“Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky, about fifty miles south of Louisville.” Abraham Lincoln James McPherson tells us in the introduction this short biography, which I decided to read before embarking on some longer ones I have, that he wanted to present a balanced approach to the history (balanced in terms of scope) with a focus on the most important details of Lincoln’s life, without being overly broad. The balance then looks like concentrated focus on a few areas […]

A fascinating and competent rundown of the basic history and politics centering on the Battle of Antietam from James M McPherson. I can’t really tell you much about the thesis of this book and the purpose or audience either, other than to say that the book wants to center Antietam for us in ways that many books spend time looking well past it. For one, most people focus on 1863 and 1864 as the real “meat” of the war, focusing so heavily on Grant’s western […]