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Abraham Lincoln: A Life
Hailed as the definitive portrait of the sixteenth president, Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame's impressive two-volume biography has been masterfully abridged and revised.
Sixteenth president of the United States, the Great Emancipator, and a surpassingly eloquent champion of national unity, freedom, and democracy, Abraham Lincoln is arguably the most studied and admired of all Americans. Michael Burlingame's astonishing Abraham Lincoln: A Life, an updated, condensed version of the 2,000-page two-volume set that The Atlantic hailed as one of the five best books of 2009, offers fresh interpretations of this endlessly fascinating American leader.
Based on deep research in unpublished sources as well as newly digitized sources, this work reveals how Lincoln's character and personality were the North's secret weapon in the Civil War, the key variable that spelled the difference between victory and defeat. He was a model of psychological maturity and a fully individuated man whose influence remains unrivaled in the history of American public life. Burlingame chronicles Lincoln's childhood and early development, romantic attachments and losses, his love of learning, legal training, and courtroom career as well as his political ambition, his term as congressman in the late 1840s, and his serious bouts of depression in early adulthood. Burlingame recounts, in fresh detail, the Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln marriage and traces the mounting moral criticism of slavery that revived his political career and won this Springfield lawyer the presidency in 1860. This abridgement delivers Burlingame's signature insight into Lincoln as a young man, a father, and a politician.
Lincoln speaks to us not only as a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity but also as a source of inspiration. Few have achieved his historical importance, but many can profit from his personal example, encouraged by the knowledge that despite a lifetime of troubles, he became a model of psychological maturity, moral clarity, and unimpeachable integrity. His presence and his leadership inspired his contemporaries; his life story will do the same for generations to come.
Sixteenth president of the United States, the Great Emancipator, and a surpassingly eloquent champion of national unity, freedom, and democracy, Abraham Lincoln is arguably the most studied and admired of all Americans. Michael Burlingame's astonishing Abraham Lincoln: A Life, an updated, condensed version of the 2,000-page two-volume set that The Atlantic hailed as one of the five best books of 2009, offers fresh interpretations of this endlessly fascinating American leader.
Based on deep research in unpublished sources as well as newly digitized sources, this work reveals how Lincoln's character and personality were the North's secret weapon in the Civil War, the key variable that spelled the difference between victory and defeat. He was a model of psychological maturity and a fully individuated man whose influence remains unrivaled in the history of American public life. Burlingame chronicles Lincoln's childhood and early development, romantic attachments and losses, his love of learning, legal training, and courtroom career as well as his political ambition, his term as congressman in the late 1840s, and his serious bouts of depression in early adulthood. Burlingame recounts, in fresh detail, the Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln marriage and traces the mounting moral criticism of slavery that revived his political career and won this Springfield lawyer the presidency in 1860. This abridgement delivers Burlingame's signature insight into Lincoln as a young man, a father, and a politician.
Lincoln speaks to us not only as a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity but also as a source of inspiration. Few have achieved his historical importance, but many can profit from his personal example, encouraged by the knowledge that despite a lifetime of troubles, he became a model of psychological maturity, moral clarity, and unimpeachable integrity. His presence and his leadership inspired his contemporaries; his life story will do the same for generations to come.
720 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 2023
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97 people want to read
About the author
Michael Burlingame
67 books37 followersMichael Burlingame is the author of THE INNER WORLD OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1994) and the editor of a dozen books of Lincoln primary resource materials. He taught history at Connecticut College in New London for 33 years, retiring in 2001 to devote full time to ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A LIFE. That work is based on extensive research in manuscripts, newspapers, and public records, many of them overlooked or underutilized by previous biographers. He lives in Mystic, Connecticut."
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 26, 2024
After learning of the crushing Union defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, President Abraham Lincoln said that “if there is a worse place than hell I am in it.” When Pennsylvania Governor Andrew G. Curtin described the terrible scenes of slaughter from that battle, Lincoln, his face “darkened with pain,” “moaned and groaned in anguish,” “showed great agony of spirit,” and “walked the floor, wringing his hands and uttering exclamations of grief.” In that grief, Lincoln repeatedly asked, “What has God put me in this place for?”
