Conversations with Lincoln / Edition 1

by Charles Segal

Overview

A Lincoln book that says something new is a rarity. Conversations with Lincoln is just such a book. In it Charles M. Segal has collected and presented more than one hundred interviews with Lincoln as President-elect and President. As a revelation of the intimate, human side of Abraham Lincoln, it will be a source of endless fascination to every reader interested in the Civil War era. This is a wide-ranging and engaging volume. The conversations collected here (between 1860 and 1865) range from brief remarks to extended discussions. Mr. Segal introduces each interview and the personalities involved. The collection is arranged chronologically, giving a rich picture of the Lincoln presidency. Charles M. Segal was born in Montreal, attended college there, and served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He holds degrees from Skidmore College and Union College. After World War II, he became a reporter and a foreign correspondent for a number of papers in Canada and the United States. After settling in the U.S., he began his serious study of Lincoln and the Civil War. David Donald is Charles Warren Professor of American History Emeritus at Harvard University

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765809339
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/30/2002
Series:	American Presidents (Transaction Paperback)
Pages:	453
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; Preface to Conversations with Lincoln; 1: “Miscellaneous and Incongruous Elements”; 2: “Fortunate for the Peace”; 3: “Think Calmly and Well”; 4: “The Heather Is on Fire”; 5: “The Fat’s in the Fire”; 6: “The Gases of Public Exasperation”; 7: “Like a Chinaman Beating His Swords”; 8: “Anything but a Bed of Roses”; 9: “A Leader to Speak the Bold Word”; 10: “It Is Not Best to Swap Horses”; 11: “It Made My Heart Jump”

Editorial Reviews

"The reissue of Conversations with Lincoln is a great boon to scholars. Expertly edited, it presents observations of the Great Emancipator by contemporaries. Over one hundred interviews furnish indispensable sources for the study...not otherwise easily accessible. The historical profession as well as the general public will welcome this new edition." – Hans L. Trefousse, Distinguished Professor of History, Emeritus, Brooklyn College "Conversations with Lincoln is a fascinating and informative collection of Abraham Lincoln's own words which he spoke but did not set down on paper. Charles M. Segal, with great skill and scholarship, has assembled, edited and annotated these primary records from numerous sources-many of them hidden in contemporary newspapers, etc. This volume is a veritable mine of information which is a genuine treasure to all those interested in Lincoln and the Civil War....I recommend it to all without reservation." – Wayne C. Temple, author of By Square and Compass: The Saga of the Lincoln Home and Abraham Lincoln: From Skeptic to Prophet "Conversations with Lincoln is...a genuinely innovative and absolutely indispensable work of scholarship, one that continues to illuminate through all changes of academic fashion. Charles Segal has done here what no other historian has done hitherto, with a thoroughness and sophistication which ensure that this work will have a permanent place in American historical and cultural studies." – Sacvan Bercovitch, Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature at Harvard University

From the Publisher

Collecting recollections of conversations from letters, newspaper accounts, journals and diaries, and testimonies before Congressional committees, this 1961 volume has been reprinted with a new introduction that reflects on the historical importance of the conversations, arguing that they show the inner political and philosophical core of Abraham Lincoln, even as they demonstrate many moods and facets of character. The conversations recounted all took place between 1860 and 1865, naturally tending to focus on the Civil War. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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