920.073 STAUFFER 2008
Giants : the parallel lives of Frederick Douglass & Abraham Lincoln /John Stauffer.
ISBN: 0446580090
Booklist (Wednesday, October 01, 2008):Like Paul and Steven Kendrick, authors of the recent Douglass and Lincoln, Stauffer has to scale up to achieve book size, since the men’s personal relationship consisted of just three meetings. Stauffer does that partially by using the Kendrick’s method of chronicling Douglass' criticisms of Lincoln and partially by presenting a dual biography couched in the theme of the self-made man. As he hits the mile markers of the men’s rise from nothing, Stauffer, an English professor, often speculates about what each man certainly or would have thought about events in their lives (such as Lincoln's supposed homosexuality, of which Stauffer is convinced, despite acknowledging there is no explicit evidence). This casts his narrative more as historical essay than straightforward history. Stauffer also emphasizes what he regards as key features of the men’s interaction, such as a friendship, perhaps genuine, perhaps diffident, growing out of Lincoln's incremental adoption of the abolitionist position championed by Douglass. A work well worth the attention of students of emancipation. – Gilbert Taylor (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)
BIO 973.7092 LINCOLN 2009
ISBN: 0446580090
Booklist (Wednesday, October 01, 2008):Like Paul and Steven Kendrick, authors of the recent Douglass and Lincoln, Stauffer has to scale up to achieve book size, since the men’s personal relationship consisted of just three meetings. Stauffer does that partially by using the Kendrick’s method of chronicling Douglass' criticisms of Lincoln and partially by presenting a dual biography couched in the theme of the self-made man. As he hits the mile markers of the men’s rise from nothing, Stauffer, an English professor, often speculates about what each man certainly or would have thought about events in their lives (such as Lincoln's supposed homosexuality, of which Stauffer is convinced, despite acknowledging there is no explicit evidence). This casts his narrative more as historical essay than straightforward history. Stauffer also emphasizes what he regards as key features of the men’s interaction, such as a friendship, perhaps genuine, perhaps diffident, growing out of Lincoln's incremental adoption of the abolitionist position championed by Douglass. A work well worth the attention of students of emancipation. – Gilbert Taylor (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)
BIO 973.7092 LINCOLN 2009
A. Lincoln : a biography / Ronald C. White, Jr
ISBN: 1400064996
Booklist (Thursday , January 01, 2009): A scholar of Lincoln’s rhetoric (Lincoln's Greatest Speech, 2002), White offers the full-bodied Lincoln biography, the most recent example of which was David Herbert Donald’s highly praised Lincoln (1995). Donald’s intent was to craft a definitive portrait of Lincoln's enigmatic personality, while White aims for a chronological narrative of Lincoln's public activity. White adheres to a factual tone rather than trying to figure Lincoln out a la Donald. This is an important need for readers seeking the arc of Lincoln’s life (rather than an interpretation of it) and is one that White ably fulfills. Recounting Lincoln's beginnings, White informs readers about the importance of Lincolns' stepmother; the rapidity with which Lincoln, once emancipated from his father, gained political standing in Sangamon County, Illinois, in the 1830s; and the rise of his reputation through descriptions of numerous election campaigns that Lincoln conducted from his power base. Capped by his account of Lincolns' Civil War presidency, White's book provides a solid informational foundation. – Gilbert Taylor (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)
BIO 973.7092 LINCOLN 2009
Booklist (Monday, December 1, 2008): This biography of the wife of the sixteenth president is perfectly timed: it will be published in the first month of the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. It is certainly not a rush job. Clinton's careful research and thoughtful presentation result in the best treatment of the troubled life of Mary Lincoln in recent memory. It is important to approach Mrs. Lincoln with not only respect but also balance, to not only understand her eccentricities but also sympathize with them while making no unwarranted excuses for her. This Clinton does brilliantly. Mary Lincoln’s mercurial, insecure personality and crimes, namely, overspending on clothes and White House improvements, were hot fodder for journalists during her husband's administration and even during her peripatetic widowhood. Clinton sees Mary making many wrong choices in behavior that simply fueled the smear campaign against her and gives witness to Mary’s deteriorating mental condition after the shock of her husband’s assassination played havoc with her already fragile stability. The issue of whether she went insane, her only living child, Robert, had her committed for a while to an asylum to stop her waywardness is sensitively analyzed. She was, and continues to be, controversial, but, as Clinton submits, she remains a figure of great color, worthy of continued interest. – Brad Hooper (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)
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