The place that Lincoln occupied was the highest position of power in all the land, president of the United States. Unlike his fifteen presidential predecessors, however, Lincoln faced a task more daunting than any American commander in chief before him. With the nation ripped apart by a bloody Civil War, the fate of the United States rested on his shoulders. Fully realizing that the entire world was watching and waiting to see if the American experiment in self-government would survive, Lincoln knew that the Civil War was about more than just saving the Union forged by the Founding Fathers in 1776. He understood that the bitter, brutal conflict also stood as a test before the world, a world in which the vast majority of people had long lived under the rule of kings and sovereigns, of whether America’s system of free government, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, could long endure. As Lincoln famously said, “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”
The weight of difficulty that resulted from Lincoln’s efforts to preserve the Union, safeguard American liberty, and abolish slavery were trials more intense than almost any man could bear. His own personal struggles during the Civil War, which included the tragic death of his 11-year-old son Willie, the second child Lincoln and his wife Mary had lost during their marriage, only added more pain to his daily reality. As one contemporary put it, Lincoln was “a man who carried a load too great for human strength; and, as the years went on and the load grew heavier, it bowed him into premature old age.” As Lincoln himself said in despair after receiving news of yet another significant Union defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville, which was fought only four months after the loss at Fredericksburg, “I am the loneliest man in America. There is no one to whom I can go to unload my troubles, assured of sympathy and help.”
Considering the unfathomable pressure he was under and the suffering he endured in the execution of his duties as the 16th president of the United States, one can understand why a distraught Lincoln would ask, “What has God put me in this place for?” In attempting to answer that question, one must examine the long road of adversity that led Lincoln to the presidency. His entire life had been consumed with one hardship after another. Lincoln was born into a life of crippling poverty, an existence filled with so much hardship that one observer explained that at one point in his early life, Lincoln lived “amid want, poverty and discomfort that was . . . about on the plane of the slaves he was destined to emancipate.” From that crushing early period to the time he became president, Lincoln’s life never got any easier. Despite a life filled with the tragic deaths of loved ones, career failures, bouts of crippling, suicidal depression, and scores of other difficulties, Lincoln developed a mental and a moral fortitude that equipped him with the spirit of perseverance necessary to lead the United States through the unparalleled turbulence of the Civil War.
And so, to return to Lincoln’s question, “What has God put me in this place for?” Perhaps the reason God put Lincoln in that place was because he was the only man capable of taking on so tall of a task. Lincoln’s life of struggle prepared him for the indispensable role he was destined to play during the American Civil War, instilling him with an indomitable will, which when coupled with his immense wisdom and his sincere devotion to duty, honesty, and responsibility, made him the right man at the right time in history to guide America through its greatest crisis. By preserving American liberty, sparking “a new birth of freedom” for the United States by abolishing slavery, and ensuring that government of the people, by the people, and for the people did not perish from the earth, Lincoln left the world a far better place with a more hopeful future for the freedom of mankind. As the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy said, Abraham Lincoln “was a Christ in miniature, a saint of humanity,” a man who “lived and died a hero, and as a great character he will live as long as the world lives. May his life long bless humanity!”
For any student attempting to understand who Abraham Lincoln was at heart, the works of Michael Burlingame are essential reading. As historian James M. McPherson put it, Burlingame “knows more about Lincoln than any other living person.” In "Abraham Lincoln: A Life," Burlingame, in conjunction with Jonathan W. White, has distilled his original two-volume, 1.2 million-word biography of Lincoln into an updated one-volume abridgment. Burlingame’s book reflects a lifetime of Lincoln knowledge and scholarship. This valuable new work makes Abraham Lincoln’s story even more accessible to the general public and comes at a time when all Americans must look to the words and deeds of Lincoln as a guide to navigate our own divided, uncertain times. Studying Lincoln’s life and legacy has the power to make us all better Americans and people. As Burlingame writes, “Lincoln speaks to us not only as a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity but also as a source of inspiration. Few will achieve his world historical importance, but many can profit from his personal example, encouraged by the knowledge that despite a childhood of emotional malnutrition and grinding poverty, despite a lack of formal education, despite a series of career failures, despite a woe-filed marriage, despite a tendency to depression, despite a painful midlife crisis, despite the early death of his mother and his siblings as well as of his sweetheart and two of his four children, he became a model of psychological maturity, moral clarity, and unimpeachable integrity. His presence and his leadership inspired his contemporaries; his life story can do the same for generations to come.”
