Lincoln -- A Very Short Introduction When Americans -- including many students -- hear the name Abraham Lincoln, the first things that come to mind is his effort to free the slaves, his Gettysburg Address, his Emancipation Proclamation, and the untimely assassination of Lincoln. But there are sources of worthy and even fascinating background biographical information available about the 16th president of the United States, and one of the best contemporary sources is the book by noted historian Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction. The book is not organized in a logical, time-line format; instead the chapter titles clearly show that the book is written about Lincoln's ideas that shaped his approach to leadership and government: Equality, Advancement, Law, Liberty, Debate, Emancipation, and Reunion. This paper summarizes and reviews the book, which is well-written prose, highly appropriate for young readers.

Summary of Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction

After reading the beginning of Guelzo's book -- in which he claimed that no man " ... could have loved fame more than Abraham Lincoln" -- one can only imagine how prolific Lincoln's use of the 24-hour cable news cycle and social media would be if he were president in 2016. And Guelzo carries the notion of Lincoln's fame further, quoting the president after he issued the Emancipation Proclamation: "The name which is connected with this act will never be forgotten." Lincoln was absolutely correct in saying that, but...

Basler published eight volumes (called Collected Works) referencing Lincoln's life in 1953, but those pages contain "day-to-day ephemera" and readers glean little as to what actually shaped Lincoln's "thinking and values." All the information Guelzo has gathered indicates Lincoln was generally secretive, difficult to approach and hard to understand -- albeit the president loved to read aloud to staffers from joke books -- but on the other hand Lincoln was in "heaven" talking about politics and liberalism.
Meanwhile, the background into Lincoln's family is well represented by Guelzo. Lincoln's ancestors arrived in the New World in the 1630s and by the late 18th century Thomas Lincoln, son of the elder Abraham and thought of as a "lazy and worthless" cabinet maker in Indiana by neighbors, had a son named Abraham, born on February 12, 1809.

In Chapter 1 (Equality) Guelzo offers a picture of Lincoln as a good politician but one whose use of the English language needed an upgrade. Guelzo recalls that Lincoln (approaching his second run to win a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1834) turned his attention to reading political biographies and newspapers. And his advisor at that time, William Mentor Graham, suggested that he would "never be able to induce people to vote for him" if he couldn't master the rules of…