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And There Was Light
- Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
- Narrated by: Jon Meacham
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
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Publisher's summary
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how—and why—he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America.
“Meacham has given us the Lincoln for our time.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize • Longlisted for the Biographers International Plutarch Award • One of the Best Books of the Year: The Christian Science Monitor, Kirkus Reviews
A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations.
At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen as the greatest of American presidents—a remote icon—or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln—an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment, essential to the story of justice in America, began as he grew up in an antislavery Baptist community; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him to see the right.
This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination in 1865: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end. In a nation shaped by the courage of the enslaved of the era and by the brave witness of Black Americans, Lincoln’s story illustrates the ways and means of politics in a democracy, the roots and durability of racism, and the capacity of conscience to shape events.
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Critic reviews
“In his captivating new book, Jon Meacham has given us the Lincoln for our time. And There Was Light brilliantly interweaves the best of gripping narrative history with a deeper search for the complex interplay among morality, politics, and power in a life, in a democracy, and in an America ripped apart over slavery. Here Meacham takes us to the heart of the president who shaped events at ‘the existential hour.’ In doing so, he fortifies us to meet our own.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Biography at its best, the great historian Barbara Tuchman wrote, paints an intimate portrait of an individual which simultaneously provides a sweeping view of history. With this deep, compelling work, Jon Meacham has achieved this gold standard. Written with wisdom and grace, his story of Lincoln’s complex moral journey to Emancipation mirrors America’s long quest to live up to its founding ideals.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin
“With his singular gift for compelling narrative and groundbreaking analysis, Jon Meacham illuminates not only Lincoln and his times but, just as much, the troubled society that we live in today.”—Michael Beschloss
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Story
Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in The Soul of America Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the “better angels of our nature” have repeatedly won the day. Painting surprising portraits of Lincoln and other presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and LBJ, and illuminating the courage of influential citizen activists and civil rights pioneers, Meacham brings vividly to life turning points in American history. Each of these dramatic hours have been shaped by the contest to lead the country to look forward rather than back.
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Thanks! I needed this!
- By Kindle Customer on 05-29-18
By: Jon Meacham
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Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann, Jon Meacham
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era.
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A Man and Biography Relevant to Our Day
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-12
By: Jon Meacham
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Abraham Lincoln
- A Life
- By: Michael Burlingame
- Narrated by: Douglas R Pratt
- Length: 32 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Hailed as the definitive portrait of the sixteenth president, Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame's impressive two-volume biography has been masterfully abridged and revised. Based on deep research in unpublished sources as well as newly digitized sources, this work reveals how Lincoln's character and personality were the North's secret weapon in the Civil War, the key variables that spelled the difference between victory and defeat. He was a model of psychological maturity and a fully individuated man whose influence remains unrivaled in the history of American public life.
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What an Extraordinary Human Being!
- By joan m. on 09-24-24
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Team of Rivals
- The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
- By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 41 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry. Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war.
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Beautiful, Heartbreaking, and Informative
- By JJ on 09-10-12
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American Lion
- Andrew Jackson in the White House
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Richard McGonagle
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy. Jackson's election in 1828 ushered in a new and lasting era in which the people, not distant elites, were the guiding force in American politics. Democracy made its stand in the Jackson years, and he gave voice to the hopes and the fears of a restless, changing nation facing challenging times at home and threats abroad.
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Unlikable Old Hickory
- By John M on 01-05-09
By: Jon Meacham
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Lincoln
- By: David Herbert Donald
- Narrated by: Dick Estell
- Length: 30 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In the best-selling tradition of Truman, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer David Herbert Donald offers a new classic in American history and biography - a masterly account of how one man's extraordinary political acumen steered the Union to victory in the Civil War, and of how his soaring rhetoric gave meaning to that agonizing struggle for nationhood and equality.
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Lincoln not honest when it comes to his faith?
- By Carpe Diem on 07-19-19
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The Soul of America
- The Battle for Our Better Angels
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Jon Meacham
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in The Soul of America Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the “better angels of our nature” have repeatedly won the day. Painting surprising portraits of Lincoln and other presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and LBJ, and illuminating the courage of influential citizen activists and civil rights pioneers, Meacham brings vividly to life turning points in American history. Each of these dramatic hours have been shaped by the contest to lead the country to look forward rather than back.
-
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Thanks! I needed this!
- By Kindle Customer on 05-29-18
By: Jon Meacham
-
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann, Jon Meacham
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era.
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A Man and Biography Relevant to Our Day
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-12
By: Jon Meacham
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Abraham Lincoln
- A Life
- By: Michael Burlingame
- Narrated by: Douglas R Pratt
- Length: 32 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Hailed as the definitive portrait of the sixteenth president, Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame's impressive two-volume biography has been masterfully abridged and revised. Based on deep research in unpublished sources as well as newly digitized sources, this work reveals how Lincoln's character and personality were the North's secret weapon in the Civil War, the key variables that spelled the difference between victory and defeat. He was a model of psychological maturity and a fully individuated man whose influence remains unrivaled in the history of American public life.
