Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Leadership Lessons of Abraham Lincoln: Strategies, Advice, and Words of Wisdom on Leadership, Responsibility, and Power

Rate this book
What is it about Abraham Lincoln that, 146 years after his death, continues to inspire us? Was it his commitment to honesty and his unfailing integrity? Was it his courage to stand up against the injustices of his day? Was it his ability to lead the American people through the perils of war and unify the country through the conviction of his ideals?

In Leadership Lessons of Abraham Lincoln , the best, most thought-provoking, and inspiring excerpts from Lincoln’s speeches and writings have been collected in an effort to help today’s business leaders apply his principles to their own work and life. While it may not always be easy to follow Honest Abe’s sterling example, the lessons one learns from reading this book are sure to inspire and give rise to some deep contemplation about the role of the leader in organizations both small and large, and reaffirm one’s faith in the principles Lincoln held so deeply.

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 20, 2011

28 people are currently reading
75 people want to read

About the author

Abraham Lincoln

2,362 books1,965 followers
Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States from 1861, led during the Civil War, and emancipated slaves in the south in 1863; shortly after the end, John Wilkes Booth assassinated him.

Abraham Lincoln, an American lawyer, politician, and man, served until 1865. Lincoln defended the American constitutional nation, defeated the insurgent Confederacy, abolished, expanded the power of the Federal government, and modernized the economy.
A mother bore him into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky, and parents reared on the frontier, primarily in Indiana. He educated as a lawyer in Whig party, joined legislature, and represented Illinois. In 1849, he returned to his successful law practice in Springfield, Illinois.

The Kansas–Nebraska act in 1854 opened the territories, angered him, and caused him to re-enter politics. He quickly joined the new Republican Party. He reached a national audience in the campaign debates against Stephen Arnold Douglas for Senate in 1858. Lincoln ran in 1860 and swept the north to gain victory. Other elements viewed his election as a threat and from the nation began seceding. During this time, the newly formed Confederate of America began seizing Federal military bases. A little over one month after Lincoln assumed, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Following the bombardment, Lincoln mobilized forces to suppress the rebellion and restored.

Lincoln, a moderate, navigated a contentious array of factions with friends and opponents from the Democratic Party and Republican Party. His allies, the Democrats, and the radical Republicans, demanded harsh treatment of the Confederates. He exploited mutual enmity of the factions, carefully distributing political patronage, and appealed to the American people. Democrats, called "Copperheads," despised Lincoln, and some irreconcilable pro-Confederate elements went so far as to plot. People came to see his greatest address at Gettysburg as a most influential statement of American national purpose. Lincoln closely supervised the strategy and tactics in the effort, including the selection of generals, and implemented a naval blockade of the trade. He suspended habeas corpus in Maryland and elsewhere, and averted British intervention by defusing the Trent Affair. He issued the proclamation, which declared free those "in rebellion." It also directed the Navy to "recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons" and to receive them "into the armed service." Lincoln pressured border to outlaw, and he promoted the thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished, except as punishment for a crime.
Lincoln managed his own successful re-election campaign. He sought to heal the torn nation through reconciliation. On April 14, 1865, just five days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, he attended a play at theater of Ford in Washington, District of Columbia, with Mary Todd Lincoln, his wife, when Confederate sympathizer fatally shot him. People remember Lincoln as a martyr and a national hero for his time and for his efforts to preserve and abolish. Popular and scholarly polls often rank Lincoln as the greatest president in American history.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
18 (36%)
4 stars
12 (24%)
3 stars
12 (24%)
2 stars
6 (12%)
1 star
2 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
63 reviews
January 5, 2025
I was looking for leadership advice, not speeches and letters.

Maybe someone else can get leadership advice, I didn’t.
Profile Image for Maher.
29 reviews2 followers
April 3, 2018
If you wish to be a lawyer, attach no consequence to the place you are in, or the person you are with; but get books, sit down anywhere, and go to reading for yourself. That will make a lawyer of you quicker than any other way.
- Letter to William H. Grigsby; August 3, 1858
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.