Lincoln vs. Davis
The War of the Presidents
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4.4 • 11 Ratings
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 GILDER LEHRMAN LINCOLN PRIZE
From the New York Times bestselling presidential biographer comes the greatest untold story of the Civil War: how two American presidents faced off as the fate of the nation hung in the balance—and how Abraham Lincoln came to embrace emancipation as the last, best chance to save the Union.
Of all the books written on Abraham Lincoln, there has been one surprising gap: the drama of how the “railsplitter” from Illinois grew into his critical role as U.S. commander-in-chief, and managed to outwit his formidable opponent, Jefferson Davis, in what remains history's only military faceoff between rival American presidents. Davis was a trained soldier and war hero; Lincoln a country lawyer who had only briefly served in the militia. Confronted with the most violent and challenging war ever seen on American soil, Lincoln seemed ill-suited to the task: inexperienced, indecisive, and a poor judge of people’s motives, he allowed his administration's war policies to be sabotaged by fickle, faithless cabinet officials while entrusting command of his army to a preening young officer named George McClellan – whose defeat in battle left Washington, the nation’s capital, at the mercy of General Robert E. Lee, Davis’s star performer.
The war almost ended there. But in a Shakespearean twist, Lincoln summoned the courage to make, at last, a climactic decision: issuing as a “military necessity” a proclamation freeing the 3.5 million enslaved Americans without whom the South could not feed or fund their armed insurrection. The new war policy doomed the rebellion—which was in dire need of support from Europe, none of whose governments now would dare to recognize rebel “independence” in a war openly fought over slavery. The fate of President Davis was sealed.
With a cast of unforgettable characters, from first ladies to fugitive coachmen to treasonous cabinet officials, Lincoln vs. Davis is a spellbinding dual biography from renowned presidential chronicler Nigel Hamilton: a saga that will surprise, touch, and enthrall.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this ingenious account, biographer Hamilton (War and Peace) surveys "the warring minds and hearts" of Abraham Lincoln and Confederate commander-in-chief Jefferson Davis during the first two years of the Civil War. Assessing the wartime management styles of both leaders (who were born one year and 100 miles apart in Kentucky, and even shared a physical resemblance), Hamilton argues that a defining aspect of the war's early years—and the cause of much of the Union's initial foundering on the battlefield—was Davis's direct experience leading troops during the Mexican-American War pitted against Lincoln's deficit of martial experience, which prevented Lincoln from "putting himself in Davis's shoes as a soldier." Hamilton intriguingly posits that Lincoln learning the fundamental art of perceiving the enemy's point of view is what led him to evolve from a "vacillator in chief" to a confident tactician with emancipation as the cornerstone of his military strategy. It wasn't until Lincoln understood how essential slave labor was to Davis that he understood how important it was to take it away, Hamilton suggests. He also fascinatingly proposes that part of Lincoln's slow coming around on the issue stemmed from the Confederacy's successful propaganda aimed at keeping slavery "sub rosa"—a critical move for gaining foreign aid—and instead presenting themselves as defending against "northern aggression." It's a penetrating and surprisingly fresh take on an oft-rehashed subject.
