Product Description

In Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America, historian William Gienapp provides a remarkably concise, up-to-date, and vibrant biography of the most revered figure in United States history. While the heart of the book focuses on the Civil War, Gienapp begins with a finely etched portrait of Lincoln's early life, from pioneer farm boy to politician and lawyer in Springfield, to his stunning election as sixteenth president of the United States. Students will see how Lincoln grew during his years in office, how he developed a keen aptitude for military strategy and displayed enormous skill in dealing with his generals, and how his war strategy evolved from a desire to preserve the Union to emancipation and total war. Gienapp shows how Lincoln's early years influenced his skills as commander-in-chief and demonstrates that, throughout the stresses of the war years, Lincoln's basic character shone through: his good will and fundamental decency, his remarkable self-confidence matched with genuine humility, his immunity to the passions and hatreds the war spawned, his extraordinary patience, and his timeless devotion. A former backwoodsman and country lawyer, Abraham Lincoln rose to become one of our greatest presidents. This biography offers a vivid account of Lincoln's dramatic ascension to the pinnacle of American history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73006 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Harvard history professor Gienapp (The Origins of the Republican Party) devotes a mere 70 pages of his brief new biography to Abraham Lincoln's prepresidential life; in a volume that "synthesizes modern scholarship about Lincoln" with the author's own studies, the Civil War years rightfully get most of the attention. At 51, Lincoln was one of the youngest men to be elected president, and he was also the first Westerner. Something of an unknown to Republican Party power brokers back east, Lincoln didn't have time to prove himself viable before South Carolina seceded from the Union and the Civil War loomed. Gienapp's primary ambition is to show how the green, upstart president handled the four years of crisis that followed and how he became such an "extraordinary war leader." Throughout the book, he reveals Lincoln as a shrewd arbitrator of political factions, armies and perhaps most importantly rhetoric and propaganda. Likewise, Gienapp shows Lincoln the man: the father grieving over the death of a cherished son, the husband dealing with a moody, combustible wife. Gienapp seems to especially relish accounts of the harried Lincoln's savvy PR moves throughout the war, as when, in 1864, he threw a bone to Northern pacifists and expressed his willingness to engage in peace talks with the Confederacy. At the same time, Lincoln set out rigid preconditions for the talks that he knew Jefferson Davis never could accept. This is the Lincoln Gienapp gives us: astute, subtle, incisive and tragic. Illus. (Apr.) Forecast: This is a fine intro for new browsers through the Lincoln bookshelf, though David Herbert Donald's work remains the definitive bio to date.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Not taking much stock in the genre, Lincoln tried to shield himself from biography by guarding his private self and carefully crafting his public words and image. Of course, so complex a man, who came to embody America in its ordeal by fire, has attracted scores of biographers hoping to solve the ultimate American enigma. Now Gienapp, author of the acclaimed Origins of the Republican Party, enters the crowded field. This biography neatly synthesizes much recent scholarship and makes Lincoln believable as a president struggling to defend the Union and define freedom. Rather than inventing a Lincoln psyche or persona, as some biographers have done, or trading in oft-recycled Lincoln myths, Giennap goes back to the primary sources to discover a Lincoln who was simultaneously principled and practical, confident of his ability to persuade (though too much so in dealing with generals) and assured in making policy (he was a loner who relied on his own judgment). He does not find the source of Lincoln's enormous ambition, but he does show why Lincoln etched his thought and character into Americans' understanding of themselves. In the public speeches Gienapp gathers in This Fiery Trail, the clarity and cadences of Lincoln's language resound. It is a most apt collection, useful to teachers and anyone wanting to know why Lincoln was our herald. These books in tandem are an excellent way to get hold of Lincoln. Highly recommended. Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Historians studying Lincoln still manage to find original avenues of approach (see William Lee Miller's recent Lincoln's Virtues), but otherwise, the roads are deeply rutted by steady scholarly and popular traffic, which feeds the need for the synthesizing overview. Harvard professor Gienapp competently fills this need with this Lincoln biography. Eschewing any interpretation of Lincoln's interior life (which Gienapp describes as "resorting to some dubious psychological theory"), he develops the sinuous course of Lincoln's political career. Parallel to his discussion of Lincoln's political ambition, acumen, and assiduity, Gienapp accents Lincoln's oratorical maturation. "Cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason"--a phrase from an early Lincoln speech--was apparent in much of his wartime leadership. Clarifying for new Lincolnphiles the immense demands on Lincoln may be the best aspect of Gienapp's synthesis. A perceptive introduction to the sixteenth president's significance. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Abraham Lincoln in one slim volume.
This book is a welcome addition ot the already crowded Lincolnia bookself. The author is the presumed successor to the retired David Herbert Donald at Harvard University. Gienapp has produced a highly readable and concise version of a Lincoln biography that can be completed on a moderately long airplane trip(and it's quite portable unlike most hardcover books). While relatively short,this book is a sufficiently thorough treatment of the Civil War Lincoln. I especially enjoyed the author's analysis of the politician Lincoln who mastered his rivals, both Republican and Democrat. This a good book for either a new Lincoln /Civil War "buff" or a good refresher for a scholar of the times.

