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About the Book
Although he was Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s oldest and last surviving son, the details of Robert T. Lincoln’s life are misunderstood by some and unknown to many others. Nearly half a century after the last biography about Abraham Lincoln’s son was published, historian and author Jason Emerson illuminates the life of this remarkable man and his achievements in Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln. Emerson, after nearly ten years of research, draws upon previously unavailable materials to offer the first truly definitive biography of the famous lawyer, businessman, and statesman who, much more than merely the son of America’s most famous president, made his own indelible mark on one of the most progressive and dynamic eras in United States history. Born in a boardinghouse but passing his last days at ease on a lavish country estate, Robert Lincoln played many roles during his lifetime. As a president’s son, a Union soldier, an ambassador to Great Britain, and a U.S. secretary of war, Lincoln was indisputably a titan of his age. Much like his father, he became one of the nation’s most respected and influential men, building a successful law practice in the city of Chicago, serving shrewdly as president of the Pullman Car Company, and at one time even being considered as a candidate for the U.S. presidency. Along the way he bore witness to some of the most dramatic moments in America’s history, including Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse; the advent of the railroad, telephone, electrical, and automobile industries; the circumstances surrounding the assassinations of three presidents of the United States; and the momentous presidential election of 1912. Giant in the Shadows also reveals Robert T. Lincoln’s complex relationships with his famous parents and includes previously unpublished insights into their personalities. Emerson reveals new details about Robert’s role as his father’s confidant during the brutal years of the Civil War and his reaction to his father’s murder; his prosecution of the thieves who attempted to steal his father’s body in 1876 and the extraordinary measures he took to ensure it would never happen again; as well as details about the painful decision to have his mother committed to a mental facility. In addition Emerson explores the relationship between Robert and his children, and exposes the actual story of his stewardship of the Lincoln legacy—including what he and his wife really destroyed and what was preserved. Emerson also delves into the true reason Robert is not buried in the Lincoln tomb in Springfield but instead was interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Meticulously researched, full of never-before-seen photographs and new insight into historical events, Giant in the Shadows is the missing chapter of the Lincoln family story. Emerson’s riveting work is more than simply a biography; it is a tale of American achievement in the Gilded Age and the endurance of the Lincoln legacy. Authors/Editors
Jason Emerson is a journalist and an independent historian who has been researching and writing about the Lincoln family for nearly 20 years. He is a former National Park Service park ranger at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, in Springfield, Illinois. His previous books include The Madness of Mary Lincoln (SIU Press, 2007—named Book of the Year by the Illinois State Historical Society), Lincoln the Inventor (SIU Press, 2009), and The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln’s Widow, as Revealed by Her Own Letters (SIU Press, 2011). He lives near Syracuse, New York.
Reviews
"It has never been easy growing up or living in the public eye. To do so under the enormous shadow cast by our 16th president would test the resiliency of even the doughtiest character. As historian Jason Emerson details in in this richly informative biography, Robert Todd Lincoln, the only one of Abraham Lincoln's children to survive into adulthood, bore his peculiar burden with quiet grace and admirable dignity."--Ron Reagan, political commentator and author of My Father at 100
“Jason Emerson, the premier young Lincoln scholar today, has written the definitive biography of one of America’s neglected and misunderstood leaders in both 19th- and 20th-century industry, law and politics. Beautifully written and illustrated, this is one of the best Lincoln books to appear in many years.” —Wayne C. Temple, author of Abraham Lincoln: From Skeptic to Prophet
“Here at last is the biography Lincoln aficionados have been waiting for. Historian Jason Emerson sweeps away a century of myths and misinformation about Robert T. Lincoln, including the musty old canard that he had no respect for his famous father and no sympathy for his emotionally fragile mother. This is an intimate, in-depth portrait that will be praised, quoted, and consulted for years to come.” —Thomas J. Craughwell, author of Stealing Lincoln’s Body
“This path-breaking biography tells the story of Lincoln’s only surviving son: a man utterly unlike his father in talent and temperament, yet who nonetheless found his own way to national prominence. Emerson charts Robert’s determined rise from bereaved and cash-strapped law student to become secretary of war, U.S. minister to Great Britain, and president of the Pullman Company. Most crucially, Emerson documents how Robert—as gatekeeper of his father’s papers and watchful guardian of his legacy—took a strong hand in shaping the portrait of Lincoln that emerged in the last decades of the nineteenth century. At the close of his career, Robert was a renowned corporate lawyer, a beloved emblem of the Republican Party, and a pillar of Chicago’s civic life. Contemporaries of this reticent yet extraordinarily successful figure often referred to him as ‘Lincoln’s Silent Son.’ Now, thanks to Emerson’s thorough scholarship, Robert T. Lincoln is silent no more.” —Nora Titone, author of My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry Between Edwin and John Wilkes Booth That Led to an American Tragedy
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