Publishers Weekly
04/20/2020
Washington College historian Striner (Woodrow Wilson and World War I) venerates Abraham Lincoln’s “capacity for manipulation, his power to command while projecting sweet innocence” in this run-of-the-mill biography. Setting out to challenge the “wrong-headed” stereotype of Lincoln as a “slow-moving moderate who somehow achieved true greatness,” Striner highlights his antislavery stances as a one-term congressman in the late 1840s, including his support for the Wilmot Proviso, which would have prohibited slavery in territories acquired in the Mexican-American War, and his failed attempt to introduce a bill abolishing slavery in Washington, D.C. Striner also credits Lincoln with launching a “direct attack upon the racism of Douglas” in his famous 1854 “Peoria Speech” criticizing the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Though Striner succeeds in casting Lincoln as a leader who combined lofty moral values with superb political cunning, his take will be familiar even to general readers, and his awkward blend of long, undigested excerpts from Lincoln’s speeches and letters with staccato one-line paragraphs grates, as does his disparagement of the women in Lincoln’s life, including wife Mary Todd Lincoln, who “fancied herself a kind of power behind the throne,” according to Striner, and “used emotional blackmail to get her way.” This adulatory portrait contributes little to the understanding of Lincoln. (June)
Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association
At the core of Summoned to Glory are Lincoln’s attitudes toward race and slavery. Continuing where he left off in his Father Abraham: Lincoln’s Relentless Struggle to End Slavery, Striner maintains that not until Lincoln was in his forties did his attitudes on slavery and race crystalize.... Lincoln, Striner believes, was a ‘holistic’ thinker possessing great strategic abilities hidden behind humor and self-deprecation…. It was Lincoln’s intent, according to Striner, that from the beginning he would ‘put slavery on a path to ultimate extinction.’ This interpretation concurs with, among others, James Oakes’s in his recent The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution.
Timothy S. Huebner
Among the many thousands of books on Lincoln, this one by Richard Striner is sure to stand out as one of the best biographies in decades. Striner shows how Lincoln boldly and ‘audaciously’ used his power to protect the Union and advance the cause of emancipation. This dramatic and fast-paced narrative will be sure to engage and provoke readers for years to come. I highly recommend it.
James M. McPherson James M. McPherson
Richard Striner has mastered a huge amount of evidence and scholarship about Lincoln and with literary skill has presented it in a superbly readable biography that will appeal to expert and novice alike. Of special value is the author's analysis of how Lincoln reached decisions and orchestrated the power to carry them out amid the chaos of a war that under his leadership preserved the United States and ended slavery.
James B. Conroy
Richard Striner has given us a keen, fresh look at Lincoln’s challenging youth, his unlikely rise to the presidency, and his providential leadership in America’s darkest hour. Summoned to Glory is an original, engaging, insightful view of the great man as a cagey politician and an audacious military and political strategist, enhanced by an enjoyable style and a depth of context often missing from Lincoln biographies.
Choice Reviews
Written for general readers who want a broad and deep understanding of Lincoln’s greatness, this volume also offers much for scholars to ponder and debate.. . Fascinating anecdotes and insights into [Lincoln’s] depressions round out this towering biography.
Joseph R. Fornieri
An audacious biography that forthrightly reveals the depth and sincerity of Lincoln’s antislavery convictions as well as the grand moral strategy that guided his statesmanship. This lucid work richly captures the multifaceted genius of a complex man who was at once ambitious yet empathetic; great yet humble; honest yet shrewd; and righteous without being self-righteous. Striner’s concise single volume is compulsively readable, dispelling dark distortions and shedding clear light on the sixteenth president’s life and times.
James M. McPherson
Richard Striner has mastered a huge amount of evidence and scholarship about Lincoln and with literary skill has presented it in a superbly readable biography that will appeal to expert and novice alike. Of special value is the author's analysis of how Lincoln reached decisions and orchestrated the power to carry them out amid the chaos of a war that under his leadership preserved the United States and ended slavery.
CHOICE
Written for general readers who want a broad and deep understanding of Lincoln’s greatness, this volume also offers much for scholars to ponder and debate. . . Fascinating anecdotes and insights into [Lincoln’s] depressions round out this towering biography.
