Download or read book An American Marriage written by Michael Burlingame and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An enlightening narrative exploring an oft-overlooked aspect of the sixteenth president's life, An American Marriage reveals the tragic story of Abraham Lincoln’s marriage to Mary Todd. Abraham Lincoln was apparently one of those men who regarded “connubial bliss” as an untenable fantasy. During the Civil War, he pardoned a Union soldier who had deserted the army to return home to wed his sweetheart. As the president signed a document sparing the soldier's life, Lincoln said: “I want to punish the young man—probably in less than a year he will wish I had withheld the pardon.” Based on thirty years of research, An American Marriage describes and analyzes why Lincoln had good reason to regret his marriage to Mary Todd. This revealing narrative shows that, as First Lady, Mary Lincoln accepted bribes and kickbacks, sold permits and pardons, engaged in extortion, and peddled influence. The reader comes to learn that Lincoln wed Mary Todd because, in all likelihood, she seduced him and then insisted that he protect her honor. Perhaps surprisingly, the 5’2” Mrs. Lincoln often physically abused her 6’4” husband, as well as her children and servants; she humiliated her husband in public; she caused him, as president, to fear that she would disgrace him publicly. Unlike her husband, she was not profoundly opposed to slavery and hardly qualifies as the “ardent abolitionist” that some historians have portrayed. While she providid a useful stimulus to his ambition, she often “crushed his spirit,” as his law partner put it. In the end, Lincoln may not have had as successful a presidency as he did—where he showed a preternatural ability to deal with difficult people—if he had not had so much practice at home.

Download or read book Lincoln and the Politics of Christian Love written by Grant N. Havers and published by University of Missouri. This book was released on 2009-11-13 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Havers argues that it is simplistic to conflate Lincoln's invocation of "with charity for all" with his abiding support for the ideal of human equality. The ethic of charity in his view also brought a uniquely Christian realism to the universalism of democracy. He also describes how, since World War I, intellectuals and political leaders have denied that there exists a necessary relation between democracy and Christian love, proposing that democracy is sufficiently ethical without reliance on a specific religious tradition. Today's neoconservatives and liberals instead posit a universal yearning for democracy that requires no foundation in the ethic of charity. Havers shows that this democratic universalism, espoused by those who believe a "chosen people" should uphold the natural rights of humanity, is alien to the sober thought of both the founders and Lincoln.".

Download or read book Abe Fido written by Matthew Algeo and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2015-04-01 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In early 1861, as he prepared to leave his home in Springfield, Illinois, to move into the White House, Abraham Lincoln faced many momentous tasks, but none he dreaded more than telling his two youngest sons, Willie and Tad, that the family's beloved pet dog, Fido, would not be accompanying them to Washington. Lincoln, who had adopted Fido about five years earlier, was afraid the skittish dog wouldn't survive the long rail journey, so he decided to leave the mutt behind with friends in Springfield. Fido had been by Lincoln's side as the prairie lawyer rose from obscurity to the presidency, sometimes carrying bundles of letters from the post office as Lincoln walked the streets of the state capital. Abe & Fido: Lincoln's Love of Animals and the Touching Story of His Favorite Canine Companion tells the story of two friends, an unlikely tandem who each became famous and died prematurely. The book also explores the everyday life of Springfield in the years leading up to the Civil War, as well as Lincoln's sometimes radical views on animal welfare, and how they shaped his life and his presidency. It's the story of a master and his dog, living through historic, tumultuous times. Matthew Algeo is the author of Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure, The President Is a Sick Man, Pedestrianism, and Last Team Standing. An award-winning journalist, Algeo has reported from four continents, and his stories have appeared on public radio's All Things Considered, Marketplace, and Morning Edition.

Download or read book Courting Mr Lincoln written by Louis Bayard and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A miracle; an exquisite story exquisitely told . . . If you love Jane Austen, or Hamilton, or fiction—of any era—that transports and transforms in equal measure, look no further.” —A.J. Finn, bestselling author of The Woman in the Window From the prizewinning author of Mr. Timothy and The Pale Blue Eye comes Courting Mr. Lincoln, the page-turning and surprising story of a young Abraham Lincoln and the two people who loved him best: a young, marriageable Mary Todd and Lincoln’s best friend, Joshua Speed. When sparky and independent Mary Todd arrives in Springfield, Illinois, in the 1840s to live with her sister, who is determined to find Mary a husband, she is astonished to find herself drawn to an awkward, melancholic lawyer with a gift for oratory. The two share ambition, an obsession with politics—and a need to be suitably married off. Always at Lincoln’s side, however, is the charming Joshua Speed, a shopkeeper who became his mentor in society, loyal friend, roommate—and possible lover. Told in alternating chapters from the points of view of Todd and Speed, this witty, psychologically astute, and brilliantly plotted novel follows the threesome during Todd and Lincoln’s tumultuous courtship, with all the suspense and delight of the best Jane Austen novels. Historians have long speculated that Lincoln and Speed had a romantic relationship, and here Bayard explores that forbidden possibility with deep empathy. Rich with both period detail and contemporary insight, Courting Mr. Lincoln offers smart storytelling at the highest level.

