A Companion to Abraham Lincoln

THIRTY-THREE HISTORIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS SURVEYING THE SCHOLARSHIP ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S LIFE AND LEGACY No American has generated more historical writing than Abraham Lincoln. Since 1865, scholars and commentators have depicted him as an emancipator and reluctant liberator, radical and conservative, military genius and untrained meddler, statesman and shrewd politician. A Companion to Abraham Lincoln provides an authoritative overview of the scholarship that has shaped past and present understanding of the sixteenth president, while charting where this rich field of historiography is headed. Organized into five sections--Personal Life and Character; The Political Lincoln; Leadership and Sectionalism; Slavery, Race, and Emancipation; and Public Life and Cultural Memory-- A Companion to Abraham Lincoln contains thirty-three historiographical essays. Contributions from senior scholars to graduate students examine some of the most well-known and hotly contested aspects of Lincoln scholarship, with each essay surveying the vast literature to explain what historians have said about its particular topic. Designed as a reference volume, this book serves historians, graduate and undergraduate students, librarians, archivists, and members of organizations such as the Lincoln Forum and Civil War Round Tables. Specialists will find the analysis edifying, general readers will find it informative, and students will find this book accessible and enlightening.