A SELF-MADE MAN - The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849

[RJNorton]

Many thanks to Bill Richter for sending this information:

A SELF-MADE MAN
The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849
By Sidney Blumenthal
556 pp. Simon & Schuster

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Poli...147677725X

Bill also sent this link to Steven Hahn's review in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/books/....html?_r=0


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Another book which I personally recommend is The Lincoln Assassination Riddle. My wife had cataract surgery yesterday, and I was able to essentially read the entire book in the waiting room. Several of our forum members contributed, and there are many chapters that deal with topics we have covered on the forum. I enjoyed the book - highly interesting. Among other things, you will find out if our own emergency medicine physician, Dr. Blaine Houmes, thinks Abraham Lincoln could have been saved using modern trauma/critical care techniques.

[Angela]

(05-27-2016 04:11 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Many thanks to Bill Richter for sending this information:

A SELF-MADE MAN
The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849
By Sidney Blumenthal
556 pp. Simon & Schuster

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Poli...147677725X

Bill also sent this link to Steven Hahn's review in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/books/....html?_r=0


***************************************************

Another book which I personally recommend is The Lincoln Assassination Riddle. My wife had cataract surgery yesterday, and I was able to essentially read the entire book in the waiting room. Several of our forum members contributed, and there are many chapters that deal with topics we have covered on the forum. I enjoyed the book - highly interesting. Among other things, you will find out if our own emergency medicine physician, Dr. Blaine Houmes, thinks Abraham Lincoln could have been saved using modern trauma/critical care techniques.

Thank you for this, Roger! First of all - how is your wife doing? Hope she is ok after the surgery!?!

The NY review sounds as if he was able to detect the story behind the "mother" quote - so, interesting.
I tried to log onto the virtualbooksigning the other night to hear his talk - but for some technical reason could not connect. Now it appears that I will have to wait till November to hear him talk and THEN decide whether there really IS need for another biography.
I am really curious!

I just received "April 1865" and have to admit, my heart goes out to Robert E. Lee.
I have never paid too much attention to the Generals and military tactics but this reads like a thriller and the author is a master story teller.
I wonder how things would have been different if Lee and Grant or Lee and Lincoln had met under different circumstances (Lee and Grant DID but there wasn't any room for actually "meeting").

[Richard Lawrence Miller]

In the past week I have read the first volume of Sidney Blumenthal’s four-volume Lincoln biography, and would like to share some thoughts about A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1809—1849 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016).

The book attracted my attention because it deals with my own particular interest in Lincoln, his pre-presidential years. Moreover, the author is an experienced politician and therefore can be expected to offer a slant promoting an understanding of Lincoln that is seldom found in products from academic writers. And, indeed, Blumenthal sees political angles throughout the Lincoln story. The chapter on Lincoln’s interactions with Joseph Smith and Smith’s Mormon followers is especially welcome. Blumenthal also pauses occasionally for a sentence or two about how one character has a family connection with another one. The relationship may be distant, but characters are aware of dealing with relatives.

Given Blumenthal’s continuing involvement with politics at the highest level, his ability to produce such a fine biography amazes me. He has stated that he spent about ten years working on the project. I cannot imagine how he found time to do it. His passion for the subject must be intense. Such dedication is evident in the current book.

Readers won’t go wrong by treating A Self-Made Man as authoritative. Blumenthal’s volume is quite accurate. On some topics his understanding differs from mine, but I detect only a handful of outright factual mistakes, and all are historical equivalents of typographical errors, such as describing Lincoln as a presidential elector instead of being a CANDIDATE for the Electoral College.

Having written a multi-volume biography of Lincoln myself, I appreciate the difficulty of avoiding an occasional factual misstep and have always considered it churlish to point where someone has stumbled. I give the above example simply because someone may wonder what I mean by trivial mistake. Blumenthal’s book is so sturdy that such a minor blemish should be disregarded.

