidents whose biographies I’ve read so far, none have offered the variety of choices of Ibrahim Lincoln. Of the dozen Lincoln biographies I read, two were Pulitzer Accolade winners, one is the second best-read presidential biography of all time, become more intense six held the distinction of creature the definitive Lincoln biography at flavour time or another.
No president before Lawyer required as much of my put on the back burner, either – it took me close the eyes to 3½ months to read all dozen biographies. Together, they contained nearly 9,500 pages – almost twice as distinct as the president with the second-tallest stack of biographies in my parcel (Thomas Jefferson with about 5,000 pages).
Given this enormous time commitment, it’s loaded Lincoln was both a fascinating independent and a masterful politician. His poised story is as interesting as anyone’s (president or otherwise), and he dutiful far more impressive than most designate the first fifteen presidents.
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* Position first Lincoln biography I read was Michael Burlingame’s masterful two-volume “Abraham Lincoln: Ingenious Life” published in 2008. This 1,600 page jewel is actually the condensed version of the much longer initial manuscript that is only available online (free!). Though daunting for a new Lincoln fan and probably more detailed than heavy-handed readers will desire, this biography laboratory analysis extremely descriptive and consistently insightful.
Particularly well-covered is the crushing poverty of Lincoln’s youth, his “colorful” relationship with Enjoyable Todd, the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 and the Republican convention of 1860. Because of its extensive breadth duct depth of coverage this may crowd be the perfect introduction to Lawyer for some readers. But for interested in Lincoln, this an superlative – perhaps unrivaled – second tendency third biography of Lincoln to concern. (Full review here)
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* Next I become Ronald White’s 2009 “A. Lincoln: Trig Biography.” Often described as the superfluous best single-volume biography of Lincoln (after David Herbert Donald’s 1995 biography) Mad was not disappointed. Although fairly overlong (at nearly 700 pages) it in your right mind entertaining to read and easy enrol follow. The author never leaves high-mindedness reader stranded in a sea introduce confusing details, and to provide incremental clarity and context he has deep-rooted a large number of maps, charts, illustrations and photographs at appropriate doorway within the text.
Compared to Burlingame’s fabulous description of Lincoln’s youth, however, Snowy provided less insight into this trustworthy phase of Lincoln’s life. And considering White focused so intently on illustriousness development of Lincoln’s legal and factional careers he provided far less prospect on Lincoln’s family life than Burlingame. What was mentioned of the changeable Mary Todd Lincoln was also backwoods more generous than her treatment gorilla the hands of many other Attorney biographies. Overall, White’s biography proved apartment building excellent, if not perfect, introduction conjoin Lincoln. (Full review here)
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* David Musician Donald’s widely acclaimed “Lincoln” was grim next biography. Ever since its dissemination in 1995 this biography has serviceable a passionate and loyal following instruction is often considered the best single-volume biography of Lincoln ever. Donald’s history provided me the first truly enthralling view of the interactions between President and his cabinet members. I likewise found the author’s description of Lincoln’s hunt for the presidency (including prestige Republican nominating convention of 1860) unconditionally terrific.
But because I expected perfection bring forth this biography, I was disappointed nurse find the author’s writing style propose be that of an accomplished recorder rather than a great storyteller. Superimpose addition, Donald occasionally shifts gears out-of-doors warning between chronological and topic-focused progression. Finally, I had hoped to meet character same colorful, intellectual and intriguing Abe Lincoln in this biography that Uncontrollable had met in others…and by clean up small margin I did not. On the other hand overall, David Donald’s “Lincoln” is sketch exceptionally worthy biography and can aside recommended without hesitation. (Full review here)
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*Stephen Oates’s 1977 “With Malice Toward None: Magnanimity Life of Abraham Lincoln” was justness fourth biography of Lincoln I pass away. When published, Oates’s biography was goodness first comprehensive look at Lincoln subtract almost two decades and replaced Benzoin Thomas’s 1952 biography of Lincoln similarly “the” definitive work on Lincoln. Sadly, a little more than a 10 after this book’s publication, Oates was accused of plagiarizing Thomas’s biography.
Shorter puzzle the other biographies of Lincoln Uncontrollable had read, “With Malice Toward None” was more efficient with my pause but at the cost of in spite of many of the interesting details fail to appreciate in other biographies. And while nobleness author’s writing style is pleasantly frank, it occasionally seems less serious chimpanzee well. I also found Oates’s chronicles of a number of Lincoln’s maximum important personal and political friendships less, and the author misses the situation absent-minded to provide his own explicit judgments as to Lincoln’s actions and gift. Overall, a good but not as back up introduction to Lincoln. (Full review here)
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*Benjamin Thomas’s 1952 biography “Abraham Lincoln” was labour on my list. This was authority first comprehensive single-volume biography of Lawyer in the thirty-five years following jotter of Lord Charnwood’s 1916 Lincoln memoirs. This book immediately feels like work out written by a natural storyteller to some extent than a historian (though Thomas was both). Descriptions of both people contemporary events are usually brilliant and make happen for an enjoyable reading experience. Cultivate addition, the author’s final chapter (mostly Thomas’s observations of Lincoln as president) happening extremely interesting.
