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Lincoln: A Photobiography

Russell Freedman

Start date: May 28, 2013

Finish date: May 28, 2013

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Feb 13, 2013 Dolly rated it really liked it

Shelves: native-american, 2013, nonfiction, caribbean, military, other-usa, south-central-america-mexico, biography-autobiography-memoir, middle-grade, education-school

This is a solidly informative book that not only offers a biographical sketch of our 16th President, but also sheds some insight into his character and mannerisms. The narrative is very readable and neither bores nor overwhelms with details. The pictures, mainly photographs, are quite dramatic and do not spare the reader the horrors of war. I intended to read this book with our girls, but I scanned it first myself and realized that it was a bit too mature for them still. So I read it on my own. This is a solidly informative book that not only offers a biographical sketch of our 16th President, but also sheds some insight into his character and mannerisms. The narrative is very readable and neither bores nor overwhelms with details. The pictures, mainly photographs, are quite dramatic and do not spare the reader the horrors of war. I intended to read this book with our girls, but I scanned it first myself and realized that it was a bit too mature for them still. So I read it on my own. It's a fast read, but one of the best biographies on Lincoln I've ever seen.

interesting quotes:

"The North had swept Lincoln into office. In the South, his name hadn't even appeared on the ballot." (p. 64)

[regarding the Emancipation Proclamation] "Ordinarily he signed 'A. Lincoln.' But today, as he put pen to paper, he carefully wrote out his full name. 'If my name ever goes into history,' he said then, 'it will be for this act.'" (p. 91)

"Lincoln reminded his critics that thousands of black soldiers were now fighting and dying in the Union ranks: 'You say you will not fight to free Negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you...Why should they do anything for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive - even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept.'" (p. 94)

"The American Civil War had lasted almost exactly four years and cost the nation more than six-hundred thousand lives - about equal to the death toll in all other U.S. wars combined, before and since. Neither side had expected the war to last so long. And neither side had expected it to end slavery." (p. 115)

[from letter to H.L. Pierce and others, April 6, 1859] "He who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it." (p. 135)

[remark by Lincoln from diary of his secretary, John Hay, December 24, 1863] "Common-looking people are the best in the world; that is the reason The Lord makes so many of them." (p. 136)

[From an address to an Indiana Regiment, March 17, 1865] "I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire it for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." (p. 137) ...more

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