Summoned to Glory

Book excerpt: A radical reinterpretation of America’s greatest president. Where previous Lincoln biographers describe his temperament as “moderate,” “passive,” or even “conservative,”historian Richard Striner offers a stunningly original perspectivethat will shed significant new light on one of the most studied figures in American history. Striner shows Lincoln’s audacity as no other book has ever done. By emphasizing the workings of Lincoln’s mind—stressing his cunning, his overall honesty, strategic thinking—even his ability to change his mind—Striner looks anew at many topics and themes important to Lincoln’s story that either revise or add new meaning to the work of previous biographers. His insights into Lincoln’s life, but also into antebellum America, and the military and political history of the Civil War, make this book indispensable for well-read armchair historians, seasoned students of Lincoln, the Civil War, or the American presidency and newcomers alike.