As someone with little knowledge of the American Civil War, or President Lincoln, this book was equally fascinating and well written. Lincoln’s name hasn’t gone down in history because of his superior military knowhow, or skilful “statesmanship”, but because of his superior “peculiar moral power and greatness of character”. It is truly a shame that politicians are not like Lincoln - who was so keenly aware of making the morally correct choice, at the opportune time, that he was able to craft a cabinet of rivals that balanced themselves on the whole. As is often touted today of top tier leadership, you want to foster trust, respect, and open disagreement that allows for the best ideas to flourish. Creating a leadership team of “yes-people” is never good in the long run. Lincoln was ahead of his time here, as that is exactly the atmosphere he was able to create and maintain through arguably the most trying times in all of America’s history. Comparing Lincoln (the first elected President of the Republican Party), to Donald Trump shows the alarming distance politicians have travelled into a world of short term exuberance. It is no wonder that democracy should suffer with America so divided.
Two of my favourite moments from this book are when Lincoln appears on the battlefield - at the distress of everyone else around him. At the start of the war, he journeys to the front line, and in the dark, takes a boat over to the enemy camp to scout out an adequate landing for his forces. This was completely unheard of, as Lincoln was no general - however, he had become fed up with the slow progress of his commander at this particular post, and took it upon himself to get the troops moving. At another battlefront, late in the war, he was within range of the enemy, to the point that the surgeon by his side was actually shot by opposing fire. Can you imagine anything so wild as the sitting president being on the front line of what was the chaos of a 19th century war?
Moving onto a couple of my favourite quotes:
“in times of anxiety it is critical to ‘avoid being idle,’ that ‘business and conversation of friends’ were necessary to give the mind ‘rest from that intensity of thought, which will some times wear the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to the bitterness of death’”
“One of Lincoln’s favorite anecdotes spring from the early days just after the Revolution. Shortly after the peace was signed, the story began, the Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen ‘had occasion to visit England’, where he was subjected to considerable teasing banter. The British would make ‘fun of the Americans and General Washington in particular and one day they got a picture of General Washington’ and displayed it prominently in the outhouse so Mr. Allen could not miss it. When he made no mention of it, they finally asked him if he had seen the Washington picture. Mr. Allen said, ‘he thought that was a very appropriated [place] for an Englishman to Keep it. Why they asked, for said Mr. Allen there is Nothing that Will Make an Englishman Shit So quick as the Sight of Genl Washington’”
“‘Having hope’, writes Daniel Goleman in his study of emotional intelligence, ‘means that one will not give in to overwhelming anxiety, a defeatist attitude, or depression in the face of difficult challenges or setbacks.’ Hope is ‘more than the sunny view that everything will turn out all right’; it is ‘believing you have the will and the way to accomplish your goals.’ More clearly than his colleagues, Lincoln understood that numerous setbacks were inevitable before the war could be brought to a close.”
“Washing was a typical American. Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country - bigger than all the Presidents together.”
4/5.