Thursday, December 15, 2005

Abraham Lincoln

I've just completed Doris Kearns Goodwin's outstanding biography of the 16th president, Team of Rivals. Of the books I brought south with me this year, it was the first in my stack.

Over the last several years, it seems, big biographies about presidents have been very popular. For me too. John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, these two are especially memorable for me now due to my reading of David McCullough's (Adams) and Edmund Morris's (2 volumes on Roosevelt, especially Theodore Rex) work.

I had never concentrated on Lincoln. Sure, I've read about extensively about the Civil War (some of my friends insist on calling it still "The War of Northern Aggression"...but it wasn't), especially Shelby Foote's 3-volume history, so I looked forward to Goodwin's book if for no other reason than to gain an appreciation of the president many consider our greatest.

Some of my favorite moments were when Goodwin draws the picture of Lincoln in the military camps, getting out of Washingtonto be with the troops just before or after battle, looking beyond or over the corpses or mountains of lost limbs and offering hope and thanks to those doing the actual fighting. He was a man of the people, a "rail-splitter," more adept at telling a story or anecdote to illustrate a point than pedantically recalling a passage from Herodotus or Cicero.

Lincoln's story is many-faceted, but this book focuses primarily on his leadership. Think: someone as moral as Carter, as innately intelligent as LBJ, and politically savvy as Reagan ... and you have a fraction of Lincoln's skills. Charismatic he was not, but in an era when newspapers were practically the only media, the telegenic requirement just wasn't there.

Above all, Lincoln led not by consensus but rather by seeking input and then mandating through a strong, consistent will and deft timing. He intended his Cabinet - and this book is often as much about his Cabinet as it is about Lincoln; in fact, Goodwin uses his Cabinet to help define the President... He used his Cabinet as a sounding board, never a punching bag. On many occasions he forgave them of their ambitious reachings or administrative mis-steps in order to preserve them as a unified group and preserve a delicate balance of political power.

Leadership requires strength and courage. Lincoln's life in the American political arena displayed plenty of both.

2 Comments:

Blogger Mark Burris - BURRIS said...

Anne Cassity responded by email. Her message/comment here:
--
sounds like an interesting bio... i was struck by the thought that the media has probably profoundly and forever affected the way we elect our political leaders. it's hard to imagine, for instance, that lincoln would have been elected in the 80s over someone with the camera-savvy of reagan, even though lincoln would have had to far surpass him in intelligence, not to mention qualifications for the job. as you look over the past 20 years, it becomes more apparent how much one's finesse in front of the media affects one's chances for election and re-election. it's an unfortunate thing for this country.

i heard an excellent interview on NPR with the writer, joshua shenk, who has written the new book "Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness." this is a book i plan to read in 2006. i'll share my thoughts (or the book) once i've read it.

anne

p.s. i didn't respond to the blog because it seems a bit cumbersome to have to go through the mechanics of registration. isn't there a way this could be easier?

7:40 AM  
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11:04 PM  

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