Monday, March 15, 2010

3rd Quarter ORB Review

Abraham Lincoln, A Man Of Faith and Courage by Joe Wheeler. Howard Books, 2008

Abraham Lincoln, A Man Of Faith and Courage is a biography of our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. The main focus of the author is to show how Lincoln's faith in God and unwillingness to give up influenced his career. Having a somewhat tough childhood with his mother dying young, Lincoln never had a great connection with his father. He was much more close to his adopted mother who encouraged him to continue his education while his father always thought he should just settle down and be a farmer. Lincoln seemed to be unsure of what career he would pursue, choosing many different careers before finally becoming a lawyer. His great speechmaking in the courtroom lead to a career in politics. He was elected president in 1869, becoming the first Republican president, a party which he helped create. During his presidency the Civil War occurred, as well as personal tragedies such as his son Willie dying. After the turbulent war, many were upset about the victory in the North. Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater on April 14th, 1865.

"Personable and readable...it moved quickly." -Rebecca Reid

This biography was not quite as detailed as I would have liked it to be. Wheeler is very good at telling stories of Lincoln, but he is very uneven in providing details. For some stories of Lincoln's life he only provides a short paragraph of information. For stories of Lincoln that many people have already heard, he will sometimes devote pages. However, there is some very inspirational material in the book and I would mildly recommend it to someone who is interested in reading about Lincoln.

"The once robust Treasury was looted and left on shambles. The nation's reputation abroad was trashed by operatives of the South so that the Confederacy would be quickly recognized by the great powers." (140)

Looking at the book objectively- if I had not known anything about Lincoln before reading this biography, I would have thought he was a great man after reading this book. However, having a decent background of knowledge about Lincoln, the book felt like a rehash to me with intriguing peaks of information that were extremely interesting. Personally, the book is extremely inspirational. It really motivates the reader to never give up. Lincoln faced many obstacles in his life but never gave up. Once again I would mildly recommend this book, but it is not overly in-depth.

No comments:

Post a Comment