Lincoln the President: Last Full Measure

Lincoln the President #4

by James G. Randall, Richard Nelson Current

At the time of his death on February 20, 1953, J. G. Randall stood out as the leading authority on the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. He has established his reputation with Constitutional Problems under Lincoln (1926; revised edition, 1951), The Civil War and Reconstruction (1937), and the first three volumes of a projected four volume study Lincoln the President (1945, 1952). Though Lincoln the President: Last Full Measure bears the marks of its time, it may still have much to offer the reader interested in Lincoln and the Civil War period.

456 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1991

About the author

Named after U.S. President James A. Garfield, James Garfield Randall was an American historian specializing on Abraham Lincoln and the era of the American Civil War. He was known for his systematic, scientific methodology based on thorough study of primary sources, his mastery of constitutional issues, and his neutrality regarding North and South.

Randall earned a B.A. degree at Butler College (1903), and a Ph.D. in history at the University of Chicago (1912). He taught at the University of Illinois, (1920–1950), where David Herbert Donald was one of his students. His multi-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln remains a major resource for scholars. He was president of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association 1939-1940. His wife Ruth Painter Randall wrote Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage (1953). His The Civil War and Reconstruction (1937) was for many years the most important history of the era.