Due to the growing number of Abraham Lincoln books being released, I will now be doing a monthly Amazon.com Top 10 Abraham Lincoln Books series in addition to the Amazon.com Top 10 Civil War Books series. Readers who are looking for Abraham Lincoln books can’t go wrong selecting titles from this list.
As in each entry in the series, I’ve taken the liberty of removing non-Abraham Lincoln related books from the list. In cases where a book is about Lincoln AND others, such as Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, it was left on the Civil War list. The books below are in the Abraham Lincoln Top 10 as of April 3, 2009. Since this is the first time TOCWOC is doing a Lincoln Top 10, there are no “previous month” numbers to draw on. Look for those in the next blog entry in this series.
Note: Some of these books are the Kindle edition. Kindle is Amazon’s handheld device for reading books electronically. Amazon has recently come out with Kindle 2, a sleeker version which also allows you to upload many public domain books for minimal or no cost!
1. (-) A. Lincoln: A Biography by Ronald C. White Jr.
Summary: The reviews have been mostly positive for this one-volume history of Lincoln. It appears to be both reader friendly and affordable, making it a good candidate for a Top 10 bestsellers list.
2. (-) Abraham Lincoln by James M. McPherson
Summary: This can’t really be called a book at only 96 pages. It is basically a short summary of Lincoln’s life and McPherson’s attempt to make a quick buck. I strongly recommend avoiding this one if you want to learn anything new.
3. (-) Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times by Donald T. Phillips
Summary: This book is aimed at businessman and applying Lincoln’s leadership to today’s business world.
4. (-) Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James McPherson
Summary: This is another McPherson summary. Many other Civil War bloggers have already commented on the lack of any new insights or groundbreaking material in this book.
5. (-) Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson
Summary: Swanson’s book recounts the race to find and arrest John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
6. (-) Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
Summary: This book is quite often cited as the best one volume biography of Lincoln ever written.
7. (-) The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln by Bill Adler
Summary: Lincoln quotes are divided into categories and presented to readers. I wonder how many of these are true Lincoln quotes and how many are apocryphal.
8. (-) In Lincoln’s Hand: His Original Manuscripts edited by Harold Holzer and Joshua Wolf Shenk
Summary: This book, edited by two prominent Lincoln scholars, both who have written books on Lincoln as well, offers Lincoln documents along with commentary from distinguished Americans.
9. (-) Looking for Lincoln: The Making of an American Icon by Philip B. Kunhardt III and Peter W. Kunhardt Jr.
Summary: This book, a sequel to Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography, looks at how the Lincoln legend grew between Lincoln’s death in 1865 and the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922.
10. (-) 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History by Charles Bracelan Flood
Summary: Flood looks at the important final year of Lincoln’s life, a time when the Civil War hung in the balance.
Dropped Out This Month:
There are no books in this inaugural month. Look for this area to contain more information in the next Amazon.com Abraham Lincoln Top 10.
Brett’s Final Thoughts:
I was at first surprised that Michael Burlingame’s Abraham Lincoln: A Life was not in the top 10, but the cost might be prohibitive when it comes to most people affording it, much less the two-volume book becoming a bestseller. The continued popular success of some of McPherson’s “summary” books somewhat discourages me. To be fair, many of the people buying these books have read nothing else on Lincoln, so summaries are a useful tool in these cases.
Previous Books in the Top 10 Prior to Last Month’s Top 10:
There are no books in this inaugural month. Look for this area to contain more information in the next Amazon.com Abraham Lincoln Top 10.
Look over past Top 10 Civil War Books lists to see how various books have done over time!
Read more Civil War Book Reviews here at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog!
Check out Brett’s Civil War Books!
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