Lincoln

Synopsis

"Donald, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished scholar of the Civil War era (Charles Sumner), offers here a provocative reinterpretation of Abraham Lincoln's career and character. Donald presents Lincoln's nature as essentially passive. Throughout his life, according to Donald, Lincoln believed his destiny was controlled by some larger force or "higher power." This conviction generated both an underlying fatalism and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving. If one approach or one general failed, another could be tried. Although the information available to Lincoln was often significantly limited by modern standards, bold plans based on a priori reasoning were foreign to his thought process. Instead, it was Lincoln's ability to respond to events and actions that brought the U.S. through its greatest crisis and established the matrix for successful, if imperfect, reunification." [Publishers Weekly] See the "Lincoln Academy 2008 Interview David Herbert Donald" on YouTube.

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Released

1996

Location

United States

Setting