Curious to this as well. Dad has a birthday coming up and is a big Civil War buff.
House_Valiant on
Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard is good though some people take issue with Bill O’Reilly. I’m not sure how “essential” it is.
Key_Piccolo_2187 on
If you want two that are very different:
Lincoln, by Gore Vidal is classified as biographical historical fiction and is wonderful. It’s historically accurate but Vidal obviously creates dialogue and tells Lincoln’s story through a novel, so it’s not true non-fiction, but is a great look at Lincoln.
If you want more evidental and historically foot-perfect, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s ‘Team of Rivals’ is in my own opinion one of the most important books written about American politics ever, and certainly has no equals on the topic of Lincoln (again, my opinion is just my own).
Active_Letterhead275 on
Team of Rivals
Admiral201 on
I haven’t read the book yet, but my father enjoyed Eric Foner’s The Firey Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. It’s more about how his views were shaped by the events and times than a straight biography of his life from what he has told me and it’s a little more dense than some more fun biographies. I like Eric Foner as an author and have read his other books so I would recommend this one.
5 Comments
Curious to this as well. Dad has a birthday coming up and is a big Civil War buff.
Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard is good though some people take issue with Bill O’Reilly. I’m not sure how “essential” it is.
If you want two that are very different:
Lincoln, by Gore Vidal is classified as biographical historical fiction and is wonderful. It’s historically accurate but Vidal obviously creates dialogue and tells Lincoln’s story through a novel, so it’s not true non-fiction, but is a great look at Lincoln.
If you want more evidental and historically foot-perfect, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s ‘Team of Rivals’ is in my own opinion one of the most important books written about American politics ever, and certainly has no equals on the topic of Lincoln (again, my opinion is just my own).
Team of Rivals
I haven’t read the book yet, but my father enjoyed Eric Foner’s The Firey Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. It’s more about how his views were shaped by the events and times than a straight biography of his life from what he has told me and it’s a little more dense than some more fun biographies. I like Eric Foner as an author and have read his other books so I would recommend this one.