And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
by Jon Meacham
And There Was Light
By Jon Meacham
AK Ramanujan, a poet and a prolific translator, insightfully noted that, in India, nobody ever reads Ramayana for the first time.
In America, a Lincoln biography is of the same kind. Kindergartners are almost guaranteed to know about General Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
But the parallels don't end there. There are hundreds of Lincoln biographies and many of them are enthralling even though you know the outline of the story. Different biographies pick a different angle and characteristics of Lincoln and usually extoll his greatness. A Lincoln biography paarayan is a richly rewarding activity.
This particular biography has a tight focus on Lincoln's views towards slavery and how they evolved over time. He is duty bound towards constitution, but he is increasingly confronted with the inescapable question of slavery before and during his presidency.
The author Jon Meacham, does one hell of a job walking us through Lincoln's struggles reconciling constitution, with politics of the day, with morality and his conscience. Going thru his personal grief of losing a child to scarlet fever when he was still the president, and under enormous stress of losing many of the initial civil war battles, Lincoln struggles, but continues to articulate the right thing to do for every moment.
Jon is a writer who writes for the ear, thus making the book a pleasure to the read. He also quotes generously from many of Lincoln's best writings.
This book forces the reader to confront the question: Is American politics and government solely about the acquisition and exercise of power or is it also about doing the right thing? The author convinces the reader unequivocally that Lincoln did the right thing too.
In one of 19th century's great coincidences, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were both born on the exact same day - Feb 12, 1809. Christopher Hitchens once remarked Darwin was the greater emancipator. That may be true, but Lincoln moved mountains to be the enormous emancipator he is. The epilogue of the book pays such fine tribute to the man, I ended up in tears.
Perhaps, one of the finest Lincoln biographies you can read.