The place that Lincoln occupied was the highest position of power in all the land, president of the United States. Unlike his fifteen presidential predecessors, however, Lincoln faced a task more daunting than any American commander in chief before him. With the nation ripped apart by a bloody Civil War, the fate of the United States rested on his shoulders. Fully realizing that the entire world was watching and waiting to see if the American experiment in self-government would survive, Lincoln knew that the Civil War was about more than just saving the Union forged by the Founding Fathers in 1776. He understood that the bitter, brutal conflict also stood as a test before the world, a world in which the vast majority of people had long lived under the rule of kings and sovereigns, of whether America’s system of free government, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, could long endure. As Lincoln famously said, “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.”
The weight of difficulty that resulted from Lincoln’s efforts to preserve the Union, safeguard American liberty, and abolish slavery were trials more intense than almost any man could bear. His own personal struggles during the Civil War, which included the tragic death of his 11-year-old son Willie, the second child Lincoln and his wife Mary had lost during their marriage, only added more pain to his daily reality. As one contemporary put it, Lincoln was “a man who carried a load too great for human strength; and, as the years went on and the load grew heavier, it bowed him into premature old age.” As Lincoln himself said in despair after receiving news of yet another significant Union defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville, which was fought only four months after the loss at Fredericksburg, “I am the loneliest man in America. There is no one to whom I can go to unload my troubles, assured of sympathy and help.”
Considering the unfathomable pressure he was under and the suffering he endured in the execution of his duties as the 16th president of the United States, one can understand why a distraught Lincoln would ask, “What has God put me in this place for?” In attempting to answer that question, one must examine the long road of adversity that led Lincoln to the presidency. His entire life had been consumed with one hardship after another. Lincoln was born into a life of crippling poverty, an existence filled with so much hardship that one observer explained that at one point in his early life, Lincoln lived “amid want, poverty and discomfort that was . . . about on the plane of the slaves he was destined to emancipate.” From that crushing early period to the time he became president, Lincoln’s life never got any easier. Despite a life filled with the tragic deaths of loved ones, career failures, bouts of crippling, suicidal depression, and scores of other difficulties, Lincoln developed a mental and a moral fortitude that equipped him with the spirit of perseverance necessary to lead the United States through the unparalleled turbulence of the Civil War.
And so, to return to Lincoln’s question, “What has God put me in this place for?” Perhaps the reason God put Lincoln in that place was because he was the only man capable of taking on so tall of a task. Lincoln’s life of struggle prepared him for the indispensable role he was destined to play during the American Civil War, instilling him with an indomitable will, which when coupled with his immense wisdom and his sincere devotion to duty, honesty, and responsibility, made him the right man at the right time in history to guide America through its greatest crisis. By preserving American liberty, sparking “a new birth of freedom” for the United States by abolishing slavery, and ensuring that government of the people, by the people, and for the people did not perish from the earth, Lincoln left the world a far better place with a more hopeful future for the freedom of mankind. As the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy said, Abraham Lincoln “was a Christ in miniature, a saint of humanity,” a man who “lived and died a hero, and as a great character he will live as long as the world lives. May his life long bless humanity!”
