Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency
by William C. Harris
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Book Summary Information
Author: William C. HarrisEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-15
ISBN: 0700615202
Number of pages: 412
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Book Reviews of Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency
Book Review: A Thoughtful Revision to the Standard Account of the Formative Years of Abraham Lincoln
Summary: 5 Stars
William C. Harris, professor emeritus of history at North Carolina State University, fully deserved the Henry Adams Prize for 2008 from the Society for History in the Federal Government for this pathbreaking book, "Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency," published by the University Press of Kansas. In this seminal work, the author presents a very good case for reinterpreting Lincoln in the 1850s not so much as a political moderate but rather as a conservative in the best sense of the term that reflected well his heritage as an old conscience Whig, his background in rural central Illinois, his overall cautious nature, and the internal politics of his home state.
Lincoln had a significant pragmatic streak and was able to bring together diverse interests to establish the Republican Party in Illinois during the 1850s as a coalition of old Whigs (his own political heritage), anti-slavery Democrats, elements of the Know-Nothing Party, and others. The common element of all of these groups was opposition to slavery. Lincoln's moral opposition to slavery was critical throughout this effort, and he gradually became more committed to it, but his political efforts to deal with the institution were fundamentally conserving of the American experiment. This reinterpretation of a much-studied subject is insightful and opens a new perspective on Lincoln's political ideas and influences and offers a fresh understanding of one of the nation's greatest presidents.
"Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency" is a fair and even-handed account by a veteran student of Lincolniana. It seeks to modify the public's perception of Lincoln as a radical; one of the most striking of the transformations that came to his reputation after his April 1865 assassination. It is an excellent work whose interpretation will require careful consideration by all students of the Civil War era.
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