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Title details for Lincoln by Richard Carwardine - Available

Lincoln

A Life of Purpose and Power

by Richard Carwardine
Stefan Rudnicki
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

As a defender of national unity, a leader in war, and the emancipator of slaves, Abraham Lincoln lays ample claim to being the greatest of our presidents. This extraordinary biography by one of the most highly regarded historians on the subject examines Lincoln both as a rising politician and as president.

While pursuing office, Lincoln drew strength from public opinion and from the machinery of his party. As a wartime president, he recognized the limits as well as the possibilities of power. In his struggle to end slavery, he found allies in the churches, their humanitarian agencies, and the volunteer Union Army.

In illuminating the political talents that went hand in hand with a large and serious moral purpose, Carwardine gives us a fresh, important portrait of the incomparable Abraham Lincoln.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 12, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781483066141
      • File size: 447793 KB
      • Duration: 15:32:54

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Text Difficulty: 6-12

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Some readers may find Lincoln tedious and poorly organized. Rather than writing a traditional chronological biography, Oxford historian Carwardine lays out hundreds of facts about Lincoln's public career with scant continuity or artistry. The author suffers from an addiction to unhelpful adverbs: " . . . to coincide more or less precisely with . . ." For Lincoln's many quotes, narrator Dick Hill chooses a comedic voice that makes the great Illinois orator sound like an ignorant hillbilly. Hill portrays Stephen A. Douglas, a native of Vermont, with a German accent that sounds comic. The liberties constitute no small crime because the narrator contradicts the author's descriptions of the men's voices. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      One might think that a history of Lincoln's mind wouldn't be much different from the history of his life, but in narrative terms the distinction makes a world of difference. Carwardine's magisterial history of Lincoln's thinking on politics, religion, race, the Constitution, and a dozen other topics follows the chronology of his life but is a study, rather than an account of time, place, and events. Whereas a print reader might pause to reflect, in audio it is narrator Stefan Rudnicki's task to maintain the pace and rhythm of the whole. That he does so while staying true to the meditative character of the text is a measure of his impressive skill and discipline. For those who know Lincoln's biography already, this is a book that unlocks many puzzles and seeming contradictions in his record. D.A.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from November 21, 2005
      The heart of this powerful book details Lincoln's election to and years in the White House. In describing his campaign for president, Oxford historian Carwardine (Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America
      ) recreates the intense party politics of the mid-19th century. The newly formed Republican Party was home to Americans with many different political agendas, and Lincoln's "blend of constitutional conservatism and high-minded... moralism" was a good basis for coalition. Carwardine pays careful attention to Lincoln's religious views, arguing that war brought him into close contact with evangelicals, who argued that the president would only succeed in reuniting the country if he obeyed God's word. Carwardine also traces the evolution of Lincoln's thinking about slavery—though he embraced emancipation first because winning the war required it, by the time he was killed Lincoln had edged toward black men's suffrage. One closes this powerful biography wondering how postbellum politics might have been different were it not for that fateful gunshot on April 14, 1865. Cawardine's Lincoln Prize–winning study is not only analytical and smart, it's also delightfully readable—and it will surely emerge as one of the most important Lincoln books to be published this decade. 74 b&w photos, 3 maps.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Text Difficulty:6-12

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