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michellewords's review
4.0
05/09/2014 I started Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years in Three Volumes. I finished the series one day before Independence Day. The stars and stripes cover nearby houses and military men in uniform carried the colors so proudly in the parades across the nation. When I stood for the flag, it looked a little different yesterday. Each portion reminded me of the lost lives, the strong men and women, the sacrifice that so many have made to make this nation what it is today. I pictured Lincoln's face with a near-grin. He did not live to see the United States come truly together and be united as we are today.
In two months I gained far perspective and understand than I ever expected.
This book was emotional for me. Lincoln became so real to me and his impact on the nation and the world is greater than I understood previous to this series. Many times the series read like a history book, reporting numbers and political jargon that I ended up skimming over. It was so worth it to read this book. Abraham Lincoln, General Grant, Andrew Johnson and the people close to him became so three-dimensional. Not just words or facts, real people who had real impact and real results.
He went from a poor farmer with a fixation on reading to changing human rights forever. His determination and stubborn moral beliefs held this nation together at some of the hardest most trying points.
Book One, The Prairies Years set the scene; book two; The War Years 1861-1864 marks the changes; and book three; The War Years 1864-1865 marks the reunion.
I cannot sufficiently explain the power of this series with words. This final book plays out the end of the final moments of the placing the 13th Amendment, the Confederacy surrender and Abraham Lincoln's death.
I cried in this book twice; once when General Lee surrenders and again at Lincoln's passing.
Through the Civil War, Lincoln held to his guns and would not accept surrender unless the Confederacy agreed to implicate the Emancipation Proclamation and remain in the Union. His stubborn belief in human rights and the nation is seriously awe-inspiring to me. In his lifetime, he saw slavery abolished and rights established. African Americans went from being property and not able to even read a book without breaking the law to being paid, equally as white men in the army and framework set for education and owning property/voting.
The scene of his death was worded so perfectly that I could not put the book down. I felt as though I were there, standing at this bedside and grasping his long, thin fingers while his life faded.
Abraham Lincoln is seriously worthy of heroic stance in American history. One of the greatest Americans that every lived. How differently our nation would be without his impact!
I love what he stood for. He was kind, understanding, stubborn, strong, he took on the weight of Presidency and so much more, he never turned away anyone who needed him, trusting and calm. The book almost demands perfection of Abraham Lincoln, although it's clear he had flaws. He embodied so much of America and what America should be about.
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