Father Lincoln
The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and His Boys--Robert, Eddy, Willie, and Tad
-
- $17.99
-
- $17.99
Publisher Description
President Abraham Lincoln is known as the Great Emancipator, the Savior of the Union, and an American martyr to the people who read about him. But that was not how his sons knew him. Presidential historian Alan Manning invites readers to see not the thoughtful, burdened president delivering the Gettysburg Address to a war-torn nation, but a man quietly reading bedtime stories to his sleepy-eyed sons; and not the resolute commander-in-chief seeking out winning generals and forming war policy, but a man wrestling with his own grown son’s desire to join the army and go off to war. A combination of history, biography, and family culture, this book follows Lincoln from his growing law practice in Springfield through the turbulent war years in the White House, highlighting the same challenges that many fathers face today: balancing a successful career with paternal responsibilities—a perspective largely ignored by previous Lincoln biographers, thus helping to complete the portrait of one of the most popular, significant, and complex figures in American history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Manning, an independent historian and teacher, unsuccessfully attempts to offer new insights about Lincoln using as a lens his role as parent to four sons, two of whom died young. The narrow focus means that major landmarks in Lincoln's life are regarded only in passing. Manning feels that other works have given Lincoln's fatherhood short shrift and that it "illuminates" the challenge fathers face in balancing work and family. This single-minded objective leads Manning to questionable interpretations. For instance, in 1849, after Lincoln was passed over by Zachary Taylor for the position of Commissioner of the Great Land Office, he was offered the governorship of the Oregon Territory as a consolation prize. Other biographers more plausibly explain Lincoln's refusal as the result of the rational calculation that it would marginalize him politically, but for Manning Lincoln acted "to put his family first." The suggestion that Robert Lincoln may have understated his relationship with his father out of privacy concerns is a reasonable one, but overall, there is less here than was intended. Manning claims to have gotten a "unique insight" into Lincoln because he worked as an attorney while raising four daughters with his wife, but that doesn't translate into a worthwhile book.
