num_pages: 432
description: A captivating look at how Abraham Lincoln evolved into one of our seminal foreign-policy presidentsand helped point the way to Americas rise to world power. This is the story of one of the most breathtaking feats in the annals of American foreign policyperformed by one of the most unlikely figures. Abraham Lincoln is not often remembered as a great foreign-policy president. He had never traveled overseas and spoke no foreign languages. And yet during the Civil War Lincoln and his team skillfully managed to stare down the Continents great powersdeftly avoiding European intervention on the side of the Confederacy. In the process the United States emerged as a world power in its own right. Engaging insightful and highly original Lincoln in the World is a tale set at the intersection of personal character and national power. The narrative focuses tightly on five distinct intensely human conflicts that helped define Lincolns approach to foreign affairsfrom his debate as a young congressman with his law partner over the conduct of the Mexican War to his deadlock with Napoleon III over the French occupation of Mexico. Bursting with colorful characters like Lincolns bowie-knife-wielding minister to Russia Cassius Marcellus Clay; the cunning French empress Eugnie; and the hapless Mexican monarch MaximilianLincoln in the World draws a finely wrought portrait of a president and his team at the dawn of American power. In the Age of Lincoln we see shadows of our own world. The international arena in the 1860s could be a merciless moral vacuum. Lincolns times demanded the cold realistic pursuit of national interest and in important ways resembled our own increasingly multipolar world. And yet like ours Lincolns era was also an information age a period of rapid globalization. Steamships telegraph wires and proliferating new media were transforming the world. Global influence required the use of soft power as well as hard. Anchored by meticulous research into overlooked archives Lincoln in the World reveals the sixteenth president to be one of Americas indispensable diplomatsand a key architect of Americas emergence as a global superpower. Much has been written about how Lincoln saved the Union but Lincoln in the World highlights the lesser-knownyet equally vitalrole he played on the world stage during those tumultuous years of war and division.
language: English
title: Lincoln in the World: The Making of a Statesman and the Dawn of American Power
publisher: Crown