Ronald C. White

(2009)NF Very good personal biography of Lincoln that does personalize him as well as deal with the well-known issues he had to confront. A very good companion to Team of Rivals.Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by David W. Blight The famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass once declared: "It is impossible for . . . anybody . . . to say anything new about Abraham Lincoln." And that was in 1893! More than 100 years later, as we contemplate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth on Feb. 12, an avalanche of new books about the 16th president descends upon an eager reading audience. Why? Ronald C. White Jr., an astute scholar of Lincoln's religion and language, has an apt answer: Lincoln continues to fascinate us "because he eludes simple definitions and final judgments." In A. Lincoln -- the title is taken from the way Lincoln signed his name -- White does not portray a genius who seemed to figure out all things before other mortals. Rather, this is a Lincoln of self-doubt, an evolving personality and an emerging and curious mind. This is a Lincoln of growth from backwoods ignorance to Enlightenment thinker, from prejudice and caution to boldness and imagination. This is a Lincoln, White writes, on a "journey of self-discovery" to the very end of his life. As Douglass poignantly said, Lincoln "began by playing Pharaoh [but] ended by playing Moses." Now that is a story. White, a visiting professor at UCLA, has written two previous books on Lincoln's rhetoric. The signature feature of this full biography is White's treatment of Lincoln as reader, writer and orator, a terrain where new insights are still available. Abraham Lincoln loved books, an old trope in the Lincoln myth, but it is so very true. Among my favorite images in this work is that of Lincoln, the young congressman in 1847 in Washington, D.C. He did not drink, chew tobacco or gamble away hours at his boarding house across the street from the Capitol. Instead, he was observed walking out of the Library of Congress, carrying books wrapped in a scarf tied on a pole over his shoulder. His colleagues accused him of incessantly "mousing" around in the stacks. And this is White's core argument: Lincoln didn't just enjoy books, he craved them -- from Blackstone's Commentaries to Shakespeare, from many kinds of history to regular reading of the Bible (often aloud), political philosophy and the poetry of Robert Burns. The boy who first started reading in Sinking Creek, Ky., when he was 5 and then yearned to escape his father's Indiana farm as a teenager later said that in his youth "there was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education." White makes this "interior world of intellectual curiosity" the central theme of Lincoln's life. Given all the discussion of the legacy of the outgoing George W. Bush (not a curious reader) and the ambitions of the incoming Barack Obama (a well-read man), White's observation that it was in reading that Lincoln could "clarify" his evolving "ethical identity" is worth our contemplation. The book's other signature is White's treatment of Lincoln's use of private notes, often mere "scraps of paper" on which he constantly tried out ideas and phrasing, especially when preparing for a major speech. In these accumulated notes (sometimes whole pages of prose), White concludes, Lincoln kept his own kind of "journal." And these musings were never so important as when he wrote orations such as his "House Divided" or "Cooper Union" speeches, or the transcendent Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural (which White beautifully illuminates). White sees the origins of many famous speeches in earlier jottings, a window into how Lincoln "thinks his way into a problem." Moreover, White stresses the importance of Lincoln's public letters while president. A master ironist, Lincoln embodied paradox and ambiguity as a politician, and he was both fascinated with and knew the importance of public opinion. He also, usually, managed to sustain a moral clarity in the face of withering criticism and pressure. From a letter to Horace Greeley about "saving the Union" in 1862, to his letters to Erastus Corning about habeas corpus and to James Conkling about the emancipation policy in 1863, his missives were read by millions when published in major newspapers. In these unprecedented public letters, Lincoln made his case to the nation and even to the Confederacy, often through subtlety and lasting metaphors. White provides the full story down to the assassination. He examines Lincoln's private life, including his early insecurities with women, his troubled marriage to Mary Todd and the devastating deaths of their two young sons. Mary makes many appearances but is too often described as "pretty" and "perky." The presidency and the war, on the other hand, emerge with order and clarity. The detail sometimes is numbing (hotel room numbers, addresses, names of generals' horses) and sometimes exhilarating, as in the thorough coverage of Lincoln's debates with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858 or the dramatic balloting at the 1860 Republican convention that nominated Lincoln. White writes engaging narrative, occasionally at the expense of analysis. Sometimes, he simply lets Lincoln's words speak for themselves and sidesteps explanation. Why did Lincoln idolize Henry Clay or support colonization of blacks to foreign lands for so long? Why did he not fire Maj. Gen. George McClellan sooner, after McClellan's many battlefield failures? We are never told. White takes note of Lincoln's problem with "sadness" but does not take up historian Joshua Wolf Shenk's call to look deeper into the president's depression. And White movingly describes the final drafting of the Emancipation Proclamation, but he falls flat when discussing Lincoln's meeting with five black leaders in August 1862, at which he told them that the races must remain "separate," that they should emigrate from the United States and that their presence in the country had caused the war. How daunting it must be for any biographer to take on Lincoln's life in this crowded literary marketplace! But this thoroughly researched book belongs on the A-list of major biographies of the tall Illinoisan; it's a worthy companion for all who admire Lincoln's prose and his ability to see into, and explain, America's greatest crisis.… (more)

I have read a few books on the Civil War, but this is my first biography of Lincoln. I am left in wonder and awe of our past President. As I read this biography, I hungered for more about the time, other people in this great trajedy, and especially more about Lincoln.

White builds a good narrative history of Lincoln and his world that ends with Lincoln’s second inaugural address. I am deeply moved by the religious beliefs that White focused on with Lincoln’s writings near the end of his life. It actually means more if Lincoln truly avoided religion in his public life up to that point as much as the author describes.

While I don't know a deep knowledge of the history involved here, I can still say this biography is a great read and study of Lincoln. It only builds a desire for further study.… (more)

For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White is a biography of the 18th US President and American Civil War general. Mr. White is a historian who has authored several other biographies.

Previously I listened Ron Chernow’s biography of Ulysses S. Grant and enjoyed it very much. I was looking forward to reading this book as well and get a different perspective on the president.

American Ulysses by Ronald C. White pends up with one of my favorite anecdotes, and one that seemed to be favorite with historians as well. Major General Grant and his son, Fred, were in Washington D.C. for a White House reception and walked into Willard’s Hotel to get a room. The desk clerk, not knowing who the soft-spoken soldier in a dusty uniform in-front of him was, offered them a cheap room, only to apologize profusely and gave them a generous upgraded room when he saw the name on the register.

This is an excellent biography with fantastic collections of charts, pictures, and maps. The description of The Battle of the Wilderness, as well as the Siege of Vicksburg are well-written and illuminating. His time as a new General is also something that I found to be most interesting.

Mr. White’s assertions in the introduction is that you cannot know U.S. Grant, without knowing his wife, Julia. An acute observation which was never thoroughly followed up. In fact, I thought Chernow’s biography made me “know” more of Grant’s personality and what he was like through his writings, as well as his wife’s observations.

Nevertheless, this is a solid biography of the Grant. Mr. White examines his life and times, but as someone who previously read other Grant biographies, I didn’t learn anything new, or got any new insights.… (more)