In the first multi-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln to be published in decades, Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame offers a fresh look at the life of one of Americaโs greatest presidents. Incorporating the field notes of earlier biographers, along with decades of research in multiple manuscript archives and long-neglected newspapers, this remarkable work will both alter and reinforce our current understanding of Americaโs sixteenth president.
Volume 1 covers Lincolnโs early childhood, his experiences as a farm boy in Indiana and Illinois, his legal training, and the political ambition that led to a term in Congress in the 1840s. In volume 2, Burlingame examines Lincolnโs life during his presidency and the Civil War, narrating in fascinating detail the crisis over Fort Sumter and Lincolnโs own battles with relentless office seekers, hostile newspaper editors, and incompetent field commanders. Burlingame also offers new interpretations of Lincolnโs private life, discussing his marriage to Mary Todd and the untimely deaths of two sons to disease.
But through it allโhis difficult childhood, his contentious political career, a fratricidal war, and tragic personal lossesโLincoln preserved a keen sense of humor and acquired a psychological maturity that proved to be the Northโs most valuable asset in winning the Civil War.
Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, this landmark publication establishes Burlingame as the most assiduous Lincoln biographer of recent memory and brings Lincoln alive to modern readers as never before.