Abraham Lincoln And Civil War America
William Gienapp's Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America answers a longstanding need for a biography of Lincoln manageable in size, accessible in style, and wise and balanced in content. Lincoln appers on every page of the book and is never lost sight of in the welter of events. He emerges from the text a real believable person, an individual and persuasive assessment of Lincoln's leadership abilities, the finest such appraisal avilable anywhere.

a great concise biography
Gienapp, William E. 'Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America; A Biography.' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

The recently deceased, William Gienapp's brief biography of Abraham Lincoln is in great need to be revisited. Since the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, nearly 50 new Lincoln books are set to come out, yet few will be as concise and well organized as Gienapps.

While Gienapp offers few new quotations in his work, his use of them as well as more well known ones is unparalleled; making for a new and refreshing read. Along the same lines as James M McPherson's Tried by War, Gienapp (6 years earlier) attempted to explain "why this man [Abraham Lincoln] turned out to be such an extraordinary war leader." (x)

Gienapp starts his book with Lincolns obscured early years. This section, nearly 80 pages worth of reading, seems characterless and stale. He merely follows the chronology of Lincoln, leaving the reader with an almost obsolete knowledge of the antebellum period. However, once Lincoln is elected president in 1860, the remaining of the book is a marvelous read.

Gienapp devotes large sections of his book to tracing the development and concept of Total War. Believing that the Civil War was the first total war, Gienapp writes that by 1864, "the Union army had confiscated private property in the South, expelled disloyal civilians from Union lines, emancipated slaves, utilized black soldiers, and waged a grinding, all-out form of warfare. To this mix was now added the dimension of psychological warfare designed to break the will of southern civilians. This was the nineteenth-century equivalent of the strategy of total war." (177) Gienapp's definition of total war is near the best offered. Other than McPherson's 1996 essay "From Limited to Total War," Gienapp comes the closest to understanding the concept. However Gienapp seems to forget the importance that new technology plays in total war which seems odd when one reflects on Lincolns interests and support for new advancements in technology. By 1864, most Union soldiers were equipped with the seven shot repeating carbine rifle, giving them a distinct and deadly advantage over their southern opponents. Also the appearance of Ironclad warships helped to change naval warfare. This component is important within the evolution of Total Warfare.

Following the trend of other historians, Gienapp heavily favors the war in the east. Gienapp also forgets about the harsh guerrilla warfare that was going on in Missouri and Kansas. Here, as Joseph Glatthar demonstrates in his Partners in Command, is were Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Porter (the major proponents of the hard war concept) were first exposed to the ruthless type of war which would be required to dispel the rebellion.

Curiously, Gienapp writes on several occasions that the Union never took any propaganda efforts to mobilize the public. This is not completely true, in an essay by William Hesseltine in 1935, Hesseltine convincingly demonstrates that in 1861, as a result of McClellan's inactivity, Senator Benjamin Wade created the Committee on the Conduct of the War which highly publicized Southern atrocities toward Union soldiers in an effort to enrage the Northern public opinion. While this propaganda may or may not have been influenced by Lincoln, it is spurious to write there were no attempts to create a war hysteria through propaganda. In fact, the Norths bellicose mood after the end of the war culminated in the hanging of Captain Henry Wirtz, is direct evidence of sustained war hysteria.

Gienapp demonstrates his overall ability as a scholar by effectively including small and obscure events such as Lincoln's Corning Letter into the text. Here Lincoln responds to Democrat Erastus Corning to defend his measures against civil liberties. Gienapp writes Lincoln was always more concerned with policy to end the war rather then policy to up hold an already sundered Constitution. It is these small inclusions which puts Gienapps work closer to the level of much larger Civil War study's such as McPherson's Pulitzer prize winning, 'Battle Cry of Freedom' and David Donald's 'Civil War and Reconstruction.'

In conclusion Gienapp's study is an effective biography given its relatively small breadth. The book offers a large punch and should be considered by both experts and laymen alike as an example of first rate scholarship. It's small size and relatively inexpensive price should make this book a standard within the field.