Download or read book Loving Mr Lincoln written by M. Kay DuPont and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Loving Mr. Lincoln--presented in Mary Lincolns "own words"chronicles her life, love, and daily struggles with Abraham in their 26 years together. In frank, haunting journal entries, Mary describes the pain she felt when Abraham left her at the altar, when her sons died, and when Abrahams political career seemed to be at an end. She also writes from her heart about the tragic years of slavery and the Civil War. She worries about her own shifting moods and Abrahams frequent bouts of depression, but she delights in joy of the deep and binding love evident in the Lincoln marriage.

Download or read book Abe Lincoln Loved Animals written by Ellen Jackson and published by Av2 by Weigl. This book was released on 2013-09-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like other pioneers in the early 1800s, young Abraham Lincoln worked hard to put food on the table. One day, while hunting food for the family, Abraham shot a wild turkey. The sight of the dying bird filled him with such sorrow that he swore he would never again hunt large animals.

Download or read book Lincoln s Love Story written by Eleanor Atkinson and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Love is Eternal written by Irving Stone and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass written by Russell Freedman and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2012 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A clear-sighted, carefully researched account of two surprisingly parallel lives and how they intersected at a critical moment in U.S. history.

Download or read book Loathing Lincoln written by John McKee Barr and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2014-04-07 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While most Americans count Abraham Lincoln among the most beloved and admired former presidents, a dedicated minority has long viewed him not only as the worst president in the country's history, but also as a criminal who defied the Constitution and advanced federal power and the idea of racial equality. In Loathing Lincoln, historian John McKee Barr surveys the broad array of criticisms about Abraham Lincoln that emerged when he stepped onto the national stage, expanded during the Civil War, and continued to evolve after his death and into the present. The first panoramic study of Lincoln's critics, Barr's work offers an analysis of Lincoln in historical memory and an examination of how his critics -- on both the right and left -- have frequently reflected the anxiety and discontent Americans felt about their lives. From northern abolitionists troubled by the slow pace of emancipation, to Confederates who condemned him as a "black Republican" and despot, to Americans who blamed him for the civil rights movement, to, more recently, libertarians who accuse him of trampling the Constitution and creating the modern welfare state, Lincoln's detractors have always been a vocal minority, but not one without influence. By meticulously exploring the most significant arguments against Lincoln, Barr traces the rise of the president's most strident critics and links most of them to a distinct right-wing or neo-Confederate political agenda. According to Barr, their hostility to a more egalitarian America and opposition to any use of federal power to bring about such goals led them to portray Lincoln as an imperialistic president who grossly overstepped the bounds of his office. In contrast, liberals criticized him for not doing enough to bring about emancipation or ensure lasting racial equality. Lincoln's conservative and libertarian foes, however, constituted the vast majority of his detractors. More recently, Lincoln's most vociferous critics have adamantly opposed Barack Obama and his policies, many of them referencing Lincoln in their attacks on the current president. In examining these individuals and groups, Barr's study provides a deeper understanding of American political life and the nation itself.

Download or read book Abraham Lincoln written by Eliot Norton and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mrs Lincoln and Mrs Keckly written by Jennifer Fleischner and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vibrant social history set against the backdrop of the Antebellum south and the Civil War that recreates the lives and friendship of two exceptional women: First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and her mulatto dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckly. “I consider you my best living friend,” Mary Lincoln wrote to Elizabeth Keckly in 1867, and indeed theirs was a close, if tumultuous, relationship. Born into slavery, mulatto Elizabeth Keckly was Mary Lincoln’s dressmaker, confidante, and mainstay during the difficult years that the Lincolns occupied the White House and the early years of Mary’s widowhood. But she was a fascinating woman in her own right, Lizzy had bought her freedom in 1855 and come to Washington determined to make a life for herself. She was independent and already well-established as the dressmaker to the Washington elite when she was first hired by Mary Lincoln upon her arrival in the nation’s capital. Mary Lincoln hired Lizzy in part because she was considered a “high society” seamstress and Mary, as an outsider in Washington’s social circles, was desperate for social cachet. With her husband struggling to keep the nation together, Mary turned increasingly to her seamstress for companionship, support, and advice—and over the course of those trying years, Lizzy Keckly became her confidante and closest friend. Historian Jennifer Fleischner allows us to glimpse the intimate dynamics of this unusual friendship for the first time, and traces the pivotal events that enabled these two women to forge such an unlikely bond at a time when relations between blacks and whites were tearing the nation apart. Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly is a remarkable work of scholarship that explores the legacy of slavery and sheds new light on the Lincoln White House.