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What an Extraordinary Human Being!
- By joan m. on 09-24-24
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Team of Rivals
- The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
- By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 41 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry. Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war.
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Beautiful, Heartbreaking, and Informative
- By JJ on 09-10-12
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American Lion
- Andrew Jackson in the White House
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Richard McGonagle
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beloved and hated, venerated and reviled, Andrew Jackson was an orphan who fought his way to the pinnacle of power, bending the nation to his will in the cause of democracy. Jackson's election in 1828 ushered in a new and lasting era in which the people, not distant elites, were the guiding force in American politics. Democracy made its stand in the Jackson years, and he gave voice to the hopes and the fears of a restless, changing nation facing challenging times at home and threats abroad.
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Unlikable Old Hickory
- By John M on 01-05-09
By: Jon Meacham
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Franklin and Winston
- An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were the greatest leaders of “the Greatest Generation.” In Franklin and Winston, Jon Meacham explores the fascinating relationship between the two men who piloted the free world to victory in World War II.
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Franklin and Winston Review
- By Ronald Hull on 01-29-04
By: Jon Meacham
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Destiny and Power
- The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 25 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on President Bush’s personal diaries, on the diaries of his wife, Barbara, and on extraordinary access to the 41st president and his family, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham paints an intimate and surprising portrait of an intensely private man who led the nation through tumultuous times.
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Fair and insightful
- By Jean on 12-02-15
By: Jon Meacham
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American Gospel
- God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In American Gospel (literally meaning the "good news about America"), New York Times best-selling author Jon Meacham sets the record straight on the history of religion in American public life. As Meacham shows, faith, meaning a belief in a higher power, and the sense that we are God's chosen, has always been at the heart of our national experience, from Jamestown to the Constitutional Convention to the Civil Rights Movement to September 11th.
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what you weren't taught in school
- By Stanley on 06-12-06
By: Jon Meacham
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His Truth Is Marching On
- John Lewis and the Power of Hope
- By: Jon Meacham, John Lewis - afterword
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Jon Meacham
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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An intimate and revealing portrait of civil rights icon and longtime US congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present - from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of America.
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Absolutely remarkable!
- By Janie on 08-30-20
By: Jon Meacham, and others
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In the Hands of the People
- Thomas Jefferson on Equality, Faith, Freedom, Compromise, and the Art of Citizenship
- By: Jon Meacham - editor, Annette Gordon-Reed - afterword
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Edoardo Ballerini, Full Cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham offers a collection of inspiring words about how to be a good citizen, from Thomas Jefferson and others, and reminds us why our country’s founding principles are still so important today.
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Uncritical collection of quotes by & about Jefferson
- By DP on 12-27-20
By: Jon Meacham - editor, and others
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Grant
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 48 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Chernow reveals in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency.
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Excellent Book (BUT WHERE IS THE PDF FILES)????
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-17
By: Ron Chernow
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Abe
- Abraham Lincoln in His Times
- By: David S. Reynolds
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 33 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Abraham Lincoln did not come out of nowhere. But if he was shaped by his times, he also managed at his life's fateful hour to shape them to an extent few could have foreseen. Ultimately, this is the great drama that astonishes us still, and that Abe brings to fresh and vivid life. The measure of that life will always be part of our American education.
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A Cultural History is not a biography
- By Marc M. Sager on 11-09-20
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The Hope of Glory
- Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Jon Meacham
- Length: 2 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning with “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” and ending with “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” Meacham captures for the listener how these words epitomize Jesus’s message of love, not hate; grace, not rage; and, rather than vengeance, extraordinary mercy. For each saying, Meacham composes an essay on the origins of Christianity and how Jesus’s final words created a foundation for oral and written traditions that upended the very order of the world.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you!
- By Linda H. Wesson on 02-27-20
By: Jon Meacham
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The Call to Serve
- The Life of an American President, George Herbert Walker Bush
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Jon Meacham
- Length: 2 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In honor of the one hundredth anniversary of George H. W. Bush’s birth, this visually stunning chronicle features never-before-published photos and memories celebrating the forty-first president’s vision of leadership as service to country—curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham.
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A overall good reflection
- By R. Mark Moore on 07-14-24
By: Jon Meacham
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Washington
- A Life
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 41 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. This crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.
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A sad day when my book was done!
- By ButterLegume on 12-13-10
By: Ron Chernow
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Impeachment
- An American History
- By: Jon Meacham, Timothy Naftali, Peter Baker, and others
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Impeachment is a double-edged sword. Though it was designed to check tyrants, Thomas Jefferson also called impeachment “the most formidable weapon for the purpose of a dominant faction that was ever contrived”. On the one hand, it nullifies the will of voters, the basic foundation of all representative democracies. On the other, its absence from the Constitution would leave the country vulnerable to despotic leadership.
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May not scratch your personal itch, but read it anyway!
