Jon D. Schaff, "Abraham Lincoln’s Statesmanship and the Limits of Liberal Democracy" (SIU Press, 2019)

New Books in American Studies · Nov 19, 2020 · 2h 4m

There are so many Abraham Lincolns. There is the ruthless Lincoln willing to suspend habeas corpus and who, as president, presided over record levels of bloodshed on American soil. There is the political opportunist Lincoln who declined to take the bold stand against the Know Nothings that some of his contemporaries did, Lincoln preferring to let the movement implode without much action on Lincoln’s part. Lincoln also famously hung back from outright abolitionism for decades, believing that the time was not yet ripe for freeing the slaves. There is the Lincoln who exercised presidential power…