Notes

• The American president has come to be the most powerful figure in the world–and in the nineteenth century, a great man held that office. Lincoln scholar Miller’s new book closely examines that great man in that hugely important office, analyzing the commander in chief who coped with the profound moral dilemmas of America’s bloodiest war. In this sequel to Lincoln’s Virtues Miller completes his "ethical biography," showing the inexperienced backcountry politician transformed into a head of state, slapped from the first minute of his presidency by decisions of the utmost gravity and confronted by the radical moral contradiction left by the nation’s Founders: universal ideals of Equality and Liberty and the monstrous injustice of slavery. Miller finds in this superb politician a remarkable presidential combination: an indomitable resolve, combined with the judgment that keeps it from being mindless stubbornness; and a supreme magnanimity, combined with the judgment that keeps it from being sentimentality.–From publisher description