Lincoln and Leadership: Military, Political, and Religious Decision Making (The North's Civil War)

Lincoln and Leadership offers fresh perspectives on the 16th presidentGmaking novel contributions to the scholarship of one of the more studied figures of American history. The book explores LincolnGs leadership through essays focused, respectively, on Lincoln as commander-in-chief, deft political operator, and powerful theologian. Taken together, the essays suggest the interplay of military, political, and religious factors informing LincolnGs thought and action and guiding the dynamics of his leadership. The contributors, all respected scholars of the Civil War era, focus on several critical moments in LincolnGs presidency to understand the ways Lincoln understood and dealt with such issues and concerns as emancipation, military strategy, relations with his generals, the use of black troops, party politics and his own re-election, the morality of the war, the place of America in GodGs design, and the meaning and obligations of sustaining the Union. Overall, they argue that Lincoln was simultaneously consistent regarding his commitments to freedom, democratic government, and Union but flexible, and sometimes contradictory, in the means to preserve and extend them. They further point to the ways that LincolnGs decision making defined the presidency and recast understandings of American Gexceptionalism.G They emphasize that the GrealG Lincoln was an unabashed party man and shrewd politician, a self-taught commander-in-chief, and a deeply religious man who was self-confident in his ability to judge men and to persuade them with words but unsure of what God demanded from America for its collective sins of slavery. Randall MillerGs Introduction in particular provides essential weight to the notion that LincolnGs presidential leadership must be seen as a series of interlocking stories. In the end, the contributors collectively remind readers that the Lincoln enshrined as the GGreat EmancipatorG and Gsavior of the UnionG was in life and practice a work-in-progress. And they insist that Ggetting right with LincolnG requires seeing the intersections of hisGand AmericaGsGmilitary, political, and religious interests and identities. This book of original essays on “Lincoln and Leadership,” by leading Lincoln and Civil War scholars, explores Lincoln’s understandings and uses of leadership during the Civil War. The essays focus especially on Lincoln as Commander in Chief and war president, as party leader, and as moral guide by looking at his talents and practices in decision-making in critical moments of his presidency. They assess the myths of Lincoln by examining his ability to understand and direct military strategy, communicate with military men, shape public opinion, manage party affairs, move himself and the nation toward emancipation as policy and then as fact, accept the use of black troops, grapple with the moral and religious meaning of the war, empathize with the sufferings of his people, and explain the purpose of the war to the nation and posterity. They emphasize Lincoln’s ability to establish priorities, most especially the preservation of the Union and democratic government at all costs and the realization of the promise of freedom embodied in the Declaration of Independence, which gave Lincoln a unity of purpose and clarity that informed and emboldened his leadership, while they also show Lincoln’s flexibility as to means, which gave Lincoln the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, deal with contending interests, and gain support for his policies Lincoln And Leadership / Randall M. Miller -- Sowing The Wind And Reaping The Whirlwind : Abraham Lincoln As A War President -- / Gregory J.w. Urwin -- Lincoln's Greatest Decision : The Blind Memorandum, August 23, 1864 / Matthew Pinsker -- Abraham Lincoln As Moral Leader : The Second Inaugural As America's Sermon To The World / Harry S. Stout -- Lincoln And Leadership / Allen C. Guelzo. Edited By Randall M. Miller. Published In Collaboration With The Abraham Lincoln Foundation Of The Union League Of Philadelphia. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Mode Of Access: World Wide Web. This book examines Lincoln’s leadership by assessing his decision-making process and patterns in shaping military strategy, political affairs, and religious interests during the Civil War. In doing so, it shows how Lincoln defined the presidency in wartime, played the role of party chief, and pointed the moral compass of the nation.