Four Score and Seven Years Ago...
Christmas night. Finally home after a day of feasting on homemade raviolis and meatballs, much laughter, and way too many gifts. The city is empty and quiet. Husband off playing Left for Dead. Son dreaming of his new train set. So I clear a swath of torn rapping paper to sit in the cold leather chair by the pine with its gumdrop lights and new hedge ornaments (one for father, one for son), and finally get to finish Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson.
Great read. McPherson focuses on Lincoln’s presidency, specifically investigating Lincoln’s journey from a man with no military experience and how he becomes a great military and inspirational leader as a result of the Civil War.
I particularly found interesting the moral, political and strategic gumbo that is the issue of slavery. We are taught, in high school, that the sole reason for the Civil War was slavery. This is not altogether true, although slavery had been a thorn in America’s big toe since before the Revolution.
At the start of the Civil War, Lincoln’s only goal was to maintain the Union. If ending slavery would preserve the nation, he’d do that, but if keeping slavery would save the States, then he’d keep the institution, regardless of his personal beliefs. As he grows in his role as Commander in Chief, his political/moral/strategic management of the war changes. Midway through the campaign, emancipation becomes a reason for continuing war and by the fourth year, the permanent liberation of slaves is a requirement for peace, which Lincoln will not sacrifice, even if the decision ruins him. Honor and morality guide him.
The book is not a light read, but the last third reads like any good thriller despite that the reader already knows how it all ends (one hopes so, anyway). As I read the epilogue, which begins with Lincoln’s murder, I even got a bit teary that the world lost such a leader and I wonder, as many have, what this country would be like today had Lincoln lived to lead in peacetime.
New Favorite Author: Laurie Halse Anderson (www.writerlady.com).
Great read. McPherson focuses on Lincoln’s presidency, specifically investigating Lincoln’s journey from a man with no military experience and how he becomes a great military and inspirational leader as a result of the Civil War.
I particularly found interesting the moral, political and strategic gumbo that is the issue of slavery. We are taught, in high school, that the sole reason for the Civil War was slavery. This is not altogether true, although slavery had been a thorn in America’s big toe since before the Revolution.
At the start of the Civil War, Lincoln’s only goal was to maintain the Union. If ending slavery would preserve the nation, he’d do that, but if keeping slavery would save the States, then he’d keep the institution, regardless of his personal beliefs. As he grows in his role as Commander in Chief, his political/moral/strategic management of the war changes. Midway through the campaign, emancipation becomes a reason for continuing war and by the fourth year, the permanent liberation of slaves is a requirement for peace, which Lincoln will not sacrifice, even if the decision ruins him. Honor and morality guide him.
The book is not a light read, but the last third reads like any good thriller despite that the reader already knows how it all ends (one hopes so, anyway). As I read the epilogue, which begins with Lincoln’s murder, I even got a bit teary that the world lost such a leader and I wonder, as many have, what this country would be like today had Lincoln lived to lead in peacetime.
New Favorite Author: Laurie Halse Anderson (www.writerlady.com).
posted by Dina Keratsis at
11:19 AM
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