With Malice Toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln

In this small but valuable volume, Oates explores the reality beyond the two sources of Lincoln myth: the primary myth of a saintly and folkloric Lincoln of Carl Sandburg and a secondary myth of the 'white honky' Lincoln of the 1970's revisionists. Oates emphasizes that Lincoln drew deeply upon the

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"spirit of his age", which was a profoundly revolutionary time across the world. Oates relates how Lincoln absorbed one of the core lessons of America from the example of Henry Clay: : "in this country one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably".

That slavery was the cause of the Civil War is beyond all doubt. As Oates explains, however, the North did not go to war to free the slaves. In the standard phrasing, the North went to war to 'preserve the union'. Oates explores Lincoln's fears that the spread of slavery in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision would lead to the destruction of democratic society. The debate then still raged on the world stage whether a republican form of government could last. Lincoln rejected the "ingenious sophism" that states could freely leave the Union. "With rebellion thus sugar coated [southern leaders] have been drugging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years." Secession posed nothing less than a final challenge to popular government. If a minority could destroy the government any time it felt aggrieved, then no government could endure. Thus the war had to be fought to preserve not just the American Republic, but the possibility of republican government.

Lincoln did in fact oppose slavery from early on. His views on racial matters apart from slavery became more fully progressive over time. Lincoln, however, hoped that slavery would slowly melt away in a losing competition with free labor and that liberated slaves would resettle in Africa. It is part of Lincoln's greatness that he later gave up these views. Oates explores this evolution in his thinking. Oates debunks the notion that the Emancipation Proclamation was unimportant in liberating the slaves. Oates also refutes the notion that Lincoln would have favored an easy hand during Reconstruction. On the contrary, the evidence strongly suggests he would have led the so-called Radical Republicans.

Highly recommended for any reader with an interest in Lincoln, the Civil War era, or really pretty much any American.

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I had originally decided not to read a Lincoln bio since Lincoln is one president that I know something about but the Fillmore and Buchanan bios gave such a "peculiar" perspective towards Lincoln, Seward, Weed, and other so-called "black" or "radical" Republicans, that I needed to get their side of

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the story. Also this book popped off the shelf when I was idly looking at recently published history at the library.

There were a few surprises. Considering how the South reacted to Lincoln's election I definitely didn't realize how far Lincoln and his administration was willing to compromise. His line was drawn at the spread of slavery, not its existence. Yet he went farther than anyone except the Abolitionists in embracing the quintessential American ideal: "...all men are created equal..."

It's very much a lesson in how people shape reality to fit their expectations rather than the other way around. It didn't matter what Lincoln said, the South always took it the way modern right-wingers twist the meaning of everything Obama says. It would be funny if it wasn't so sickening and unnecessary.

Lincoln, though, was incredible. He learned from his mistakes—which were plentiful—endured personal tragedy and inconstant support by his loved ones, and harnessed some of the premiere prima donnas of American history. Should he have bothered? I don't know. The North and South probably would have fought over expansion anyway. But he took a stand for what was right.

The Lincoln story is so huge that this book is at best a well-informed overview. It's well written and sympathetically evokes Lincoln the man before he became an icon.

I've still got a few antebellum presidents to clean up—Zachery Taylor and the 2nd volume on Pierce, and maybe Madison. I'd like to know more about Thomas Hart Benton, Sam Houston, Seward and Weed, and the Abolitionists. I'm also heading South to read about the folks who started the whole shebang, maybe read a full bio of Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, and a little more on Toombs, Rhett, Cobb, and their ilk. Sadly, I'm starting to think that conventional wisdom is right and that the issue was slavery all along. It takes hubris to be a slave owner, an autocratic, unyielding state of mind that can't admit mistake. I've gone a long way to come back to the beginning.

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This book addresses Abraham Lincoln on a more personal side. We come to see Lincoln’s awkward appearance, self doubts, personal struggles in relationships, and his often reflection on mortality. We follow Lincoln through his earliest beginnings in Kentucky to which he was embarrassed to come from

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a family of illiterates to his eventual election as president of the United States. Lincoln wanted something better for himself, so sought to educate himself and improve his circumstance. His political career begins as a lawyer, his run for the Senate, to his presidential election. The conflicts of the Civil War reflected heavily on him. He was inexperienced and waivered on how to deal with war and slavery. The book brought Lincoln to a level where the average person can relate to him and not only see him as one of the “greats” of our time. He had insecurities and problems like the rest of us.

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Abraham Lincoln is one of the giants of American history. By this, I mean that so much has been written about him and his times that it's hard to get one's arms around the subject. Just like Washington and Jefferson, one could spend a lifetime of reading and find that there's still more to be read.

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Where to start?

With Malice Toward None serves well as an introductory biography of Lincoln. On the one hand, Oates makes his subject come alive. On the other hand, Lincoln is more than he appears here. I left this work wanting to dig much deeper - perhaps that's the best recommendation for a popular biography of such a complex man.

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Well organized biography of Lincoln. Easy reading. Highly recommend this book.

Very good biography of Abraham Lincoln, who I admire. There are a lot of legends about him!

Oates's biography is a good, standard account of Lincoln's life. Well-researched and a good read. Not the best, not the worst.