Notes

• "As a staunch defender of national unity, a successful war -leader, and the emancipator of the slaves, Abraham Lincoln lays compelling claim to being the greatest of America’s presidents." "This fresh political biography examines Lincoln both as a rising politician and as president, and focuses on the sources of his authority and achievement. It reveals his political talents and serious moral purpose but shows, too, how in pursuing office he depended on public opinion and the machinery of party. As war-leader, he saw the limits as well as the possibilities of power, and looked beyond the government to other engines of support, including the churches, the humanitarian agencies, and the volunteer Union army."– BOOK JACKET