First published 2022
Allen Guelzo investigates Abraham Lincoln's spiritual journey and intellectual evolution in this updated examination of America's sixteenth president. Guelzo positions Lincoln as a rigorous thinker who grappled with the major political, religious, and cultural questions of the nineteenth century. The author connects Lincoln's public actions to his private spiritual wrestling, revealing a man of deep moral conviction who remained outside organized religion. This approach unveils Lincoln as both creative and paradoxical, shaped by the intellectual currents of his era. Originally published in 1999, this work earned the Lincoln Prize among other honors. Guelzo has returned to revise his early scholarship with fresh insights. The new preface examines how Lincoln studies have evolved over two decades and traces Guelzo's own unexpected journey into Lincoln scholarship. Readers gain access to Lincoln's inner world through rigorous historical analysis that treats the president as a serious intellectual figure rather than simply a political leader.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, non-fiction, 21st-century, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, rigorous, thought-provoking
Tropes: serious-intellectual-figure
Period: 19th Century
680 pages · Kindle Edition · Eerdmans