Abraham Lincoln: A LifeNow in paperback, this award-winning biography has been hailed as the definitive portrait of Lincoln. In the first multi-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln to be published in decades, Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame offers a fresh look at the life of one of America’s greatest presidents. Incorporating the field notes of earlier biographers, along with decades of research in multiple manuscript archives and long-neglected newspapers, this remarkable work will both alter and reinforce current understanding of America’s sixteenth president. In volume 2, Burlingame examines Lincoln’s presidency and the trials of the Civil War. He supplies fascinating details on the crisis over Fort Sumter and the relentless office seekers who plagued Lincoln. He introduces readers to the president’s battles with hostile newspaper editors and his quarrels with incompetent field commanders. Burlingame also interprets Lincoln’s private life, discussing his marriage to Mary Todd, the untimely death of his son Willie to disease in 1862, and his recurrent anguish over the enormous human costs of the war. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 40 | |
Distributing Patronage MarchApril 1861 | 69 |
The Fort Sumter Crisis MarchApril 1861 | 98 |
The Hundred Days AprilJuly 1861 | 131 |
The Phony War August 1861January 1862 | 190 |
The Lincoln Family in the Executive Mansion | 249 |
Illustrations | 270 |
From the Mud March to Gettysburg JanuaryJuly 1863 | 474 |
Victory at the Polls and in the Field JulyNovember 1863 | 526 |
Reconstruction and Renomination November 1863June 1864 | 581 |
The Grand Offensive MayAugust 1864 | 646 |
Reelection SeptemberNovember 1864 | 681 |
Victory at Last November 1864April 1865 | 731 |
The Final Days April 915 1865 | 799 |
Acknowledgments | 835 |