For any student attempting to understand who Abraham Lincoln was at heart, the works of Michael Burlingame are essential reading. As historian James M. McPherson put it, Burlingame “knows more about Lincoln than any other living person.” In "Abraham Lincoln: A Life," Burlingame, in conjunction with Jonathan W. White, has distilled his original two-volume, 1.2 million-word biography of Lincoln into an updated one-volume abridgment. Burlingame’s book reflects a lifetime of Lincoln knowledge and scholarship. This valuable new work makes Abraham Lincoln’s story even more accessible to the general public and comes at a time when all Americans must look to the words and deeds of Lincoln as a guide to navigate our own divided, uncertain times. Studying Lincoln’s life and legacy has the power to make us all better Americans and people. As Burlingame writes, “Lincoln speaks to us not only as a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity but also as a source of inspiration. Few will achieve his world historical importance, but many can profit from his personal example, encouraged by the knowledge that despite a childhood of emotional malnutrition and grinding poverty, despite a lack of formal education, despite a series of career failures, despite a woe-filed marriage, despite a tendency to depression, despite a painful midlife crisis, despite the early death of his mother and his siblings as well as of his sweetheart and two of his four children, he became a model of psychological maturity, moral clarity, and unimpeachable integrity. His presence and his leadership inspired his contemporaries; his life story can do the same for generations to come.”
May 2, 2025
At 7:22 a.m., the president finally stopped breathing. "Now he belongs to the ages," Stanton said tearfully.
Lincoln was mourned as the savior of the Union, the liberator of the slaves, and the vindicator of democracy. In a eulogy delivered on June 1, 1865, Frederick Douglass would tell a large audience at Manhattan's Cooper Union that Lincoln was "in a sense hitherto without example, emphatically the black man's President: the first to show any respect for their rights as men." Although Douglass had been highly critical of Lincoln at various points during the war, he now eloquently con-cluded, "He was the first American President who ... rose above the prejudice of his times, and country."
Leo Tolstoy's tribute, given during an interview in 1909, provides moving testimony to the universality of Lincoln's fame. The Russian novelist admired the president’s “peculiar moral power” and “the greatness of his character”. Lincoln, he said “was what Beethoven was in music, Dante in poetry, Raphael in painting, and Christ in the philosophy of life." No political leader matched Lincoln, in Tolstoy's judgment: "Of all the great national heroes and statesmen of history Lincoln is the only real giant. Alexander, Frederick the Great, Caesar, Napoleon, Gladstone and even Washington stand in greatness of character, in depth of feeling and in a certain moral power far behind Lincoln. Lincoln was a man of whom a nation has a right to be proud; he was a Christ in miniature, a saint of humanity, whose name will live thousands of years in the legends of future generations. We are still too near to his greatness, and so can hardly appreciate his divine power; but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and too powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us." Lincoln "lived and died a hero, and as a great character he will live as long as the world lives. May his life long bless humanity!"
Lincoln speaks to us not only as a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity but also as a source of inspiration. Few will achieve his world historical importance, but many can profit from his personal example, encouraged by the knowledge that despite a childhood of emotional malnutrition and grinding poverty, despite a lack of formal education, despite a series of career failures, despite a woe-filled marriage, despite a tendency to depression, despite a painful midlife crisis, despite the early death of his mother and his siblings as well as of his sweetheart and two of his four children, he became a model of psychological maturity, moral clarity, and unimpeachable integrity. His presence and his leadership inspired his contemporaries; his life story can do the same for generations to come.
Lincoln was mourned as the savior of the Union, the liberator of the slaves, and the vindicator of democracy. In a eulogy delivered on June 1, 1865, Frederick Douglass would tell a large audience at Manhattan's Cooper Union that Lincoln was "in a sense hitherto without example, emphatically the black man's President: the first to show any respect for their rights as men." Although Douglass had been highly critical of Lincoln at various points during the war, he now eloquently con-cluded, "He was the first American President who ... rose above the prejudice of his times, and country."
