Posted on Sun, Feb. 10, 2008

Experts recommend Lincoln books

We asked some Lincoln scholars, enthusiasts and readers what Lincoln book or books they would recommend to others.

Kent Whitworth, executive director, Kentucky Historical Society: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin: "Not only do you get real insight into Lincoln and his 'political genius,' but you also get a fascinating view of his cabinet members and their backgrounds. I also enjoyed getting a real sense of the inner workings of Washington in the mid-19th century. I enjoyed it so much I may read it again."

James Klotter, Kentucky state historian and Georgetown College history professor:

• Lincoln by David Donald: Considered one of the essential Lincoln biographies.

• Team of Rivals: "Reaches a wide audience."

• Mary Todd Lincoln by Jean Baker.

• Lincoln of Kentucky by Lowell Hayes Harrison: "Stresses state's continuing influence on Abe."

• Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy Basler.

Douglas Wilson, Knox College, Galesburg, Ill., author of Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words:

• Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America by William E. Gienapp. "It gives you a compact biography of Lincoln ... and at the same time a history of the Civil War and Lincoln's role in it. ... useful to people who say, 'I don't have a lot of time, but I'd like to have something that's a compact, reliable book about Lincoln and his importance in the Civil War."

• Team of Rivals: Goodwin "gives us some way to measure Lincoln ... even they (his political rivals) understood that he towered above them."

• Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America, by Garry Wills. 272 words that changed a nation.

Lisa Summers Cleveland, public relations and marketing, Kentucky Lincoln Bicentennial Commission: Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America by Andrew Ferguson. "The book made me laugh out loud! Ferguson did a wonderful job of detailing the many ways that America has honored President Lincoln over the years."

Jason Emerson, author of The Madness of Mary Lincoln:

• Herndon's Lincoln by William Henry Herndon. "There is no better book to see Lincoln as he lived. The way Herndon describes Lincoln's walk, talk, the way he would sit in the law office and read aloud, the behavior of the Lincoln kids. One of my favorite lines, that I used to use when I was a park ranger at the Lincoln Home in Springfield, was how Herndon observed that Lincoln's ambition was 'a little engine that knew no rest.'" Emerson also said Herndon might not be the most reliable witness when it comes to Mary Todd Lincoln: "He despised Mary Lincoln, and a reader cannot trust anything he says about her."

• The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, edited by Harold Holzer. "They reveal the elemental Lincoln, the master orator, the impassioned humanist, the practical politician. No one can truly understand Lincoln without reading those debates."

Alice George Rogers, director of public relations and marketing, Kentucky Historical Society: Land of Lincoln: "My vote right now from the PR/everyman perspective."

Lexington vice mayor Jim Gray: Team of Rivals.

Larry Cleveland, Franklin Commonwealth's Attorney:

• Team of Rivals.

• Lincoln the Lawyer by Brian Dirck.

R. Darrell Meadows, project historian for the Kentucky Historical Society's Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibitions:

• Donald's Lincoln. "One of Donald's greatest insights, for me, was to see the young Lincoln as a rather ordinary boy, who nonetheless possessed an enormous capacity for growth."

• Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words by Douglas Wilson.

• The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln by Michael Burlingame.

• Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard Carwardine

• Team of Rivals

• The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics by James Oakes

• Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America by Allen C. Guelzo. "I do not believe there is any subject more important for Americans to understand -- yet it continues to be misunderstood -- than how the Civil War led to the ending of slavery in the United States."