Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Volume 1)
This book supplants [Carl] Sandburg and supersedes all other biographies. Future Lincoln books cannot be written without it, and from no other book can a general reader learn so much about Abraham Lincoln. It is the essential title for the bicentennial.(James L. SwansonPublishers Weekly)A complete view of Lincoln's life... thorough.(Diane ColeU.S. News & World Report)A monumental boxed effort that weighs in at 10 pounds... The result is a picture of Lincoln from all sides, in a style that is relentless but not daunting.(Bloomberg News)A magisterial enterprise.(William SafireNew York Times)If you aspire to Ultimate Lincoln Knowledge this is a must-read.(Chicago Tribune)These monumental volumes deserve a wide readership.(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)Burlingame is a towering figure in Lincoln scholarship, and students of the 16th president have been waiting for this book for years. For all his learning—Burlingame may know more about Lincoln and his era than anyone in the world—his take on his subject is fresh, and he doesn't gloss over Lincoln's less appealing attributes.Abraham Lincolncomes as close to being the definitive biography as anything the world has seen in decades.(Time.com)An exhaustive and stylishly written biography.(Greg RienziGazette)A stunning feat of research.(Michael F. BishopPublishers Weekly)The two-volume set is being heralded as the ultimate new biography of Lincoln, an essential work to be used by all future biographers of the 16th president.(Anne ByleGrand Rapids Press)The granddaddy of all the recent books [on Lincoln] is Michael Burlingame'sAbraham Lincoln: A Life... monumental in size, depth and scholarship, this is the new standard biography of our time and surpasses all other life portraits of our 16th president, and is the most important book of the bicentennial.(James L. SwansonWashington Times)No review could do complete justice to the magnificent two-volume biography that has been so well-wrought by Michael Burlingame.(Christopher HitchensAtlantic Monthly)The bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth has generated a plethora of Lincoln-related items, but none impresses more than this two-volume biography... Essential.(Choice)The author knows more about Lincoln than any other living person.(James McPhersonNew York Review of Books)Most thorough account of the development of Lincoln as a man and politician against the backdrop of America's struggle to mature as an idea and a nation... Not a Lincoln for our times, but the Lincoln of his times, and future biographers would do well to take note(s).(Books and Culture: A Christian Review)This magisterial work tells a rich, thoroughly documented, birth-to-death story of America's greatest president. Its bulk is formidable, but it holds countless rewards for undaunted readers.(Jane HendersonSt. Louis Post-Dispatch)Burlingame very likely knows more about Lincoln than anyone who's ever lived, including Mary Todd, and his biography, 20 years in the writing, has a revelation on every page, dug out during the biographer's tireless research into musty libraries and forgotten attics that no one has ever thought to look in before. If there is anything knowable that you want to know about Lincoln, this is the place to find it.(Andrew FergusonAmerican Spectator)Lincoln scholars have waited anxiously for this book for decades. Its triumphant publication proves it was well worth the wait. Few scholars have written with greater insight about the psychology of Lincoln. No one in recent history has uncovered more fresh sources than Michael Burlingame. This profound and masterful portrait will be read and studied for years to come.(Doris Kearns Goodwin)The remarkable breadth of Burlingame's research has resulted in a book unlike anything else written about Lincoln. It will be a major contribution to the field.(Gerald J. Prokopowicz, East Carolina University)Burlingame has developed a familiarity with the details of Lincoln's life that is truly authoritative, even definitive, and he has genuinely earned his reputation for knowing more about Lincoln than just about anyone who has ever studied him.(Kenneth J. Winkle, University of Nebraska–Lincoln)A monumental and meticulous two-volume study of the 16th president... should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in Lincoln.(Mark BowdenAtlantic)