Joshua Zeitz

The author does a good job showing how the evangelical movement of the mid 19th century influenced, and was influenced, the politics surrounding abolition. Most evangelists in the 1830's and 40's followed the "moral suasion" path of the early abolitionists like Garrison. They did not hold that political activism on emancipation was the course to pursue. Evangelists like Charles Finney held that the conversion of souls would bring about reforms on a wide range of social issues like abolition, temperance and others. Others, like Theodore Weld, believed that the pursuit of emancipation should be the express intended outcome of religious activity. The Tappan brothers, supporters of both Finney and Weld, came to share Weld's perspective.

As the tumult over slavery increased, the connection of emancipation and politics changed substantially toward more engagement with politics. Many evangelists took overtly political stands on the issues of the day, particularly migrating their support for the new Republican party. By the time of the war, there was blatant opining from the pulpit on the imperative of the religious to lobby and advocate for the suppression of the rebellious slaveholding South. The obsession with hastening the millennium through social reforms also played a major part in the growing political activism by evangelicals. The author recounts well how the growing connection of pro and anti slavery doctrines caused the splits between northern and southern branches of the major denominations.

Lincoln's views on religion were always somewhat ambiguous. Throughout his life Lincoln was never a member of any church. Early on, he was accused of being at best a Deist and perhaps a nonbeliever. As the burdens of the war came upon him, and certainly after the death of his son Willie, his references to the will of God as influencing the course to take became clear. But, he believed that the intention of God were somewhat inscrutable and that God's plans did not necessarily coalesce entirely with the virtue of the North's causes. His incredible 2nd inaugural address vividly shows how his interpretation of scripture formed his thinking on the meaning of the causes and perpetuation of the war.… (more)

How History Gets Shaped

Events happen, such as Lincoln's election as president, the prewar battles, and the Civil War. However, as Zeitz demonstrates, history itself gets shaped. His book is worthwhile as a history of the period, much of it concise and trenchant. His biographies of John Hay and John Nicolay are focused and comprehensive. But it's the characterization of Lincoln, the Lincoln we know, or, as Zeitz puts it, the Lincoln Memorial Lincoln and the revisionist histories of the Civil War most readers will find enlightening.

In the first part of the book, Zeitz covers the early lives of Hay and Nicolay, the foundation of their individual character. Also here, he succinctly and clearly takes readers through the issues leading up to the election of 1860, in particular the various compromises that kept the lid on a boiling cauldron, as well as the machinations of the election process. The rabid partisanship before and after the war will disabuse readers of the notion there is anything singular about current American politics. Along the way, Zeitz offers a few keen observations that still ring true, among them this on postwar prosperity:

"Rarely did it occur to business and political elites that they had not prospered strictly by the rules of the free labor economy. Railroad companies profited heavily from government land grants and financial subsidies. The Timber Culture Act (1873) and the Desert Land Act (1877) gave away millions of acres of public land to those with the means to plant trees and irrigate arid allotments in the Southwest....At every turn, an activist state born of necessity to prosecute the Civil War found new and increasingly inventive ways to subsidize business concerns that had grown out of the same armed struggle. Many of the primary recipients of this public largesse remained oblivious to the role that the government played in making them wealthy."

In the last third, Zeitz shows how Hay and Nicolay, with the support of Robert Lincoln, shaped the President Lincoln we know today, primarily in their serialized and widely read 10-volume biography, Abraham Lincoln: A History, and Nicolay's condensed one-volume version, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln: Condensed From Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History. Without them, we might have inherited a different Lincoln, one more shaped by William Herndon, Lincoln's old Springfield law partner, and others, without the pair's first-hand knowledge of Lincoln's true character and witness-to-history status.

While successful in giving us the Lincoln we know today, Hay and Nicolay were less fruitful in preserving the historical perspective that the South rebelled, that a Civil War was fought, and that the central issue leading to conflict was slavery. Revisionism took over for a reason Zeitz explores, leaving us with concepts like The War Between the States, competing economic systems, states rights, brother against brother, and the like.

Finally, Zeitz does an excellent job of illustrating how Hay and Nicolay's attitude on race evolved from when they were young men in pre-Civil War America to when they were older and wiser men. Anti-slavery didn't mean racial equality to them, or Lincoln, or most any anti-slavery advocate. But over time, attitudes changed.

All in all, you'll find it a superb and enlightening excursion into the most crucial period in the Republic's history. Includes footnotes, bibliography, index, and a small collection of photos.… (more)

How History Gets Shaped

Events happen, such as Lincoln's election as president, the prewar battles, and the Civil War. However, as Zeitz demonstrates, history itself gets shaped. His book is worthwhile as a history of the period, much of it concise and trenchant. His biographies of John Hay and John Nicolay are focused and comprehensive. But it's the characterization of Lincoln, the Lincoln we know, or, as Zeitz puts it, the Lincoln Memorial Lincoln and the revisionist histories of the Civil War most readers will find enlightening.

In the first part of the book, Zeitz covers the early lives of Hay and Nicolay, the foundation of their individual character. Also here, he succinctly and clearly takes readers through the issues leading up to the election of 1860, in particular the various compromises that kept the lid on a boiling cauldron, as well as the machinations of the election process. The rabid partisanship before and after the war will disabuse readers of the notion there is anything singular about current American politics. Along the way, Zeitz offers a few keen observations that still ring true, among them this on postwar prosperity:

"Rarely did it occur to business and political elites that they had not prospered strictly by the rules of the free labor economy. Railroad companies profited heavily from government land grants and financial subsidies. The Timber Culture Act (1873) and the Desert Land Act (1877) gave away millions of acres of public land to those with the means to plant trees and irrigate arid allotments in the Southwest....At every turn, an activist state born of necessity to prosecute the Civil War found new and increasingly inventive ways to subsidize business concerns that had grown out of the same armed struggle. Many of the primary recipients of this public largesse remained oblivious to the role that the government played in making them wealthy."

In the last third, Zeitz shows how Hay and Nicolay, with the support of Robert Lincoln, shaped the President Lincoln we know today, primarily in their serialized and widely read 10-volume biography, Abraham Lincoln: A History, and Nicolay's condensed one-volume version, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln: Condensed From Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History. Without them, we might have inherited a different Lincoln, one more shaped by William Herndon, Lincoln's old Springfield law partner, and others, without the pair's first-hand knowledge of Lincoln's true character and witness-to-history status.

While successful in giving us the Lincoln we know today, Hay and Nicolay were less fruitful in preserving the historical perspective that the South rebelled, that a Civil War was fought, and that the central issue leading to conflict was slavery. Revisionism took over for a reason Zeitz explores, leaving us with concepts like The War Between the States, competing economic systems, states rights, brother against brother, and the like.

Finally, Zeitz does an excellent job of illustrating how Hay and Nicolay's attitude on race evolved from when they were young men in pre-Civil War America to when they were older and wiser men. Anti-slavery didn't mean racial equality to them, or Lincoln, or most any anti-slavery advocate. But over time, attitudes changed.

All in all, you'll find it a superb and enlightening excursion into the most crucial period in the Republic's history. Includes footnotes, bibliography, index, and a small collection of photos.… (more)