Books on The Birthday Boy - Abraham Lincoln

Happy Birthday Abe!
Given that everyone has to make a comment today on the 200th birthday of the great inspirational leader and motivational speaker (who was also extremely humorous), I thought I should get in on the act and show what a well read chap I am!!

I’ve written quite a few book reviews related to this great motivational, inspirational speaker and writer. Below are reviews on:
- The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows
-Team of Rivals
- Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America

These and other reviews can be read at Book Reviews on my website.

THE GETTYSBURG GOSPEL: THE LINCOLN SPEECH THAT NOBODY KNOWS
Author: Gabor Boritt

It truly is amazing that so many words and books can be written about a speech that is but 272 words long. Gabor Boritt's book is an enjoyable and easy read on Lincoln's most famous speech. Much of the book deals with the immediate aftermath of the terrible Gettysburg battle with the author painting a vivid picture of the terrible scene which must have greeted the eye on July 4th. It is interesting that the famous address did not get immediate general approval. Boritt shows that the great leader’s speech was almost forgotten until the 1880's. As with most Lincoln supporters, the author attempts to show that the speech was not written on the train to Gettysburg and that Lincoln gave the speech considerable thought. The truth is no one knows, but a good argument can be made for the proposition that Lincoln must have given it little thought prior to the event.

Who in their right mind is going to travel from Washington to Gettysburg and DECIDE to present an address of only 272 words? The words came from the heart and from years of experience and empathy. Just as Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech was somewhat spontaneous (although a very similar speech was presented at Cobo Hall, Detroit some weeks previously), there is strong circumstantial evidence that Lincoln put this speech together at short notice.

I have no idea why the book is sub-titled "The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows," but Boritt does provide a number of slightly different versions of the speech in the appendix. Most of the differences are minor to put it mildly. The author's description of how the speech initially got little response but grew to be appreciated over time to be a work of genius is well developed. Paradoxically, the most enjoyable section of the book is the full text of Edward Everett's speech which I read fully for the first time. You can appreciate why Everett was seen as a great orator because of his ability to paint pictures with words although his two hour address can hardly be described as uplifting. Almost all of the speech was taken up with a chronological history of the events at Gettysburg (spoken from memory) and the aging orator failed to properly commend and eulogize the thousands who had given their life on the adjacent battlefield.

Paradoxically, the most enjoyable section of the book is the full text of Edward Everett's speech which I read fully for the first time. You can appreciate why Everett was seen as a great orator because of his ability to paint pictures with words although his two hour address can hardly be described as uplifting. Almost all of the speech was taken up with a chronological history of the events at Gettysburg (spoken from memory) and the aging orator failed to properly commend and eulogize the thousands who had given their life on the adjacent battlefield.

Everett did appreciate that his speech did not match Lincoln's eloquence. He wrote the President, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."

The book has copious appendices, bibliography, notes which provide a rich resource for serious students of Lincoln and Gettysburg. Overall, an enjoyable not too studious read on the topic.
MENTIONS
Ward Hill Lamon, Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln, Robert Lincoln, The Perfect Tribute, Garry Wills, Mary Lincoln, David Wills, Andrew Curtin, James B. Fry, William Saunders, John Nicolay, John Hay, Salmon Chase, Edwin Stanton, William H. Seward, Edward Everett, Seminary Ridge, Round Top, James C Conkling, Frederick Douglass
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TEAM OF RIVALS
The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin

The book’s premise is that Abraham Lincoln was not just a great President but one who also had the motivational ability to create a highly effective team comprised of many of his rivals. These were men who had hoped to become President. Instead, they took a subservient role to a President whom Goodwin writes about in hagiographic terms.

The team of rivals consisted of one time Republican presidential candidates William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Salmon P. Chase, Treasury Secretary, and Edward Bates Attorney General. The other major player in this detailed work is Edwin M. Stanton, War Secretary.

This is a very good read although the author is stretched at times to continually bring the overall premise together. The opening section of the book paints individual pictures of the major players, which I did not find particularly interesting. This I think is partly because some of the characters – Chase and Bates, at least to this reader are just not compelling in their own right. Thus it takes quite some time for the book to grasp this reader’s attention.

