Father Abraham
Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
Lincoln is the single most compelling figure in our history, but also one of the most enigmatic. Was he the Great Emancipator, a man of deep convictions who ended slavery in the United States, or simply a reluctant politician compelled by the force of events to free the slaves? In Father Abraham, Richard Striner offers a fresh portrait of Lincoln, one that helps us make sense of his many contradictions.
Striner shows first that, if you examine the speeches that Lincoln made in the 1850s, you will have no doubt of his passion to end slavery. These speeches illuminate the anger, vehemence, and sheer brilliance of candidate Lincoln, who worked up crowds with charismatic fervor as he gathered a national following. But if he felt so passionately about abolition, why did he wait so long to release the Emancipation Proclamation? As Striner points out, politics is the art of the possible, and Lincoln was a consummate politician, a shrewd manipulator who cloaked his visionary ethics in the more pragmatic garb of the coalition-builder. He was at bottom a Machiavellian prince for a democratic age. When secession began, Lincoln used the battle cry of saving the Union to build a power base, one that would eventually break the slave-holding states forever.
Striner argues that Lincoln was a rare man indeed: a fervent idealist and a crafty politician with a remarkable gift for strategy. It was the harmonious blend of these two qualities, Striner concludes, that made Lincoln's role in ending slavery so fundamental.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An influential interpretation regards Lincoln as a cautious moderate, encumbered by the bigotries of his day, whose lukewarm antislavery principles took a backseat to the mission of preserving the Union. Passionately rejecting this view, historian Striner (The Civic Deal: Re-Empowering Our Great Republic) extols Lincoln as a "moral visionary" and "Machiavellian" genius who advanced the abolitionist cause as fast as political realities allowed. Close readings of Lincoln's speeches and writings, he contends, reveal a steadfast defense of blacks' humanity and fundamental rights; once in office, Lincoln seized every opening afforded by the Civil War to push for emancipation and an increasingly expansive agenda of black political rights. Inverting the conventional wisdom, Striner insists that Lincoln considered the cause of the Union a vehicle for furthering emancipation. Striner confronts some awkward facts, like Lincoln's disavowal of social equality for blacks, his flirtation with schemes to ship free blacks overseas and his public statements that emancipation was less important than saving the Union, but pegs these as purely tactical concessions to white racial animosities. Such resolutions sometimes seem too pat, but Striner's nuanced exploration of Lincoln's words and deeds makes a stimulating case for the greatness of his conscience resolutely practical, but ever attuned to the better angels of his nature. Photos.