Leo Tolstoy's tribute, given during an interview in 1909, provides moving testimony to the universality of Lincoln's fame. The Russian novelist admired the president’s “peculiar moral power” and “the greatness of his character”. Lincoln, he said “was what Beethoven was in music, Dante in poetry, Raphael in painting, and Christ in the philosophy of life." No political leader matched Lincoln, in Tolstoy's judgment: "Of all the great national heroes and statesmen of history Lincoln is the only real giant. Alexander, Frederick the Great, Caesar, Napoleon, Gladstone and even Washington stand in greatness of character, in depth of feeling and in a certain moral power far behind Lincoln. Lincoln was a man of whom a nation has a right to be proud; he was a Christ in miniature, a saint of humanity, whose name will live thousands of years in the legends of future generations. We are still too near to his greatness, and so can hardly appreciate his divine power; but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and too powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us." Lincoln "lived and died a hero, and as a great character he will live as long as the world lives. May his life long bless humanity!"
Lincoln speaks to us not only as a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity but also as a source of inspiration. Few will achieve his world historical importance, but many can profit from his personal example, encouraged by the knowledge that despite a childhood of emotional malnutrition and grinding poverty, despite a lack of formal education, despite a series of career failures, despite a woe-filled marriage, despite a tendency to depression, despite a painful midlife crisis, despite the early death of his mother and his siblings as well as of his sweetheart and two of his four children, he became a model of psychological maturity, moral clarity, and unimpeachable integrity. His presence and his leadership inspired his contemporaries; his life story can do the same for generations to come.
June 30, 2024
It's not every day that a 626-page book catches your eye and you check it out on an impulse. Michael Burlingame's abridged biography of Abraham Lincoln was worth the commitment, even if I came to understand why authors generally only focus on certain aspects or periods of Lincoln's life. The sheer amount of detail -- particularly during his early political career in the 1840s -- is disproportional to its historical significance. Burlingame's interpretation of this period's effect on Lincoln's psyche is nonetheless interesting, and makes me want to take a look at the author's other books in which he more closely examines this side.
There were also some great Lincoln stories that I was surprised never to have heard before. How is it possible that with our cult of Lincoln, I never knew that he once climbed out of the window of the Illinois legislature to avoid the forming of a quorum, or that he escaped from a duel simply by choosing cavalry sabers as the weapon and having long arms? Maybe we don't tell these stories because they don't say as much about Lincoln's character as walking miles to return a few pennies to an overcharged customer, but they are entertaining nonetheless.
I very much appreciated the insight this book provided me into Abraham Lincoln's sense of humor. Without devoting too much explicit space to the topic, Burlingame nonetheless drove home Lincoln's humor by frequently providing his off-the-cuff reactions to certain situations. What I find inspiring about Lincoln is that, while he took his duty seriously and did the best job that he could, he didn't take *himself* too seriously. I hope I can also fulfill all of my responsibilities while remaining humble.
On the topic of humor and psychology, however, I would have liked a little more analysis of one recurring theme in Lincoln's jokes. Reading this book, it seemed to me that Lincoln very often joked about hanging himself or being hanged. I don't believe Burlingame explicitly commented on the psychology behind this rather uncomfortable joke, and I would have liked a little analysis here.
I also sorely missed a discussion of sources, which Burlingame never addressed. I know that he's a preeminent Lincoln scholar with several Lincoln books under his belt, so maybe he didn't feel like rehashing the issues here. But I still wanted some acknowledgment of the difficulties associated with different sources. When were they written, by whom, and how trustworthy are they?
I also found it somewhat uncomfortable that Michael Burlingame clearly hates Mary Todd Lincoln. I liked Burlingame's analysis of how Lincoln came to marry Mary, even if his heart wasn't in the marriage; I was deeply struck by the suggestion that Mary's nagging and abuse drove Lincoln to be active outside the home whenever possible; and I can understand how someone who's dedicated much of his life to Abraham Lincoln could come to despise the First Lady for making Lincoln's existence difficult. But. The level of unaddressed disdain the author radiated toward Mary bordered on the unprofessional, and the repeated descriptions of Mary's tantrums in the last 50 pages of the book came to feel rather petty. Why did we need to know that she resented Mrs. Grant in the final weeks of the war? Why devote so much space to this in the last part of Lincoln's life?
