Abraham Lincoln | FrogenYozurt.Com - Online Literature Magazine

The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower

On February 17, 2013, in Biographies & Memoirs, Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, by Editor

Daniel Stashower, the two-time Edgar award–winning author of The Beautiful Cigar Girl, uncovers the riveting true story of the “Baltimore Plot,” an audacious conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln on the eve of the Civil War in THE HOUR OF PERIL.

Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatism: Lincoln, Douglas, and Moral Conflict by John Burt

On February 16, 2013, in Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, Political, by Editor

Thoroughly informed by historical learning and philosophical sophistication, literary critic John Burt provides a detailed analysis of the Lincoln–Douglas debates in their original context, scrupulously fair to both parties. This is the most profound exploration of the enduring significance of Lincoln’s rhetoric since Harry Jaffa’s classic [Crisis of the House Divided] of 1959.

Team of Rivals: Lincoln Film Tie-in Edition by Doris Kearns Goodwin

On December 14, 2012, in Biographies & Memoirs, Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, Political, by Editor

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln is a book by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin published in 2005. The book is a biographical portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and some of the men who served with him in his Cabinet from 1861 to 1865. Three of his Cabinet members had previously run against Lincoln in the 1860 election: Attorney General Edward Bates, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and Secretary of State William H. Seward.

38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier’s End by Scott W. Berg

On December 13, 2012, in Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, by Editor

Written with uncommon immediacy and insight, 38 Nooses details these events within the larger context of the Civil War, the history of the Dakota people, and the subsequent United States–Indian wars. It is a revelation of an overlooked but seminal moment in American history.

A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico by Amy S. Greenberg

On November 26, 2012, in Book Reviews, Historical Novel, Military, Nonfiction, by Editor

This definitive history of the 1846 conflict paints an intimate portrait of the major players and their world. It is a story of Indian fights, Manifest Destiny, secret military maneuvers, gunshot wounds, and political spin. Along the way it captures a young Lincoln mismatching his clothes, the lasting influence of the Founding Fathers, the birth of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and America’s first national antiwar movement. A key chapter in the creation of the United States, it is the story of a burgeoning nation and an unforgettable conflict that has shaped American history.

Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History by John Fabian Witt

On September 30, 2012, in Biographies & Memoirs, Book Reviews, History, Military, Nonfiction, by Editor

Lincoln’s Code reveals that the controversies of the twenty-first century have roots going back to the beginnings of American history. In a time of heated controversy about the nation’s conduct in wartime, Lincoln’s Code is a compelling story of ideals under pressure and a landmark contribution to our understanding of the American experience.

Elusive Victories: The American Presidency at War by Andrew J. Polsky

On August 5, 2012, in Book Reviews, History, Military, Nonfiction, Political, by Editor

In Elusive Victories, Polsky provides a fascinating study of six wartime presidents, drawing larger lessons about the limits of the power of the White House during armed conflict. He examines, in turn, Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, showing how each gravely overestimated his power as commander-in-chief. In each case, these presidents’ resources did not match the key challenges that recur from war to war. Both Lincoln and Johnson intervened in military operations, giving orders to specific units; yet both struggled with the rising unpopularity of their conflicts.

Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians by Robert W. Merry

On July 14, 2012, in Biographies & Memoirs, Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, Political, by Editor

The author of the acclaimed biography of President James Polk, A Country of Vast Designs, offers a fresh, playful, and challenging way of playing “Rating the Presidents,” by pitching historians’ views and subsequent experts’ polls against the judgment and votes of the presidents’ own contemporaries.

The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation by Stephen Prothero

On July 14, 2012, in Book Reviews, History, Nonfiction, Religious Studies, by Editor

In The American Bible Christopher Hitchens weighs in on Huck Finn, and Sarah Palin on Martin Luther King Jr. From the speeches of Presidents Lincoln, Kennedy, and Reagan to the novels of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Ayn Rand—Prothero takes the reader into the heart of America’s culture wars. These “scriptures” provide the words that continue to unite, divide, and define Americans today.

Freeman: A Liberated Slave Searches His Family – A Novel by Leonard Pitts Jr.

On May 14, 2012, in Book Reviews, Fiction, Historical Novel, by Editor

Freeman, the new novel by Leonard Pitts, Jr., takes place in the first few months following the Confederate surrender and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Upon learning of Lee’s surrender, Sam–a runaway slave who once worked for the Union Army–decides to leave his safe haven in Philadelphia and set out on foot to return to the war-torn South. What compels him on this almost-suicidal course is the desire to find his wife, the mother of his only child, whom he and their son left behind 15 years earlier on the Mississippi farm to which they all “belonged.”