Six encounters with Lincoln : a president confronts democracy and its demons /
Material type: TextPublisher: New York, New York : Viking, [2017]Copyright date: �2017Description: xi, 480 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780670025909
- 0670025909
- 6 encounters with Lincoln
- 973.7092 23
- E457.15 .P93 2017
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Nonfiction | Coeur d'Alene Library | Book | 973.7 PRYOR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610020655234 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
An awkward first meeting with U.S. Army officers, on the eve of the Civil War. A conversation on the White House portico with a young cavalry sergeant who was a fiercely dedicated abolitionist. A tense exchange on a navy ship with a Confederate editor and businessman. In this eye-opening book, Elizabeth Brown Pryor examines six intriguing, mostly unknown encounters that Abraham Lincoln had with his constituents. Taken together, they reveal his character and opinions in unexpected ways, illustrating his difficulties in managing a republic and creating a presidency. Pryor probes both the political demons that Lincoln battled in his ambitious exercise of power and the demons that arose from the very nature of democracy itself- the clamorous diversity of the populace, with its outspoken demands. She explores the trouble Lincoln sometimes had in communicating and in juggling the multiple concerns that make up being a political leader; how conflicted he was over the problem of emancipation; and the misperceptions Lincoln and the South held about each other. Pryor also provides a fascinating discussion of Lincoln?s fondness for storytelling and how he used his skills as a raconteur to enhance both his personal and political power. Based on scrupulous research that draws on hundreds of eyewitness letters, diaries, and newspaper excerpts, Six Encounters with Lincoln offers a fresh portrait of Lincoln as the beleaguered politician who was not especially popular with the people he needed to govern with, and who had to deal with the many critics, naysayers, and dilemmas he faced without always knowing the right answer. What it shows most clearly is that greatness was not simply laid on Lincoln?s shoulders like a mantle, but was won in fits and starts.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-462) and index.
A wary handshake -- Pfunny pface -- Two emancipators meet -- Of fathers and sons -- Hell-cats -- The hollow crown -- Epilogue to the hollow crown : Lincoln and Shakespeare.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Foreword (p. vii)
- Note to the Reader (p. xiii)
- Introduction (p. 1)
- 1 A Wary Handshake (p. 11)
- 2 Pfunny Pface (p. 65)
- 3 Two Emancipators Meet (p. 119)
- 4 Of Fathers and Sons (p. 153)
- 5 Hell-Cats (p. 213)
- 6 The Hollow Crown (p. 269)
- 7 Epilogue to the Hollow Crown Lincoln and Shakespeare (p. 329)
- Abbreviations (p. 337)
- Notes (p. 339)
- Bibliography (p. 413)
- Illustration Credits (p. 463)
- Index (p. 465)
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Pryor (Reading the Man) does the impossible in this insightful, lucid book by teaching us something new about 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (1809-65). Using new primary sources that reveal personal encounters with the president, the author points to the ambitions and partisanship that drove Lincoln throughout his life and the often contradictory, conflicted, and convulsive politics and problems of a democracy beset by overbearing self interests, weak federal institutions, vainglorious men, and incompetent military leadership. Pryor scores Lincoln for his constricted understanding of military matters, bungling of the Fort Sumter crisis, misreading of supposed Southern Unionism, and sometimes unprincipled partisanship, among other failures. She argues that Lincoln did not grow into and remake the presidency as many scholars have insisted, and that his speeches belied his inability to communicate clearly and effectively. The man Pryor reimagines is at once complicated, conflicted, and consequential. VERDICT One might argue that by pulling away the shroud of sanctification that covered Lincoln after his assassination, Pryor sees only what those with a passing acquaintance of Lincoln knew. However, she successfully provides insight into a man who revealed and represented the imperfections, imperatives, and possibilities of a democratic people.-Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
The late historian and diplomat Pryor (Reading the Man) left behind a manuscript that will cinch her legacy as a creative scholar. She uses six little-known interactions between American citizens and President Lincoln-either individually or in groups-as a means to parse the president's thoughts on important political issues. What makes the encounters particularly fascinating is that the participants recorded them at the time, so they remain uncolored by the sentimentality of post-assassination remembrance. Pryor is intrigued by the ways in which the encounters demonstrate how Lincoln "both responded to and helped shape a new way of looking at democratic inclusion, not necessarily because he wanted to but because he had to." An uncomfortable meeting between U.S. Army officers and their new commander-in-chief in March 1861 serves as an exploration of Lincoln's abilities as a military leader. The recounting of a nearly botched flag-raising during the christening of a new Marine bandstand launches a meditation on what Lincoln's storytelling abilities meant for his presidency. Meetings with the Cherokee leader John Ross and the writer Harriet Beecher Stowe show the president profoundly uncomfortable around people who weren't white men. Pryor's impressive final book will be of great appeal to legions of Lincoln aficionados. Illus. Agent: Deborah Grosvenor, Grosvenor Literary. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.Booklist Review
Historian Pryor died tragically in an automobile accident in 2015 but had completed this book before her death. The premise offers an interesting take on biography: to profile a famous historical figure through a series of encounters with different and relatively unknown individuals. Each ""encounter"" spins off into a thematically focused chapter on various topics, including race and emancipation. A recurring theme is the president's ambivalence about his role as chief executive. Despite the book's title, none of the six chapters is limited to one encounter, but the method of showing the influence of these random meetings and conversations on the president's approach to key issues does provide a compelling structure. The encounter with the educated Cherokee chief John Ross influenced Lincoln's dealings with Native Americans; those with Harriet Beecher Stowe, Clara Barton, and others had a similar effect on his attitude toward issues concerning women, with whom Lincoln was grievously uncomfortable. In all, Pryor hones in on the essential Lincoln, focusing on his endearing quirkiness, his storytelling proclivity, and his hayseed wit (well and embarrassingly recounted).--Mark Levine Copyright 2018 BooklistAuthor notes provided by Syndetics
Elizabeth Brown Pryor graduated from Northwestern University. She joined the U.S. Park Service and at one point led tours of the Washington Monument and Arlington House. She was an international negotiator with the U.S. State Department for 20 years. She wrote several books including Clara Barton, Professional Angel and Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee through His Private Letters, which received the Lincoln Prize, the Jefferson Davis Award, the Richard B. Harwell Book Award, and the Richard S. Slatten Award for Excellence in Virginia Biography. She died in a car crash on April 13, 2015 at the age of 64.(Bowker Author Biography)
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