Ocean State Libraries

Evaluates Lincoln's talents as a commander in chief in spite of limited military experience, tracing the ways in which he worked with, or against, his senior commanders to defeat the Confederacy and reshape the presidential role.

"A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Abraham Lincoln was president when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions inextricably bound up with money, power, race, identity, and faith. He was hated and hailed, excoriated and revered. In Lincoln we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations. At once familiar...

Referring to the war that was raging across parts of the American landscape, Abraham Lincoln told Congress in 1862, "We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope on earth." Lincoln recognized what was at stake in the American Civil War: not only freedom for 3.5 million slaves but also survival of self-government in the last place on earth where it could have the opportunity of developing freely.
Noted historian Steven E. Woodworth...

Discover the clever plan behind Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and learn how it freed the first slaves.

For the first time, readers will experience America's gravest crisis through the eyes of the five former presidents who lived it. Author and historian Chris DeRose chronicles history's most epic Presidential Royal Rumble, which culminated in a multi-front effort against Lincoln's reelection bid, but not before:
* John Tyler engaged in shuttle diplomacy between President Buchanan and the new Confederate Government. He chaired the Peace Convention

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This is a book about two towering figures in our nation's history. It is a moving story about an improbable friendship, and an important story about an equally improbable alliance. [In the book, the author] has written a ... narrative history. He brings these two iconic figures to life and sheds new light on the central issues of slavery, race, and equality in Civil War America.-Dust jacket.

"The story of how Congress helped win the Civil War -- a new perspective that puts the House and Senate, rather than Lincoln, at the center of the conflict. This [...] new perspective on the Civil War overturns the popular conception that Abraham Lincoln single-handedly led the Union to victory and gives us a vivid account of the essential role Congress played in winning the war. Building a riveting narrative around four influential members of Congress--Thaddeus...