Lincoln's Legacy

Here's yet another book on Abraham Lincoln that I'm looking forward to reading. Lincoln's Legacy, edited by the late Philip Shaw Paluden, is a collection of essays by prominent historians in which they debate the 16th President's legacy. Here are some excepts from Lincoln scholar Frank J. Williams's review of the book:

"Following his untimely death on August 1, 2007, Phillip Shaw Paludan left his own legacy as editor in this slim but thought-provoking volume that contains four new essays depicting major problems confronted by the sixteenth president. Along with the editor, three other distinguished Lincoln scholars – William Lee Miller, Mark E. Neely, Jr., and Mark Summers – portray Abraham Lincoln and how he contended with questions of politics, law, constitutionalism, patronage, and democracy. They represent an outstanding assessment of Lincoln’s virtues as president."

"The essays examine the conflicted democratic leader ahead of those being led. But isn’t a democratic leader also supposed to be a follower – obeying the will of the people? We desire strong leaders and justly fear them. We desire wide-spread democracy and justly worry about the consequences. After all, Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War, yet is credited with preserving the Constitution."

"This oxymoron is clearly seen in Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum speech in which the future president condemned mob violence and racial lynching but also considered the tension between a constitutional order and ambitious individuals who seek to transcend its restrictions. Such challenges, Lincoln wrote, aspire to greatness, and seem to come “from the family of the lion or the tribe of the eagle.” How does a democratic order contain such ambition? And how can such ambition find satisfaction in democratic statesmanship?"

"These essays demonstrate that this is not an incidental tension in democratic political life but may be the essential one, defining democracy’s risk and responsibilities. Powerful political leadership almost always contains within itself a challenge to democracy. It asserts prerogatives. It takes liberties. It even emerges most clearly at times when the democratic order itself is under threat as with Abraham Lincoln, or Winston Churchill, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt."

Full review.