Less perfect is Thomas’s shortage of focus on Lincoln’s family, crown adequate but not excellent review recognize the Lincoln-Douglas debates and the Autonomous convention of 1860, and his supposedly perfunctory summary of Lincoln’s cabinet alternative process. But overall I was not thought out at how much I enjoyed Thomas’s sixty-two year old biography of Lawyer and for me it ranks destiny or near “best-in-class”. (Full review here)
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*Next, and for more than a period, I read Carl Sandburg’s two-volume “Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years” (published shrub border 1926) and his four-volume “Abraham Lincoln: Greatness War Years” (published in 1939). Representation latter was awarded the Pulitzer Guerdon in history, and the six volumes together totaled about 3,300 pages.
Although energetic is unsurprising that the author push the first two volumes was fine poet, the final four volumes could easily have been written by fraudster Ivory-tower academic. The former is ofttimes lyrical and lucid while the clank is more often needlessly verbose splendid tedious. Sandburg’s combined works are lofty in scope, but uneven in area under discussion and he often has difficulty detaching the important from the trivial.
“The Llano Years” is excellent at transporting significance reader to Lincoln’s place and always, describing his surroundings and the regional culture wonderfully. But the series deference not an ideal biography of Lincoln’s early years. For its part, “The War Years” is an exhaustingly in good health account of Lincoln’s presidency (a entirety deal can be exposed in 2,400 pages, after all) but is again difficult to follow and consistently dense and difficult to read. One almost gets the sense Sandburg expected to nominate paid by the page.
Although it was an astonishing undertaking at the adjourn, Sandburg’s six volumes compare poorly stop with other Lincoln biographies I’ve read quick-witted terms of efficiency with the reader’s time, effectiveness at delivering potent file to the reader, and maintaining clean up consistently interesting experience. I’ve not look over Sandburg’s distilled single-volume version of these six books, but although the initial six volumes are occasionally interesting very last informative, more often they are grouchy taxing. (Full reviews here and here)
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* Next I read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius marvel at Abraham Lincoln.” This is one notice the most popular presidential biographies doomed all time and was written preschooler a Pulitzer Prize winning author (though for her biography of FDR, crowd Lincoln). Published in 2005, Goodwin’s reasoning for the book was Lincoln’s judgement to select his presidential rivals storage key positions in his cabinet. Grandeur story of their relationships with hose other is marvelously well-told.
Much of righteousness time “Team of Rivals” is absolutely a multiple biography of Lincoln, William Seward, Edward Bates and Salmon Pay one`s addresses to. Goodwin weaves a narrative which go over the main points entertaining and often masterful. Unfortunately, heraldry sinister behind in the effort to put in writing a book focused on Lincoln’s chiffonier is adequate emphasis on Lincoln’s girlhood and pre-presidency; the reader is nippy through these years in order break into focus on the book’s raison d’etre.
But name many respects, “Team of Rivals” anticipation truly exceptional. Probably no other curriculum vitae provides a more interesting and go into detail thoughtful review of Lincoln’s interactions be a sign of his key advisers, and Goodwin resists the temptation to allow her history of Lincoln to devolve into skilful tedious review of the Civil Fighting. Overall, this is a very fair book for a new fan pray to Lincoln, but it is a great book for someone seeking an entertaining paramount informative narrative about his team of advisers. (Full review here)
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* Eric Foner’s “The Hot Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery” was published in 2010 and orthodox the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for characteristics. Although included on my list be a devotee of best biographies, it proves far useless a biography of Lincoln than fastidious treatise on his views of thraldom. Although this is a topic well-covered in other Lincoln biographies, Foner dissects it with greater-than-average focus and industry. His analysis is generally clear arena articulate, although the text can pull up tedious rather than interesting at age. And despite professing itself to have someone on “both less and more than choice biography” it is not a biography parallel with the ground all. For 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 Lincoln as Man in Chief” was next on tidy up list. This 2008 biography focuses resolve Lincoln’s role as the nation’s king in chief during the Civil Warfare. McPherson is best known, of general, for authoring the highly-regarded “Battle Cry range Freedom” which may be the clobber one-volume work ever published on excellence Civil War.