- By Marshall on 11-17-18
By: Jon Meacham, and others
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Abraham Lincoln
- The Prairie Years and The War Years
- By: Carl Sandburg
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 44 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Originally published in six volumes, which sold more than one million copies, Carl Sandburg’s Abraham Lincoln was praised as the most noteworthy historical biography of Sandburg’s generation. He later distilled this monumental work into one volume that critics and readers alike consider his greatest work of nonfiction, as well as the most distinguished, authoritative biography of Lincoln ever published.
Growing up in an Illinois prairie town, Sandburg listened to stories of old-timers who had known Lincoln. By the time this single-volume edition was competed, he had spent a lifetime studying, researching, and writing about our 16th president.
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A moving tale of a very human man
- By Sohachi on 06-25-16
By: Carl Sandburg
What listeners say about And There Was Light
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Barbara or Jerold Gendler
- 10-30-22
Masterpiece
I’ve read a number of books on Lincoln but none like this . I believe we can now put this vreat man to rest as there’s nothing further to say about this man’s life & death . Jon Meacham has given mankind a gift for the ages to be savored & studied for ever & ever . Amen
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11 people found this helpful
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- Linda The CPA
- 04-02-23
Riveting
I have read many books on the life of Abraham Lincoln, who is truly one of the greatest Americans. This book presents many sides of a very complex man. It was hard for me to pause in the reading. The story is so heartfelt and the emotions of all the characters make the story so real, as if I were there. This is an excellent read, and I highly recommend it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- ML 1418
- 01-25-23
Lincoln in person. Excellent writing
Meachum has a gift for presenting the person as they were. He has researched down to the bottom of the soul . You learn who Lincoln was, where he came from, how he developed and educated himself and ultimately how he became President. And then the decisions he made, the diplomacy undertook to get where he wanted to go. He was a president truly working for the country- not promoting himself but rather the united country he sought to heal.
He is not who one might have thought him to be.
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- Erwin C. Pantel
- 01-25-23
Outstanding!
Excellent work and I highly recommend. Expertly researched and written by a historian at the top of his field.
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- John
- 01-26-23
Really excellent
Really excellent book and great narration. Jon was able to craft a compelling and “page turner” of a story.
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- Matt Byrne
- 02-06-23
Great read or listening
You learn much about Lincoln’s progress through the darkest period of our history. He was the greatest statesman of the 19th century. While not perfect he sought to seek a long term solution to the issue of slavery. One does not know how he would of faced the challenge of the post Civil War period. But that is for another book that his predecessors failed to meet the challenge. Great insight into a great President who did the right thing in his time andhis leadership skills are missed in today’s world.
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- Gregory P. Louviere
- 12-03-22
More Than I Can Say
Mr. Meacham has always found a profound voice from which to speak about conflict, calamity and calm in a world that does not fully understand this voice. My hope is that everyone reading or hearing this book can provoke themselves to understand that the mark of history rests upon us all. In the book about Abraham Lincoln, that that some inspired individuals readily place this yoke of relevance upon themselves. And more rare are those few people who can actual surpass this effort to see themselves as nothing less than others and never greater but clearly moral. The book transcends place and time to bear witness to the moral universe that A. Lincoln portrayed through the conditions through which he is unsurpassed.
Than you Mr. Meacham for this superlative work.
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- Myra N. Whatley
- 12-05-22
A must Read
This book is a masterful telling of Lincoln’s life and a valuable insight into his struggles. It is also a great reflection on the importance of how he handled the crisis of the day as compared to the struggles facing us today.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-20-22
Lincoln as a Steady, Consistent Leader
Mr. Meacham portrays Mr. Lincoln as a man that clearly understood through his moral and functional thinking that Slavery needs to begin its evaporation from Society. Steady record of votes by Mr. Lincoln bears this out. As a politician knowing he must gather power around him, he moved with the "slows", as Mr. Lincoln pointed out in others. However, Mr. Lincoln morally knew that Slavery must end. He always did, but a politician does not have the luxury to campaign or ask for votes on moral grounds, especially in the 1850's. Mr. Meacham is not gambling by saying Lincoln had the idea of justice set in his mind early. Mr. Meacham instead relies on the historical record. Finally, Mr. Meacham delivered on Lincoln. I was wondering when he would, now he has. The book is nothing short of incredible. Mr. Meacham in my mind, goes further than previous Lincoln scholars, in taking the solid stand that Lincoln planned on, all along, his efforts, to remove the stain of Slavery. Fantastic book with tons of responsible thinking about the incredibly gifted Mr. Lincoln.
Bret K. Webster
Pueblo, CO
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- T. Woolsey
- 12-06-22
Truly wonderful!
I haven’t read many biographies so I don’t know how much new ground was covered, but it seems that the purpose of this book was to refute the idea that Lincoln didn’t deserve the reputation he’s gained as Americas greatest president. After reading this book I fully understand history’s judgment. Against all odds Lincoln changed the world. I wept over this book. Highest recommendation!
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