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A Presidential Life a new biography
Oxford University Press
December 2008
On Sale: December 9, 2008
Featuring: Abraham Lincoln
96 pages
ISBN: 0195374525
EAN: 9780195374520
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
Marking the two hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's birth, this marvelous short biography by a leading historian offers an illuminating portrait of one of the giants in the American story. Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson follows the son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks from his early years in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, to his highly successful law career and his marriage to Mary Todd, to his one term in Congress. We witness the dramatic impact the Kansan-Nebraska Act had on Lincoln, arousing him "as he had never been before," leading him to plunge back into politics as a leader of the Republican anti-slavery movement. In 1858, Lincoln ran for Senator in Illinois as a Republican, challenging Stephen A. Douglas (a long acquaintance and former rival for the hand of Mary Todd) to a series of famous debates. Lincoln lost the election, but politically his star rose even higher, and he became a candidate for president in 1860, winning the presidency despite garnering less than 40% of the popular vote, and no votes at all in ten southern states. McPherson describes Lincoln's masterful role as Commander in Chief during the Civil War, the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and his assassination by John Wilkes Booth. A final section discusses his lasting legacy and why he remains a quintessential American hero two hundred years after his birth, while a bibliography and a list of online resources permit easy access to further scholarship. McPherson here provides an ideal short account of Lincoln--a compelling biography of a man of humble origins who preserved our nation during its greatest catastrophe and ended the scourge of slavery.
 Media BuzzNewsHour with Jim Lehrer - February 12, 2009
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