He and I do, however, disagree on a more substantive point that wavers on the border between factual correctness and incorrectness. Blumenthal, like many other fine students of the Lincoln story, is struck by a searing quotation attributed to Lincoln: “I used to be a slave.” This presumably refers to long exploitation by his father who forced Lincoln to do heavy labor while confiscating the lad’s earnings. Interesting conclusions about Lincoln’s political motivations can be drawn from that statement. In important discussion at both the opening and ending of Blumenthal’s book he ponders the meaning of those words.

Although most Lincoln historians treat that quotation as authentic, I am not among them. My doubt is shared by Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher in their Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln. The quotation’s source is Lincoln’s New Salem associate John Roll, who says Lincoln interrupted his carefully prepared House Divided speech with an aside telling the audience that he and Roll had both been treated as slaves.

Give and take between speaker and hearers enlivened western stump speaking, but House Divided was no stump oration. Lincoln crafted that address for a national audience and was unlikely to interrupt the flow of his argument with a spontaneous reminiscence about New Salem’s good old days. Both the interruption and the passionate nature of the quotation would likely have been remembered by reporters or other auditors, but Roll is the sole source that I know of.

He may be a reliable witness for other parts of the Lincoln story, but I reject Roll’s testimony on this point. Paradoxically, however, I also find Blumenthal’s commentary on the quotation to be worthwhile even though I suspect the phrase he analyzes is spurious. Go figure.

Endnotes documenting the book’s narrative are plentiful, and secondary sources chosen for citation are reliable. I feel quiet satisfaction that books written by yours truly were useful to Blumenthal.

A Self-Made Man is a pleasure to read and deserves to rank high on the list of Lincoln biographies.

[RJNorton]

(06-23-2016 10:36 AM)Richard Lawrence Miller Wrote:  The chapter on Lincoln’s interactions with Joseph Smith

Richard, many thanks for posting about A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln Vol. I, 1809 - 1849. I am curious about Mr. Blumenthal's references to Joseph Smith. I did not realize there was any really solid evidence the two men (Abraham Lincoln and Joseph Smith) ever met.

[Richard Lawrence Miller]

If I have left the impression that Blumenthal says Lincoln and Smith met face-to-face, I have miscommunicated. I referred to Lincoln’s involvement with projects in which Smith had a personal interest. Lincoln did have personal contact with some Mormon leaders and received their thanks for assistance given but, like you, I’ve seen nothing to suggest that Lincoln and Smith met. Blumenthal does not say the two men met. We do know that Mary Todd Lincoln was a courtroom spectator when Smith was under trial for an offense.

The Mormon situation normally gets cursory treatment from Lincoln biographers, but it was a major factor in Illinois politics of the era, which Blumenthal seems to realize.

[Gene C]

Slightly off subject, but interesting none the less....

In late 1839, arriving Mormons bought the small town of Commerce and in April 1840 it was renamed Nauvoo[1] by Joseph Smith, who led the Latter Day Saints to Nauvoo to escape conflict with the state government in Missouri. .... It is notable that “by 1844 Nauvoo's population had swollen to 12,000, rivaling the size of Chicago” at the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauvoo,_Illinois

Nauvoo is located on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River near the where the Illinois, Missouri and Iowa state boarders meet. It is about 130 miles NW of Springfield.

Joseph Smith died in 1844. To avoid further violence, Brigham Young led most of the Mormons further west, eventually settling Utah. The population of Nauvoo has remained around 1,000 for the past 100+ years.

It is an interesting place, well worthy of a visit if you are ever in the area.
http://www.beautifulnauvoo.com/

[Don1946]

I apologize for posting separately my own recommendation of Blumenthal's book, which I reviewed for the Charleston Post and Courier: http://www.postandcourier.com/20160703/1...shaped-him
I like the book very much. I value Burlingame for comprehensive coverage and detail, but Blumenthal has a concise argument to make about Lincoln's education. I think it is very perceptive re Lincoln's views on politics, republicanism, and especially on religion.
--Don Doyle