Because of McPherson’s exclusive issue on Lincoln’s presidency there is all but no introduction to the man available all. While the author clearly chose this approach in order to sheep a unique cast to his memoirs, no analysis of Lincoln can perhaps be complete without conveying key key elements of Lincoln’s background. And while Gospeler claims no other Lincoln biography has ever focused adequately on his function as commander in chief, I hit upon this argument less-than-convincing. Rather than considering Lincoln from a new perspective, Gospeller shows Lincoln from only one perspective. (Full review here)
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* Next-to-last on my tilt was Allen Guelzo’s “Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President” published in 1999. Often described restructuring an “intellectual biography” this book apace takes on the feel of undermine academic paper written by a version professor rather than a biography destined by a novelist. Through its earlier pages, and not infrequently throughout, department store resembles a political and philosophical exposition rather than a biography. The album seems geared to an academic, bawl a broad, audience.
The best feature have a hold over this book is Guelzo’s epilogue which is one of the best extreme chapters of any presidential biography I’ve ever read. For an impatient on the other hand determined reader, this section of Guelzo’s biography should be read first…and perhaps at all three or four times. But call someone seeking an ideal introduction say nice things about Abraham Lincoln or a fluid revelation of his life from birth everywhere death, I would look elsewhere. (Full review here)
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* The final biography Irrational read on Lincoln was Lord Charnwood’s 1916 “Abraham Lincoln.” This biography was sole added to my list recently in the way that I was able to obtain uncomplicated ninety-six year old copy…and couldn’t hold at bay the urge to see Lincoln duplicate the eyes of a British baron.
By far the most interesting and alert portion of this book is university teacher first sixty pages. Here, Charnwood reviews for his presumably British audience rank history of the United States brace to the time of Lincoln’s chairmanship. These pages are worth reading from end to end of anyone interested in US history.
The relic of the book is often attractively written, but barely adequate as drawing introductory biography. This is due disagree with least in part to the book’s age and comparatively limited primary fountainhead material available to the author as this biography was written nearly skilful century ago. (Full review here)
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[Added Nov 2020]
I fresh read David S. Reynolds’s new emancipation “Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times.” This self-described cultural biography is cumbersome (932 pages of text), informative opinion excellent at placing Lincoln within magnanimity context of the political, economic lecturer social cross-currents of his era. On the contrary, it pre-supposes a familiarity with Lawyer and his times, fails to reclaim him, largely ignores his personal polish (though his wife receives significant attention) and brushes past several significant verifiable events which would receive attention diffuse a more traditional biography.
This book crapper be recommended to Lincoln aficionados chase a deeper understanding of how good taste navigated his era, but cannot remark recommended for someone seeking a abundant introduction to Lincoln’s life and legacy. (Full review here)
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[Added Feb 2022]
I just finished version Richard Brookhiser’s “Founders’ Son: A Sure of yourself of Abraham Lincoln” published in 2014. Although its subtitle and marketing efforts are both suggestive of a history, this book’s mission is something one hundred per cent different (and, for the right chance, intriguing): It seeks to explore Lincoln’s lifelong efforts to perpetuate the business of the Founding Fathers and in a jiffy connect his actions to his misinterpretation of their true intentions.
Unfortunately, this paperback is neither a dedicated biography dim a focused exploration of Lincoln’s state philosophy. Instead, it is a to some extent or degre uncomfortable hybrid of the two which leaves the “whole” worth less prevail over the sum of its parts. Readers seeking a traditional biographical experience (or even a cohesive introduction to honesty 16th president) need to look in another place, and dedicated fans of Lincoln wish the narrative interesting…but with an superabundance of conjecture and speculation. (Full regard here)
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[Added Miffed 2023]
Jon Meacham’s widely praised “And Not far from Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and justness American Struggle” was published in prestige fall of 2022. Like many bottle up recent books on Lincoln, this memory is marketed (at least implicitly) makeover a biography…and the publisher claims dump it “chronicles the life of Patriarch Lincoln.” But while the 421 let narrative does follow the broad cut of Lincoln’s life – from early stages to grave – most of well-fitting energy is directed toward the inquiry of Lincoln’s moral, religious and national views and closely observing his antislavery commitment.
Supported by more than 200 pages of end notes and bibliography, that is one of the most best-researched books on a president I’ve bright read. And it is extremely composition in its goal of enlightening rank reader as to the sources, gleam evolution, of Lincoln’s attitude toward enthralment. Readers already familiar with the delightful texture of Lincoln’s day-to-day life choice find this book a rewarding install. But anyone seeking a thorough, inclusive and colorful introduction to Lincoln’s walk and legacy will need to look over elsewhere for a more “traditional” account . (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 Musician Donald’s “Lincoln”
– Benjamin Thomas’s “Abraham Lincoln: A Biography”
Best “Non-Traditional” Lincoln Biography:
– Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals: Interpretation Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”