Download or read book Lincoln written by Gore Vidal and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-04-13 with total page 673 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lincoln is the cornerstone of Gore Vidal's fictional American chronicle, which includes Burr, 1876, Washington, D.C., Empire, and Hollywood. It opens early on a frozen winter morning in 1861, when President-elect Abraham Lincoln slips into Washington, flanked by two bodyguards. The future president is in disguise, for there is talk of a plot to murder him. During the next four years there will be numerous plots to murder this man who has sworn to unite a disintegrating nation. Isolated in a ramshackle White House in the center of a proslavery city, Lincoln presides over a fragmenting government as Lee's armies beat at the gates. In this profoundly moving novel, a work of epic proportions and intense human sympathy, Lincoln is observed by his loved ones and his rivals. The cast of characters is almost Dickensian: politicians, generals, White House aides, newspapermen, Northern and Southern conspirators, amiably evil bankers, and a wife slowly going mad. Vidal's portrait of the president is at once intimate and monumental, stark and complex, drawn with the wit, grace, and authority of one of the great historical novelists. With a new Introduction by the author.

Download or read book I am Abraham Lincoln written by Brad Meltzer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each picture book in this series is a biography of an American hero, told in a simple, conversational, vivacious way, and always focusing on a character trait that made the person heroic. (Cover may vary) The heros are depicted as children throughout, telling their life stories in first-person present tense, which keeps the books playful and accessible to young children. This book spotlights Abraham Lincoln who always spoke his mind and was unafraid to speak for others.This friendly, fun biography series inspired the PBS Kids TV show Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum. One great role model at a time, these books encourage kids to dream big. Included in each book are: • A timeline of key events in the hero’s history • Photos that bring the story more fully to life • Comic-book-style illustrations that are irresistibly adorable • Childhood moments that influenced the hero • Facts that make great conversation-starters • A virtue this person embodies: Abraham Lincoln's compassion made him a great leader. You’ll want to collect each book in this dynamic, informative series!

Download or read book Lincoln s Lover written by Jason Emerson and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his Poetics, Aristotle said a historian and a poet do not differ from each other--one simply writes in verse and the other in prose. In fact, history and poetry have a long connection; much of what we know about ancient history throughout the world came to us through the centuries and millennia as epic poetry purporting to tell the stories of great men and events. The two genres also create a fascinating juxtaposition when each views one through the lens of the other. To consider the life of a historical person through poetry is both to see that person for who they were and to consider who that person could have, or even should have, been in a more poetically perfect world. Abraham Lincoln and poetry have a long and intimate connection. Lincoln wrote and even published multiple poems, and all of his greatest writings and speeches are themselves outstandingly and inherently poetic. Following Lincoln's death, hundreds of poetic tributes were published in newspapers across the country, and eulogies to the Great Emancipator in verse have continued to be penned ever since. But what about his wife, Mary? She also has a long and intimate connection to verse: she read and wrote poetry, was both ennobled muse and satirical target, and shared a love of the genre that formed a personal connection with her husband. Lincoln's Lover: Mary Lincoln in Poetry is a compilation of poetry written by, for, and about Mary Lincoln dating from 1839 to 2012. Each poem is prefaced with brief explanations contextualizing the historical events of Mary's life as portrayed in the poem, as well as an explanation of the poem and the poet who wrote it. Presented chronologically, the works offer a view of the changing perceptions of Mary Lincoln through the years. The poems show Mary as woman, wife, First Lady, and widow, as well as insane woman, complex individual, and intricate and indispensable part of her husband. A combination of poetry, history, and biography, Lincoln's Lover is a unique book that allows readers to experience Mary Lincoln's words, thoughts, experiences, and legacy as explained and exposed through poetry over the past 170 years.

Download or read book Mrs Lincoln s Dressmaker written by Jennifer Chiaverini and published by Dutton. This book was released on 2013-09-24 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini's compelling historical novel unveils the private lives of Abraham and Mary Lincoln through the perspective of the First Lady's most trusted confidante and friend, her dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley. In a life that spanned nearly a century and witnessed some of the most momentous events in American history, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born a slave. A gifted seamstress, she earned her freedom by the skill of her needle, and won the friendship of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln by her devotion. A sweeping historical novel, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker illuminates the extraordinary relationship the two women shared, beginning in the hallowed halls of the White House during the trials of the Civil War and enduring almost, but not quite, to the end of Mrs. Lincoln's days.

Download or read book The Lincoln Highway written by Amor Towles and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-03-21 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More than ONE MILLION copies sold A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick A New York Times Notable Book, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bill Gates and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year “Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review “A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club “Fantastic. Set in 1954, Towles uses the story of two brothers to show that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope.” —Bill Gates “A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” —NPR The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. “Once again, I was wowed by Towles’s writing—especially because The Lincoln Highway is so different from A Gentleman in Moscow in terms of setting, plot, and themes. Towles is not a one-trick pony. Like all the best storytellers, he has range. He takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys, including The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men. He seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as an interstate highway. But, he suggests, when something (or someone) tries to steer us off course, it is possible to take the wheel.” – Bill Gates