And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (Random House Large Print)

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In his captivating new book, Jon Meacham has given us the Lincoln for our time.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Besides the skillful and readable writing, one measure of the scope and depth of this biography is to review the bibliography. In addition to the expected extensive listing of books and scholarly papers, there are 23 sermons Meacham used as resources along with books on race, faith, prayer, the Scottish Enlightenment, and morals. At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen as the greatest of American presidents—a remote icon—or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln—an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment, essential to the story of justice in America, began as he grew up in an antislavery Baptist community; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him to see the right.This is a “can’t put it down” book that reveals Abraham Lincoln in ways that this avid reader has rarely experienced. It almost goes without saying that a life’s influences and story always begin at the beginning. I say “almost” because all too often, a person’s story is presented only via the great events that occurred (often late} in a person’s adult life. In that, much is lost, land that is what too often happens. Happily, with “And There Was Light,” that is definitely not the case, and all is revealed. Here, we learn deeply of Lincoln, and we learn that a person can be both human and great—despite low beginnings, great challenges, and even anguish and tragedy. Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil. Not my cup of tea to look for solace in godly benevolence, but I can understand how he found strength in this belief.

That being the case, historians need to chill out and let the people of the past be themselves, instead of shoehorning them into our present fraught conversations about race. Of course Lincoln is crucial to a historically-informed conversation about this topic, but we should not necessarily set ourselves in judgment over him unless we feel sure that, placed in his position, we would have held more enlightened views. This is an impossible counterfactual to prove, and therefore we should let his deeds speak for themselves and save our judgmental breath to cool our porridge. Much of the book is an argument against the newly-fashionable assertion that Lincoln was really a racist who cared far more about Union than abolition, and whose name and likeness should therefore be removed from places of public prominence. Meacham encourages these critics to understand Lincoln rather than cancel him, by emphasizing his morality, pointing out just how much he was able to accomplish, and how much better off we are today because of it. Meacham shows that, from early in his life, Lincoln believed that slavery was wrong. “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong,” he wrote during his presidency. “I cannot remember when I did not so think, and feel.” In the fourth year of war, two hundred forty-five years after the arrival of the enslaved at Jamestown, eighty-eight years after the Declaration of Independence, and seventy-six years after the ratification of the Constitution, an American president insisted that a core moral commitment to liberty must survive the vicissitudes of politics, the prejudices of race, and the contests of interest. This is not to separate Lincoln's moral vision from his moral sensibilities--an impossibility--but to underscore that he was acting not only for the moment, not only for dominion in the arena, but for all time. His achievement is remarkable not only because he was otherworldly, or saintly, or savior-like, but because he was what he was--an imperfect man seeking to bring a more perfect Union into being." His famous letter to Horace Greeley, in which he seemed to suggest he’d be fine with slavery if it meant the Union would be preserved (the letter “might seem callous but was in fact well calibrated," Meacham writes, since "without Union there could be no emancipation").Lusseyran, Jacques (1985). And There Was Light. Edinburgh: Floris Books. pp.174–176. ISBN 978-086315-507-9. As the the battles of the Civil War raged on, Lincoln won his second election. And Lincoln left no doubt that slavery must, and on his watch, would die. Meacham is a successful historian and now he takes his turn with Abraham Lincoln. I have read quite a bit about the civil war and Lincoln but surprisingly never a biography of Lincoln so it was time. I don't count Team of Rivals which was great but had a different approach than a straight biography.

A President who governed a country at war with itself has muchto teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Abraham Lincoln was president when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions inextricably bound up with money, power, race, identity, and faith. He was hated and hailed, excoriated and revered. In Lincoln we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations. I may not be a great man. I know I am not a great man, and perhaps it is better that it is so for it makes me rely upon one who is great and who has the wisdom and power to lead us safely through this great trial.” LincolnPulitzer Prize–winning biographer and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how - and why - he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America. It's certainly not my place to hazard an answer to this question; personally I find Lincoln endlessly fascinating so the idea that new books about him are superfluous is perplexing. As it happens, though, I am writing this only a few hours after what might be the final public hearing of the January 6 committee so my mind is in a particular place. I suspect it is very similar to the place Jon Meacham was in as he wrote this evocative book.