Richard Carwardine

I finished reading Richard Carwardine's Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power, a solid 4-star biography. While the facts of Lincoln’s personal and political are not dramatically altered, the lens by which Lincoln is viewed is interesting. Lincoln's journey is highlighted by his use of an immature and developing Republican Party structure, which during Lincoln's political career consisted of a variety of disparate groups often at odds with each other from abolitionists, to Evangelical Protestants, nativist groups such as the know nothings, anti-slavery democrats, former Whigs, immigrants.

Lincoln had an early political career as a representative in the Illinois State House, followed by one term as U.S. Congressman and a losing bid for the U.S. Senate highlighted by his debates with Democrat Stephen A. Douglas.

He had a lifelong transition in his feelings towards slavery highlighted by his support of the Wilmot Proviso to exclude territory acquired by The Mexican American War, his Cooper Union Speech, his stand against the Kansas Nebraska Act, his continuing evolution while President culminating in the initial Emancipation Proclamation and final Proclamation, and the platform for his reelection calling for an Amendment Abolishing Slavery.

Lincoln was a master political strategist who never lost his connection to the common man who used his early political stumping and traveling the circuit as a lawyer. His reading of numerous newspapers while in office, meeting with soldiers, and meeting with clergymen of various denominations.

It was Lincoln's political savvy, his touch with the common man, and masterful use of the Republican political machine to get elected, reelected, and his political agenda passed. He used an increasing political power and centralization of executive powers brought in by the Civil War expertly, but not with capriciousness.

A novel approach most like David Reynolds recent biography Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times. An excellent biography which I heartily endorse for those interested in a interesting biography on Lincoln.… (más)

Richard Carwardine’s book is an entertaining and perceptive look at the role that humor played in the life of the 16th president. That Lincoln enjoyed telling jokes and stories is hardly new, as it was part of his appeal to his contemporaries. What Carwardine does is analyze the various ways in which he used humor and the insights it provides into his personality. Thanks to an extraordinarily retentive memory, Lincoln had a seemingly inexhaustible fund of anecdotes, tall tales, and jokes which he used throughout his career. Telling jokes drew people to Lincoln, making him a popular figure on the legal circuit and on the stump. How Lincoln used humor evolved over time, as he toned down the sometimes harsh satirical attacks of his youth to develop a broader and less insulting form by the time he reached the presidency. Carwardine sees Lincoln’s love of humor as a tool for coping with depression, though his frequent resort to it became a point of criticism during the Civil War as many – including members of his own administration – often interpreted it as a lack of seriousness about his responsibilities. Readers of Carwardine’s book have a more sophisticated understanding of the subject thanks to this discerning study, which with its frequent recounting of the jokes Lincoln employed is a pleasure to read.… (más)

William Lee Miller bookends his bestselling biography, "President Lincoln," with an introduction and conclusion that focus on the global response to Abraham Lincoln. Miller contrasts the perfunctory greetings that Lincoln received from other heads of state when he assumed office with the more expansive condolences these leaders sent following his assassination. While Miller clearly believed that the changing tone offered a global appreciation, and even affirmation, of Lincoln's service as president, these chapters offered more questions than answers in my reading.

In a new way, after reading Miller's conclusion, I wondered if the global outpouring about Lincoln immediately following his assassination was a short-term emotional response or if it inaugurated Lincoln into the pantheon of noteworthy leaders, as it did in the United States. While Lincoln's cultural impact in the United States is fairly obvious, and has been the subject of many recent books, such cultural impact worldwide has been largely unstudied, especially outside of the British Isles.

"The Global Lincoln," a series of essays edited by Richard Carwardine and Jay Sexton, seeks to explore this very question. Growing out of a conference sponsored jointly by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and Oxford University in 2009, the book brings together the research of several historians on the legacy of Abraham Lincoln around the world. While fully half of the essays focus on Europe (and half of those specifically on the United Kingdom and Ireland), there are also intriguing essays on Lincoln's reputation and cultural impact in India, Africa, East Asia, and, intriguingly, the American South.

The essays are a bit varied in their focuses. Some, like Harold Holzer's essay on the Lincoln image in Europe, build on previous work. A couple focus on Lincoln's specific impact during his presidency on Germany and Italy in one piece, and on Britain in another. Most, though, attempt a brief assessment on the Lincoln legacy over the last 150 years in specific countries or regions. In particular, essays by Vinay Lal and De-Min Tao on Lincoln's cultural impact in India and in China and Japan, respectively, are especially fascinating and provocative.

In large part, the individual chapters reinforce each other -- and the conclusions of books on Lincoln's impact in the United States -- showing that the person of Abraham Lincoln has been a fairly tractable and malleable figure, useful in different ways at various times in various contexts, though with certain limitations. They also demonstrate that Lincoln has been adopted as a global statesman, recognizable and studied around the world.

The limitations of this book are straightforward. As in any new exploration, only so much ground can be covered. At times, the individual chapters seem to be hopscotching through history; more frustrating, though, is that large swaths of the globe -- the continent of Africa and the continent and a half of Latin America -- receive only a single chapter each.

Still, the overall strengths of "The Global Lincoln" far outweigh its limitations. The essays are strong, particularly those from well-known names in Lincoln/Civil War circles -- Richard Carwardine, Harold Holzer, and David Blight. And the project, long-overdue, invites the opening of new territory for future Lincoln and Civil War studies, namely the impact of this American crisis, and the examples of its key leaders facing that crisis, around the world.

This review is also published at http://lincolniana.blogspot.com/2012/07/book-review-global-lincoln.html… (más)