Although peripheral to the main story, the hardships of live during the first half of the 19th century are very obvious. Chase lost three wives and two daughters before he was forty four, while Stanton between 1841 and 1846 lost his wife, a daughter and his only brother.

Another fascinating and heart rending aspect portrayed is how the Civil War tore families apart. Four of Mary Lincoln’s siblings and three brothers-in-law fought on behalf of the Confederacy, while Chase’s son also too up arms for the seceding states.
Team of Rivals is basically a biography of Lincoln with a different twist. It is not as detailed as other works – especially in relation to some Civil War episodes, because the author tries to paint pictures of so many characters. Her portrait of Lincoln to some extent lacks objectivity. Every Lincoln weakness or vacillation has a logic or rationale.

Lincoln undoubtedly was underestimated by rivals and media. One Democratic newspaper referred to him as “a third rate Western lawyer … a fourth rate lecturer, who cannot speak good grammar.” As a lawyer and in his early presidential years, the term “inspirational” does not come to mind. To some extent, his behavior did warrant this lack of respect.

His lack of authority over his generals in the early stages of the war must have been disturbing for his cabinet. General McClellan treated him with a disdain and discourtesy that was mind boggling. Had Lincoln been more forceful with Generals Meade and McClellan, it is entirely conceivable the war would have ended much earlier. Kearns (and other writers) has tried to paint Lincoln as an accommodating, understanding head of state. It is probably more accurate to suggest as Martin Luther King did that he was at some stages a “vacillating” president. Much has been written about Lincoln’s leadership, but I think, the student of leadership can learn as much from what Lincoln did poorly as he did well.

Lincoln “grew” into the Presidency, winning over doubters and opponents slowly but surely with his down to earth, homely style. He most definitely has won over the author who paints Lincoln in very favorable terms no matter what the occasion. There is a tendency for the reader to become seduced by the portrait. Lincoln becomes more and more likeable, more and more presidential as the book develops. Ultimately, the reader does appreciate what a dreadful tragedy the death of this president was for the nation and almost certainly for what had been the confederate states. Although, no one can say for certain, it does seem likely that the assassinated president would have been able to salve much of the bitterness and hatred that followed the cessation of violence.
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LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG – THE WORDS THAT REMADE AMERICA

Author: Gary Wills

This is one scholarly work. It is also a work that takes slow careful reading. The author devotes more than one page to each of the two hundred and seventy two words in the famous Gettysburg address.

Wills suggests that Lincoln was heavily influenced by the oratorical skills of the Greeks and also Transcendentalists – a nineteenth century philosophical movement much advocated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and other luminaries.

One fascinating aspect of the Gettysburg address is how brief it was. Lincoln was not the featured speaker at the event, indeed by some accounts he was invited as an afterthought. This may well be one of the reasons why his speech was so brief, particularly as short speeches were not the norm. In 1858, Lincoln and Stephen Douglas engaged in three hour debates, while Edward Everett delivered a two hour oration prior to Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. While the three minute address was out of character for the period or indeed any period, the speech proves the point “that less is often more.”

The book should be of particular interest to the Lincoln scholar, but beware, it is a tough book to get through, simply because it is such a detailed, intense work.

One of the many interesting elements in the book is the full reproduction of Everett’s speech. Everett was lauded as the finest speaker of his generation, but to be honest, I found his speech to be tedious, lacking in passion and being primarily a chronology of the events at Gettysburg. Everett wrote to Lincoln following their respective addresses, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes." How right he was.

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Conor Cunneen is a Chicago based Irish keynote speaker – motivational, humorous, inspirational - on topics as diverse as BEAT the RECESSION, Foodservice, Cancer (a two time survivor), Business Growth and Presentation Skills, who likes to repeat keywords such as motivational, humorous, inspirational, Irish, Chicago based, Motivational Humorist in an ongoing effort to garner search engine attention and BEAT the RECESSION.

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