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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
slow-paced
A very wonderful telling of Lincoln’s life, both in and out of office. It was long but what can you expect! I thought it well-written and not very dry at all.
Thorough, and with an appropriately abrupt ending. As I neared the end of the book, and with Lincoln still alive with only a few pages left to read, I realized that there would be little or nothing written about John Wilkes Booth, but then this book is not about Booth. It is about Lincoln, and it is true to his life, his story, and his perspective, which ended much too soon.
As compared to the recently popular "Killing Lincoln," this book is not as riveting. It is not a page-turner, but it is much more in-depth, informative, and there is much attention given to Lincoln's early days as he practiced law and developed the relationships and reputation that would later lead to his timely election to save the United States of America. After reading Lincoln's life story, it is my belief that civil war would have come regardless of who became President in 1860, but I don't believe that anyone else could have weathered the storm and brought the country back together the way that Lincoln was able to do. It is astonishing that in addition to navigating a civil war, he also had to deal with riots in New York, a potential international war with European countries considering opportunities to get involved in the Civil War, disloyalty (if not outright sabotage) within his own cabinet, and a separate civil war simultaneously taking place within the state of Missouri.
He made many mistakes along the way, and though he (quite understandably) experienced frequent bouts with depression, his resolve and his good nature were his most impressive qualities. I can't imagine anyone else of his era or any other era having the fortitude to successfully persevere through his unique trials and establish such a model of leadership. Even though it eventually cost him his life, it may very well be that his death during this endeavor solidified not only his legacy, but also the successful reunification of the United States of America. As a nation, I only wish we could have witnessed what would have become of his second term of office, as well as his subsequent years of life after leaving office and the further influence he could have had on others.
What a life!
As compared to the recently popular "Killing Lincoln," this book is not as riveting. It is not a page-turner, but it is much more in-depth, informative, and there is much attention given to Lincoln's early days as he practiced law and developed the relationships and reputation that would later lead to his timely election to save the United States of America. After reading Lincoln's life story, it is my belief that civil war would have come regardless of who became President in 1860, but I don't believe that anyone else could have weathered the storm and brought the country back together the way that Lincoln was able to do. It is astonishing that in addition to navigating a civil war, he also had to deal with riots in New York, a potential international war with European countries considering opportunities to get involved in the Civil War, disloyalty (if not outright sabotage) within his own cabinet, and a separate civil war simultaneously taking place within the state of Missouri.
He made many mistakes along the way, and though he (quite understandably) experienced frequent bouts with depression, his resolve and his good nature were his most impressive qualities. I can't imagine anyone else of his era or any other era having the fortitude to successfully persevere through his unique trials and establish such a model of leadership. Even though it eventually cost him his life, it may very well be that his death during this endeavor solidified not only his legacy, but also the successful reunification of the United States of America. As a nation, I only wish we could have witnessed what would have become of his second term of office, as well as his subsequent years of life after leaving office and the further influence he could have had on others.
What a life!
This is a well researched book. The author has done nothing wrong. It has just failed to pull me in which is on me.
I really like the approach, the entire book is basically from Lincoln's perspective, so there's not much outside of the things Lincoln knew or was considering and it pretty much ends with his death. Very concise and well written, I'm sure it's a book I'll come back to.
Lincoln Bio Trek, Vol. III: The best volume yet, well-paced and perceptive of the president's own world while acknowledging wider social and cultural happenings and contrasting Lincoln's successes and failures in keeping up with both (nodding to Lincoln's ignorance and failure in dealing with Native American policy and unrest, for instance).
If your looking for a complete history of Honest Abe look no fletcher.
But be ready. This is a beast.
I’ll preface this by saying I read this through audible and maybe 1/2 of the star I didn’t give was for the narration. Nothing against the reader but it was exceptionally slow. I don’t usually like increasing the speed of the book while I listen as I want to not miss anything. But the pace it was going when I started was too much. I listened to this at 1.6 speed through most of the book and 1.2 for the final chapter. I felt I still captured everything the author was trying to put out there.
The other half of the star ( giving the book a 4 out of 5) was for content I felt weren’t needed. But that’s just personal preference. There are a lot of accounts of Lincoln’s trial lawyer days a d specifics into various cases. Again, all part of his life but something that didn’t really engage me.
Overall, I do t feel the need to read another book on Lincoln as this title fully encompasses his life from birth to death. Great book and well worth the read.
But be ready. This is a beast.
I’ll preface this by saying I read this through audible and maybe 1/2 of the star I didn’t give was for the narration. Nothing against the reader but it was exceptionally slow. I don’t usually like increasing the speed of the book while I listen as I want to not miss anything. But the pace it was going when I started was too much. I listened to this at 1.6 speed through most of the book and 1.2 for the final chapter. I felt I still captured everything the author was trying to put out there.
The other half of the star ( giving the book a 4 out of 5) was for content I felt weren’t needed. But that’s just personal preference. There are a lot of accounts of Lincoln’s trial lawyer days a d specifics into various cases. Again, all part of his life but something that didn’t really engage me.
Overall, I do t feel the need to read another book on Lincoln as this title fully encompasses his life from birth to death. Great book and well worth the read.
I always enjoy reading books about President Lincoln. I have a lot of respect for him and wonder about how different our country might have been had he not been assassinated so early in his career. Anyway, this book is a very thorough, very in-depth biography of Mr. Lincoln. The author spends about 250-300 pages just on Lincoln's early years, growing up in Illinois, and becoming a lawyer and doing all kinds of various things. Around page 250 or so is where it started getting more into politics. I obviously knew there would be lots of politicking in a book like this, but in my opinion, this goes a little too over the top into politics. For example, Mr. Lincoln ran for a state legislative seat in Illinois a couple of times and those are covered in depth. It just gets worse when Mr. Lincoln is elected President. Oh my! So much politicking that I just started skimming what I was reading and reading only what interested me, which it turns out was more about Mary Todd Lincoln than Abe. You know how it ends. Everyone knows how it ends.
Plague diary book 1 -
I’ve found with my presidential biography project I tend to prefer shorter works that are more to the point. This book is a veritable avalanche of facts about Lincoln, to the point where it feels Donald focuses on the forest from the trees for pages and pages and...pages.
All in all I thought it was pretty good and mostly kept my interest throughout. Given the zillions of books on Lincoln I’d recommend something more focused and punchier though.
I’ve found with my presidential biography project I tend to prefer shorter works that are more to the point. This book is a veritable avalanche of facts about Lincoln, to the point where it feels Donald focuses on the forest from the trees for pages and pages and...pages.
All in all I thought it was pretty good and mostly kept my interest throughout. Given the zillions of books on Lincoln I’d recommend something more focused and punchier though.