Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas

Allen C. Guelzo, with a Foreword by Michael Lind

$14.99

E-book (Other formats: Hardcover)
978-0-8093-8637-6
6 x 9, 1 illustrations
01/26/2009

About the Book

Despite the most meager of formal educations, Lincoln had a tremendous intellectual curiosity that drove him into the circle of Enlightenment philosophy and democratic political ideology. And from these, Lincoln developed a set of political convictions that guided him throughout his life and his presidency. This compilation of ten essays from Lincoln scholar Allen C. Guelzo uncovers the hidden sources of Lincoln’s ideas and examines the beliefs that directed his career and brought an end to slavery and the Civil War.

Authors/Editors

Allen C. Guelzo, the author of Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America, is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College. He is a three-time winner of the Lincoln Prize, for Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President (2000), Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2005), and Gettysburg: The Last Invasion (2013), the last of which was a New York Times best seller.

Reviews

“Allen Guelzo is one of the finest Lincoln scholars of our generation, and this book of essays reveals once again a unique combination of impeccable scholarship with a wonderfully readable narrative style.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Guelzo’s contribution is countering the quest for simple answers in explaining Lincoln’s actions, thoughts, and values, and challenging his familiar portrayal as a product of unalloyed American exceptionalism. Guelzo presents Lincoln as a self-taught, and therefore original, thinker in the best sense of the word, and concludes that “we need to know that Lincoln thought and what he thought about.” (24) In that effort, this book is a wonderful place to begin. Kenneth J. Winkle, Journal of Historical Biographies

"Thoughtful and meticulously documented with a wealth of notes, Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas is a welcome contribution to public and college library American History collections. " —James Cox, Midwest Book Reviews

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