Still, I took a lot from this biography and am inspired to read and learn more about the best U.S. president, by Michael Burlingame and by other scholars.
There were also some great Lincoln stories that I was surprised never to have heard before. How is it possible that with our cult of Lincoln, I never knew that he once climbed out of the window of the Illinois legislature to avoid the forming of a quorum, or that he escaped from a duel simply by choosing cavalry sabers as the weapon and having long arms? Maybe we don't tell these stories because they don't say as much about Lincoln's character as walking miles to return a few pennies to an overcharged customer, but they are entertaining nonetheless.
I very much appreciated the insight this book provided me into Abraham Lincoln's sense of humor. Without devoting too much explicit space to the topic, Burlingame nonetheless drove home Lincoln's humor by frequently providing his off-the-cuff reactions to certain situations. What I find inspiring about Lincoln is that, while he took his duty seriously and did the best job that he could, he didn't take *himself* too seriously. I hope I can also fulfill all of my responsibilities while remaining humble.
On the topic of humor and psychology, however, I would have liked a little more analysis of one recurring theme in Lincoln's jokes. Reading this book, it seemed to me that Lincoln very often joked about hanging himself or being hanged. I don't believe Burlingame explicitly commented on the psychology behind this rather uncomfortable joke, and I would have liked a little analysis here.
I also sorely missed a discussion of sources, which Burlingame never addressed. I know that he's a preeminent Lincoln scholar with several Lincoln books under his belt, so maybe he didn't feel like rehashing the issues here. But I still wanted some acknowledgment of the difficulties associated with different sources. When were they written, by whom, and how trustworthy are they?
I also found it somewhat uncomfortable that Michael Burlingame clearly hates Mary Todd Lincoln. I liked Burlingame's analysis of how Lincoln came to marry Mary, even if his heart wasn't in the marriage; I was deeply struck by the suggestion that Mary's nagging and abuse drove Lincoln to be active outside the home whenever possible; and I can understand how someone who's dedicated much of his life to Abraham Lincoln could come to despise the First Lady for making Lincoln's existence difficult. But. The level of unaddressed disdain the author radiated toward Mary bordered on the unprofessional, and the repeated descriptions of Mary's tantrums in the last 50 pages of the book came to feel rather petty. Why did we need to know that she resented Mrs. Grant in the final weeks of the war? Why devote so much space to this in the last part of Lincoln's life?
Still, I took a lot from this biography and am inspired to read and learn more about the best U.S. president, by Michael Burlingame and by other scholars.
May 6, 2024
Having read this excellent one volume edition of the life of Abraham Lincoln, I now want to read the authors original two volume work. I feel that there is more information out there that I should digest. I have read numerous books about Lincoln so much of what I read is not new. Still, I would love to see how Burlingame presents it.
The most important aspect of this book is the author’s ability to humanize our 16th president. Not an easy task as so much legend has been built up about him. Others have tried and have succeeded to a certain extent but not as successfully as this. I really felt like I was reading about a person and all his faults and feelings and not the second coming of Jesus Christ.
To me this book is a must read for anyone interested in the man that held the Union together and freed the slaves.
The most important aspect of this book is the author’s ability to humanize our 16th president. Not an easy task as so much legend has been built up about him. Others have tried and have succeeded to a certain extent but not as successfully as this. I really felt like I was reading about a person and all his faults and feelings and not the second coming of Jesus Christ.
To me this book is a must read for anyone interested in the man that held the Union together and freed the slaves.
January 9, 2026
Excellent deep dive on one of America's most revered presidents. Burlingame doesn't stray from acknowledging Lincoln's struggles with depression, family difficulties, and political decisions that complicate the Lincoln legacy (colonization efforts in Panama after proposing emancipation, for example). Above all, Lincoln comes across as extremely human, and Burlingame avoids speculation and judging by modern standards. A fantastic read!
November 3, 2023
Best Lincoln biography
December 6, 2025
Excellent birth-to-grave storytelling
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews