Lincoln

By David Herbert Donald
(Simon & Schuster, Paperback, 9780684825359, 720pp.)

Publication Date: November 5, 1996

Categories: Historical - U.S., Literary

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David Herbert Donald is the author of Lincoln, which won the prestigious Lincoln Prize and was on the New York Times bestseller list for fourteen weeks, and of Lincoln at Home. He has twice won the Pulitzer Prize, for Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, and for Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe. He is the Charles Warren Professor of American History and of American Civilization Emeritus at Harvard University and resides in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

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Politicians love to invoke Honest Abe Lincoln, often while twisting his legacy to fit their own purposes. But who was the man, really? Steve Inskeep talks to three Lincoln historians � Andy Ferguson, of the Weekly Standard, and Doris Kearns Goodwin and Eric Foner � about the books they think best capture the former president's character. (This piece initially aired April 10, 2012 on Morning Edition.) More at NPR.org

Politicians love to invoke Honest Abe, often while twisting his legacy to fit their own purposes. But who was the man, really? Three Lincoln historians discuss the books they think best capture the president's character. More at NPR.org

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Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "A grand work--the Lincoln biography for this generation."

Harold Holzer Chicago Tribune "Lincoln immediately takes its place among the best of the genre, and it is unlikely that it will be surpassed in elegance, incisiveness and originality in this century. . . . A book of investigative tenacity, interpretive boldness and almost acrobatic balance."

James M. McPherson The Atlantic Monthly "Eagerly awaited, Lincoln fulfills expectations. Donald writes with lucidity and elegance."

David W. Blight Los Angeles Times "A one-volume study of Lincoln's life that will augment and replace the previous modern standards by Benjamin Thomas (1953) and Stephen Oates (1977). Donald's Lincoln is a scholarly achievement."