Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years

So easy to read. In these days of a divided people I am reading about a country about to divide. Once was enough with casualties that were huge. Please,can’t we compromise and make our country strong and UNITED.

And I have read a couple of other studies of Lincoln, including one written by a Pulitzer-Prize winning historian just recently. But this biography written by the great American poet Carl Sandburg from Lincoln’s state of Illinois many decades ago has prairie poetry in its blood.

This book ended up being a conundrum for me. At times I really liked it, at times it drug on and at other times I did not care for it. This large volume is a condensation of a six volume set, which cannot be an esay task and I'm sure it suffered in some details as all condensations must. At times this resulted in certain details just being recited as bullet points on a list which did nothing for me. The language at times does tend to get flowery as you would expect from a poet, but did not juxtapose well with the horrific civil war subject matter, I felt. I was appalled at some of the re-enactments of slaves speaking in Brer Rabbit/Uncle Remus style dialects. I also did not appreciate the obvious bias favoring Lincoln, as if we must view every word and action of his in a positive light. Lincoln was a superb leader and a genius; but he was also human and not infallible and not without flaws. Likewise, I did not like the negative bias given to those who opposed Lincoln in any way. I, for one, don't think those who advocated for peace or for total and immediate abolition of slavery should have been cast in a negative light. Some of those portrayals really bothered me, such as with Sumner.But at the end of the day, this is truly a great and historic work. It is in particular a collection of seemingly endless anecdotes of Lincoln, and ultimately I ended up truly feeling that I got a flavor for Lincoln, the person, through these anectodes he was nearly constantly telling. He had one for every occasion, it seems. Though it was relatively brief in this volume, I most enjoyed the portions covering The Prairie Years of Lincoln. I think I should have enjoyed the volumes devoted to just that subject quite a bit better than this condensation of Prairie Years and War Years. Of course, the War Years were just too depressing but there is much history here with list after list of battles and casualties and who won what, as well as strategy and military personnel turnovers.The end of the book covers Lincoln's assasination in detail.

I really like this book. It lets me see who this child and man was and be proud to learn who he was.

To me these wouldn't be a collectors set but some may feel differently. The are printed on the type paper that is used for modern novels. The printing on mine is dark and although smaller than most novels is very readable (I'm an older person and had no trouble reading them). They do have photo pictures as well . My purchase was listed as Good used in the box, still in the shrink wrap, 1975 edition. That means they were actually new with wear on the wrap only. So I was fortunate in receiving them in that condition at a very good price. The writing is excellent of course and I do recommend that, plus as books to read and pass on to siblings, or friends, they are fine. I have noticed these are offered by a number of sellers without cover or box pictures which may vary with the year published, but all are published by Del. This is probably not a great review but should give you a general idea of what to expect.

For anyone interested in Lincoln, this is an absolute must read. Interestingly, many of the same problems Lincoln faced are still with us today. The research is amazing

Only a poet could have written this story as one beautiful long poem. I loved every chapter. This was also a well researched true history. I feel that I was am fortunate to have read it,

Forty years ago I borrowed a huge, beautiful volume by Carl Sandburg from a friend’s library. It seemed to my teenage eyes to be the ultimate unabridged authority on America’s greatest president. When I stumbled upon a 99 cent sale on this ebook I was delighted at the prospect of owning my own copy, and splurged on the print version.Imagine my disappointment when the book I received was smaller than a postcard and almost as thin.Sure, it’s still Sandburg, but only a partial chapter from his tome, repackaged doubtlessly to make a buck for some opportunistic entrepreneur.Sigh. Read the real one at the public library. You won’t be sorry, but I sure am for wasting ten bucks on a gag gift.

Recibi una version que si bien es bonita tiene mas de 30 años, por lo que el libro huele y se ve como los que tenia mi abuelo, no lo he leido pero me preocupa que se vaya a romper. Es un pack de 3 libros el que recibí impreso en los 80s. con ese aroma y coloracion a humedad del papel

CarlSandburgcondensedhissixvolumeclassicintoone.Itsamasterpiece.Highlyrecommended.

90-some-odd years ago, Carl Sandburg published the first part of a 6 volume biography of Abraham Lincoln (the last part was published in 1939). Realising that people might not want to read something that long, he pared it down to a 1 volume book of about Lincoln. This is that books.The first third looks at Lincoln's pre-Presidential life, while the remainder looks at his presidency. This feels like a thorough book about Lincoln. You'll get a thorough feel for Lincoln. I didn't know a huge amount about him (beyond willing the Civil War, his assasination, and suspending habeas corpus), and it was well writen without feeling like the author wanted to impress us with the amount of research done.My one grumble would be that when you precis such a long work, you're going to repeat points, and that occurs here, especially when it comes to the stories Lincoln told.

Essential reading regarding Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. Lucid and superb scholarship yet very readable. A beautiful binding that is a joy to read. Rapidly delivered by RMB Books it arrived in Australia in immaculate condition.

I don't know why I bought this book- I suppose it was because of the Spielberg film, which I never saw before getting the book. I'm English and therefore could not find the sufficient interest in the subject, although I did find very interesting material about Lincoln on the web. Incidentally I think I managed to watch 20 minutes of the film before I hit stop. The trouble with history is that it's always being rewritten, manipulated or sanitized and that's NOT what I want to read or watch.