Lincoln And Leadership: Military, Political, And Religious Decision Making (The North's Civil War)

Features of Lincoln and Leadership: Military, Political, and Religious Decision Making (The North's Civil War)

Lincoln and Leadership offers fresh perspectives on the 16th presidentmaking novel contributions to the scholarship of one of the more studied figures of American history The book explores Lincolns leadership through essays focused respectively on Lincoln as commanderinchief deft political operator and powerful theologian Taken together the essays suggest the interplay of military political and religious factors informing Lincolns thought and action and guiding the dynamics of his leadership The contributors all respected scholars of the Civil War era focus on several critical moments in Lincolns presidency to understand the ways Lincoln understood and dealt with such issues and concerns as emancipation military strategy relations with his generals the use of black troops party politics and his own reelection the morality of the war the place of America in Gods design and the meaning and obligations of sustaining the Union Overall they argue thatLincoln was simultaneously consistent regarding his commitments to freedom democratic government and Union but flexible and sometimes contradictory in the means to preserve and extend them They further point to the ways that Lincolns decision making defined the presidency and recast understandings of Americanexceptionalism They emphasize that the real Lincoln was an unabashed party man and shrewd politician a selftaught commanderinchief and a deeply religious man who was selfconfident in his ability to judge men and to persuade them with words but unsure of what God demanded from America for its collective sinsof slavery Randall Millers Introduction in particular provides essential weight to the notion that Lincolns presidential leadership must be seen as a series of interlocking stories In the end the contributors collectively remind readers that the Lincoln enshrined as the Great Emancipator and savior of the Union was inlife and practice a workinprogress And they insist that getting right with Lincoln requires seeing the intersections of hisand Americasmilitary political and religious interests and identities