The Age of Lincoln

by Orville Vernon Burton

Book Overview

Stunning in its breadth and conclusions, The Age of Lincoln is a fiercely original history of the five decades that pivoted around the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Abolishing slavery, the age's most extraordinary accomplishment, was not its most profound. The enduring legacy of the age of Lincoln was inscribing personal liberty into the nation's millennial aspirations.

America has always perceived providence in its progress, but...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809023857
• ISBN13: 9780809023851
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.4" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

History as Shakespeare might have written it

The best historians are excellent story tellers, usually with a relatively detached style. Burton is both an eminent scholar and a master story teller, but with a style that is anything but detached. Rather he achieves balance by assuming in turn in his narrative the voices of the competing passions and ideals that drove Americans to take up arms against each other. The result is the 19th century as a gripping drama, where one can see tension building along multiple fault lines up to the rupture of the Civil War. On collision course with this rupture are the political ambitions and skills, and the deeply tragic sense of destiny, embodied in Abraham Lincoln. The Union holds,barely---as it would not have done with any lesser leader. Burton's perspective is unabashedly populist and religious. This is not the only perspective with which to view the 19th Century, but it is one valid one that has lacked up to now a truly scholarly presentation, and as such this book fills a unique niche. From this perspective Burton sees the Civil War as a battle not just between competing ideals, nor just between the good of freedom vs. the evil of slavery, but also between the competing economic interests of northern industrialists and southern slaveowners, interests which lead to the Gilded Age in the north and Jim Crow in the south in the latter part of the century. The tragic Reconstruction period (the war to save the Union followed by the peace that deeply divided the Union) is portrayed as dramatically in this book as the War itself. The book ends late in the 19th century, but the story continues. Today's culture wars, economic stresses, and the Red-Blue political divide clearly reflect the divisions that fractured the Union so traumatically a century and a half ago, much like geological faults covered with new dirt and growth, but still capable of moving the earth. Burton's book needs a sequel in his distinctive voice and from his perspective, that would carry us through the 20th century and into the 21st. The Civil War is long over, but we are still living in the post-war period.

A Terrific Historical Narrative

Sometimes well written history is more dramatic and impressing than well written fiction. The Age of Lincoln is a great examlpe of this. The book reads like a historical dramatization at times as Burton weaves personal accounts, letters and other documents from the main actors in the drama and other sources into the narrative of the antebellum, Civil War and postbellum events. It is a sobering account of the reality of war, which was romanticized by the opposing sides as they preapred for the inevitable struggle that would follow secession. Burton also brings to life the deep passions that possesed both sides, including the sincere belief that their side was favored by God. You are left with an understanding of how these 40 to 50 years in American history profundly affected multiple aspects of America's future, some issues which remain unresolved to this day. It's a must read if you want a deeper understading of Lincoln, southern and northern mindsets, the role of African Americans, states rights, immigration, southern and northern economies and the many other components that made up the complex historical landscape of this period of our nation's history.

A Refreshing and Relevant Look

The Age of Lincoln is a persuasive and unique interpretation of the events and ideas that reshaped the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Focused around the life and ideas of Abraham Lincoln, there is also successful incorporation of a range of other influential characters such as John Brown, Preston Brooks, Andrew Johnson, Frank Baum, and William Jennings Bryan. The book discusses and advances central themes of race, religion, and liberty, and provides a convincing and fresh interpretation of the circumstances around the American Civil War. The author does a good job of illustrating the contrast and tension of the age. He uses interesting examples to explore central contrasts of white vs. black, slave vs. free, south vs. north, rich vs. poor and uses those contrasts as a lens to understand many of the motivations and events of the period. Interestingly, much of the discussion of Lincoln's commitment to liberty that motivated him to wage the American Civil War eerily contrasts to the ideas of liberty and freedom advanced by another Republican president to justify a quite different war. Overall, the book does an excellent job of relating the tensions and interests of the people in the ante bellum period, the events and struggles during the war, the reconstructive efforts afterwards, and it concludes persuasively by connecting these events to the rise of populism and the ascension of the corporation during the beginning of the 20th century. The Age of Lincoln is a refreshing and engaging interpretation of important historical events that remain relevant to this day.

Insightful and Educational

I just finished this book and really enjoyed it. In fact, I don't read history books all that often, but this book is very well written and easy to read. I expected to read about the differences between the North and the South, but I had never even thought about how the West fit into the picture. I expected to read about Civil War battles, but I liked the human interest side. I learned that Reconstruction formed an important part of America's history, and the sentiment of Reconstruction did not really end until the Supreme Court sanctioned segregation almost 30 years after the Civil War ended. Besides writing about the politics and culture of the times, the author put in interesting stories about different people. After finishing the book, I have great respect for Abraham Lincoln, and I found the idea that Lincoln was a Southerner both surprising and insightful. Lincoln is not the main character of the book, but his ideas had a huge impact on the coming of the Civil War, on the aftermath of war and how America developed. I recommend this book to anyone who an interest in history, scholars in academia, or those who are simply curious about the finest president of our country.