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Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham chronicles the life and moral evolution of Abraham Lincoln and explores why and how Lincoln confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery in order to expand the possibilities of America
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . Pulitzer Prize-winning biographerJon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how-and why-he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America.
"Meacham has given us the Lincoln for our time."-Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize . Longlisted for the Biographers International Plutarch Award. One of the Best Books of the Year- The Christian Science Monitor, Kirkus Reviews
A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations.
At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen as the greatest of American presidents-a remote icon-or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln-an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment, essential to the story of justice in America, began as he grew up in an antislavery Baptist community; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him to see the right.
This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination in 1865- his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end. In a nation shaped by the courage of the enslaved of the era and by the brave witness of Black Americans, Lincoln's story illustrates the ways and means of politics in a democracy, the roots and durability of racism, and the capacity of conscience to shape events.
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham chronicles the life and moral evolution of Abraham Lincoln and explores why and how Lincoln confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery in order to expand the possibilities of America
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . Pulitzer Prize-winning biographerJon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how-and why-he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America.
"Meacham has given us the Lincoln for our time."-Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize . Longlisted for the Biographers International Plutarch Award. One of the Best Books of the Year- The Christian Science Monitor, Kirkus Reviews
A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations.
At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen as the greatest of American presidents-a remote icon-or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln-an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment, essential to the story of justice in America, began as he grew up in an antislavery Baptist community; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him to see the right.
This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination in 1865- his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end. In a nation shaped by the courage of the enslaved of the era and by the brave witness of Black Americans, Lincoln's story illustrates the ways and means of politics in a democracy, the roots and durability of racism, and the capacity of conscience to shape events.
JON MEACHAM is the author of American Lion- Andrew Jackson in the White House, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the New York Times bestsellers Franklin and Winston- An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship and American Gospel- God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. He is also most recently the editor of American Homer- Reflections on Shelby Foote and His Classic The Civil War. He lives in New York City with his wife and children.
“In his captivating new book, Jon Meacham has given us the Lincoln
for our time. And There Was Light brilliantly interweaves the best
of gripping narrative history with a deeper search for the complex
interplay among morality, politics, and power in a life, in a
democracy, and in an America ripped apart over slavery. Here
Meacham takes us to the heart of the president who shaped events at
‘the existential hour.’ In doing so, he fortifies us to meet our
own.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Biography at its best, the great historian Barbara Tuchman wrote,
paints an intimate portrait of an individual which simultaneously
provides a sweeping view of history. With this deep, compelling
work, Jon Meacham has achieved this gold standard. Written with
wisdom and grace, his story of Lincoln’s complex moral journey to
Emancipation mirrors America’s long quest to live up to its
founding ideals.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin
“With his singular gift for compelling narrative and groundbreaking
analysis, Jon Meacham illuminates not only Lincoln and his times
but, just as much, the troubled society that we live in
today.”—Michael Beschloss
“Jon Meacham has given us a Lincoln for our perilous times, a story
in which slavery and racism are not an afterthought. You will not
find any recourse to myth or legend in these pages. With the
elegance of his pen and the power of story, Meacham draws a
portrait of a complex man who answered the call of history.”—Eddie
S. Glaude, Jr.
“Jon Meacham’s acute understanding of American politics yields a
singularly illuminating portrait of the greatest political leader
in our history. Meacham’s Lincoln is no prophet or saint, but no
prophet or saint could have accomplished what he did.”—Sean
Wilentz
“A masterful, highly readable biography . . . In an era when
autocracy is on the march, this timely book sheds a bright light on
Lincoln’s role as a paladin and vindicator of democracy.”—Michael
Burlingame
“So much more than another account of Abraham Lincoln’s life, Jon
Meacham’s profound new biography dives into Lincoln’s very soul,
and the result is one of the most compelling and absorbing
portraits ever crafted. This book instantly takes its place at the
forefront of the Lincoln literature.”—Harold Holzer
“An essential, eminently readable volume for anyone
interested in Lincoln and his era.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred
review)
“Pulitzer winner Meacham more than justifies yet another Lincoln
biography. . . . Nuanced and captivating . . . drawing sharp
parallels to Lincoln’s battles against ‘an implacable minority’ . .
. and today’s moment of polarization . . . For Meacham, Lincoln is
above all ‘an example of how even the most imperfect of peoples . .
. can bend the arc of the universe toward justice. . . . Richly
detailed and gracefully written.”—Publishers Weekly
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