A. Lincoln: A Biography

by Ronald C. White

reviewed April 2017

I read this on a Kindle. According to Amazon, this thing is 816 pages. It certainly didn’t feel that way. If I had to guess upon completion, I would have guessed about half of that. That really is a compliment. Essentially I’m saying that book was a fast read because it was so engrossing. The other random thought I had was that this book was written in 2009, and I’m curious to know if the public really “needed” another biography of Abraham Lincoln. Has there really been that much new information uncovered that would warrant another retrospective volume? Whatever the reason, this was the first, and so far only, biography that I’ve read on Abraham Lincoln, and as mentioned, I thought it was very strong.

Now, I’ve read other books that focused on certain aspects of his life, so I felt like I had a very strong background of the man, and can’t really say I learned that much new about him. So maybe this a book for the novice as opposed to someone who’s read extensively about the man.

Like many presidential biographies, about half of this book focuses solely on his presidency. When one looks at his presidency, there wasn’t really anything of relevance to discuss other than the American Civil War. So you could make the argument that half of this book felt like a book on the Civil War, but again, that doesn’t mean that the experience doesn’t have rewards. There’s also quite a bit of reference (in thought and deed) to the Emancipation Proclamation, but I tend to read the two as very synonymous. Our history tells us that the Civil War wasn’t “about” slavery, but I can’t help but think this statement is a bit misleading.

I was surprised that this book omitted a lot about the man. Very little of his family is mentioned. Sometimes that’s a good thing, but for a father who lost two sons prematurely and had a wife that was quite the eccentric made me feel as though there was a lot missing here. His assassination is only briefly covered as well. Maybe because there have been entire books written about the event is what caused the author to decide that such events weren’t worth repeating.

The one topic that did seem to be discussed frequently was Abraham Lincoln’s journey of faith. The author presumes that the young Lincoln was more of questioner with many skeptical tendencies. As he got older, he seemed to become much more connected with his Christian faith. Sure, the man evokes God a lot in his speeches, but so do 99% of all the politicians. The author, though, spends considerable amount of time arguing (persuasively) that Lincoln’s changes in his beliefs are quite genuine. Again, though, I didn’t really learn anything new. I just felt the author spent quite a bit of book space to the topic.

I also felt this was a very easy, interesting read. One not need a PhD in English to appreciate it. I’m not sure how it stacks up against volumes by the likes of Carl Sandburg or David Herbert Donald, but this one definitely is well written and very enjoyable. Perhaps a student in high school would also find this book rewarding and somewhat “easy”? Very agreeable.

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