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Title: The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America by Mark E., Jr. Neely ISBN: 0-674-51126-3 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: March, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A PRAGMATIC HERO
Comment: The Title of Professor Neely's biography of Lincoln is taken from Lincoln's second Message to Congress dated December 1, 1862. It is an inspiring phrase and an apt title for a Lincoln biography. Professor Neely's biography is good and solid in its analysis of Lincoln's life. It lacks, however, something of the eloquence and vision of the title and of Lincoln's words. We never learn why Lincoln considered the United States "the Last Best Hope of Earth" or what that can mean for our country today.
That said, this book is a good introduction to Lincoln and his Presidency. The book skims briefly over Lincoln's life before he became the 16th President. There are advantages to this, but the treatment of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and of the Kansas-Nebraska Act which led to them is too brief to help understand sucession and the Civil War which followed.
The book's treatment of Lincoln's relationship with his Generals and of the strategy of the War is probably the best single chapter. It has something to teach even those who are familiar with the military history of the war. The chapter on Lincoln as a pragmatic politician and on the 1864 campaign is also well done. The book treats the Emancipation Proclamation at length but to me anyway left something to be desired. (The text and some explicit treatment of it would help) and discusses the fate of Civil Liberties during the War and domestic development during the war in good but not dispositive detail.
If you are looking for an understanding of Lincoln and of the Civil War this is a good place to start but not to end. I suggest reading the book together with the complilation of Lincoln's own speeches and writings in the Library of America series.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good general biography
Comment: I really enjoyed this work. I felt it could have been more in-depth, but only so much can be expected from its relatively short length. It is a good resource and point of departure for the Lincoln historian or enthusiast, but I would recommend additional reading to fill in the gaps.
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Title: Slaves No More : Three Essays on Emancipation and the Civil War by Ira Berlin, Barbara J. Fields, Steven F. Miller, Joseph P. Reidy, Leslie S. Rowland ISBN: 0521436923 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 27 November, 1992 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Ordeal By Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction by James M. McPherson ISBN: 0072317361 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Pub. Date: 30 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $47.19 |
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Title: The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties by Mark E., Jr. Neely ISBN: 0195080327 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: August, 1992 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War by James M. McPherson ISBN: 0195124995 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Confederate War by Gary W. Gallagher ISBN: 0674160568 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: March, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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