And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle

Book cover of And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meachamby Jon Meacham

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Jon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how—and why—he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America.

“In his captivating new book, Jon Meacham has given us the Lincoln for our time.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Christian Science Monitor, Kirkus Reviews

A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations.

At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen as the greatest of American presidents—a remote icon—or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln—an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment, essential to the story of justice in America, began as he grew up in an antislavery Baptist community; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him to see the right.

This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination in 1865: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end. In a nation shaped by the courage of the enslaved of the era and by the brave witness of Black Americans, Lincoln’s story illustrates the ways and means of politics in a democracy, the roots and durability of racism, and the capacity of conscience to shape events.

Show more
Show less

Interview with the Author

Podcast art for Larry Wilmore: Black on the AirLarry Wilmore: Black on the Air
Jon Meacham on ‘And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle’
11/7/22        87 min

Podcast art for Sixth & i LiveSixth and I LIVE 
Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, with Clint Smith
11/21/22          77 min

Podcast art for For The Ages: A History PodcastFor the Ages: A History Podcast
And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
1/16/23            33 min

Podcast art for The Book CaseThe Book Case 
Jon Meacham Rewrites Abraham Lincoln’s Story
10/27/22            43 min

podcast art for Book Club with Michael SmerconishBook Club with Michael Smerconish
Jon Meacham: “And There Was Light”
10/24/2            20 min

Buy on Amazon

Related books

Book cover of The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom by H. W. BrandsThe Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom Book cover of Churchill's Shadow: The Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill by Geoffrey WheatcroftChurchill’s Shadow: The Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill Book cover of JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 by Fredrik LogevallJFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 Book cover of Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy by Nathaniel PhilbrickTravels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy Book cover of Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis That Made a President by Jonathan DarmanBecoming FDR: The Personal Crisis That Made a President

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*