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Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief | 
 enlarge | Author: James M. Mcpherson
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 1238
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 1594201919
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.7092
EAN: 9781594201912
ASIN: 1594201919
Publication Date: October 7, 2008
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Condition: Brand New!!! bce
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Product Description
James McPherson, a bestselling historian of the Civil War, illuminates how Lincoln worked withand often against his senior commanders to defeat the Confederacy and create the role of commander in chief as we know it.
Though Abraham Lincoln arrived at the White House with no previous military experience (apart from a couple of months spent soldiering in 1832), he quickly established himself as the greatest commander in chief in American history. James McPherson illuminates this often misunderstood and profoundly influential aspect of Lincolns legacy. In essence, Lincoln invented the idea of commander in chief, as neither the Constitution nor existing legislation specified how the president ought to declare war or dictate strategy. In fact, by assuming the powers we associate with the role of commander in chief, Lincoln often overstepped the narrow band of rights granted the president. Good thing too, because his strategic insight and will to fight changed the course of the war and saved the Union.
For most of the conflict, he constantly had to goad his reluctant generals toward battle, and he oversaw strategy and planning for major engagements with the enemy. Lincoln was a self-taught military strategist (as he was a self-taught lawyer), which makes his adroit conduct of the war seem almost miraculous. To be sure, the Unions campaigns often went awry, sometimes horribly so, but McPherson makes clear how the missteps arose from the all-too-common moments when Lincoln could neither threaten nor cajole his commanders to follow his orders.
Because Lincolns war took place within our borders, the relationship between the front lines and the home front was especially closeand volatile. Here again, Lincoln faced enormous challenges in exemplary fashion. He was a masterly molder of public opinion, for instance, defining the war aims initially as preserving the Union and only later as ending slavery when he sensed the public was at last ready to bear such a lofty burden.
As we approach the bicentennial of Lincolns birth in 2009, this book will be that rarest gifta genuinely novel, even timely, view of the most-written-about figure in our history. Tried by War offers a revelatory portrait of leadership during the greatest crisis our nation has ever endured. How Lincoln overcame feckless generals, fickle public opinion, and his own paralyzing fears is a story at once suspenseful and inspiring.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
Commander in Chief January 6, 2009
Where does the title and the job description for "Commander in Chief" come from? If you don't know and want an interesting analysis of how this important piece of work was added to President's job description, this is your book. Written clearly and succinctly, this book will give you an even greater appreciation of the greatness of Abraham Lincoln who had to manage the Civil War "on the fly." Learn by doing? You bet!
Tried By War - A Worthy Case Summary of One Man's Greatness January 2, 2009
Writers, musicians, film directors and TV documentarians have chronicled Abraham Lincoln's greatness far more than four score and seven times. The latest is McPherson's Tried By War -- a concise, well-written plow that cuts into a narrow stretch of previously harvested themes, ideas and anecdotes.
With 270 pages of text, this book obviously is not meant to be comprehensive or exhaustive. Yes, there are some curious errors of omission, (Example: McPherson notes the importance of Mobile, Alabama, as a supply port for Confederate blockade runners, but he fails to close that subplot and note even briefly Mobile Bay's shut down by the Union in the politically critical summer of '64.) but whether this book serves as an introduction to or a reminder of Lincoln's contributions as a military and political leader, it should not be faulted so much on what it fails to mention. It is intended to be an illustrative, modestly analytical case summary of Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief, and within those limited parameters, it succeeds.
In its brevity, Tried By War can provide greater focus of Lincoln's character and decisions that made the difference for him as a leader and for our nation as a country. McPherson hones in chiefly on Lincoln's mental toughness in the face of incompetence, intransigence and intrigue, and his political courage when saving his presidency suggested a different course. Yes, we are served up what, for Lincoln, had to have been a costly and darkly comic 19th century reality show called "America's Next Top General." Lincoln also pursued courses of action - such as provisioning Fort Sumter and emancipating the slaves - that at their inception were hardly popular with his political peers, military leaders or with the general public.
Of course, the prosecution of the war is the principle topic, but emancipation becomes the more compelling subject -- the change in Lincoln's thinking on emancipation, his development and release of the now-famous proclamation, and his refusal to throw emancipation overboard when so many around him, Republican and Democrat, thought it would ruin his presidency and perhaps the country itself. It is this profile in courage that is worth telling and retelling, and makes McPherson's Tried By War a worthy read - just in time for the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth.
 gift to father in law December 29, 2008
The item came promptly so I am only reviewing the service, it was a book and a gift so who can review that? I trust Amazon and it's providers, Thank you. Makes shopping a pleasure, no lines, crowds, driving etc.
Commander-in-Chief Lincoln December 28, 2008
Professor James McPherson's book "Tried by War" is a scintillating account of what President Lincoln, the imperfect military commanders, and the people of this country faced for survival as a constitutional democracy blessed with a Constitution conceived with a flaw that allowed slavery to exist. The artistic and skillful choosing of particular words of Lincoln vivifies this genius of America who struggled with questioning himself, the Constitution, and the very existence of this nation. The description of his creation of the Emancipation Proclamation with the third attempt being the inspired, mystic, and just decision has a presence as if it occurred now. The thought behind the words of the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" came to mean something. Professor McPherson, you shed new light on a great man by evoking his humanism.
Commander in Chief December 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lincoln's decision making in a time of brutal conflict is an inspiration in my view for our new President to draw from. Lincoln did not have all of the answers to begin with but, was able to develop a strategy that although harsh at times was in the end the best thing for our country. It is my belief that this will also be President Obama's task through this economic battle we now face.
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