Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year

Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America’s Most Perilous Year – by David Von Drehle

Most historians concur that Abraham Lincoln was our nation’s greatest president.  Most non-historians would agree.  If you were alive, however, in 1862, odds are you hated the man.  You certainly didn’t think he was that capable of a president.  Yet hard times and suffering breed character, and there was no more dangerous of a time in the history of the United States than when approximately half the states committed treason, tried to secede from the Union, and caused the bloodiest conflict in the history of the nation.

Lincoln began his term in 1861, just as the tinderbox was about to explode.  The war officially began when mortars were fired upon Fort Sumter later that year, and the first battle of Bull Run made everyone take notice of just how precarious the business of war could be.  So this book begins in January the following year, 1862, and it essentially walks us through the main travails of President Lincoln from January to December of that year.

Having a Civil War to deal with is bad enough, but any leader of the free world will tell you that those big problems come packaged with many smaller parcels as well.  Even though the Civil War is the main actor in this play, there are plenty of other calamities to deal with.  Most notably, the year sees the unexpected death of Lincoln’s young son Willie due to typhoid fever.  If this wasn’t bad enough, this tragedy befalls The First Lady so much, that she actually consorts to mediums to hold séances at The White House to try to talk to young Willie’s spirit. 

Then we have problems with other countries.  England, for instance, is keen to join the war – with the Confederacy, that is.  Oh sure, they believe slavery is bad, but the South controls the cotton, and cotton, you know, is good business.  Lincoln also had a cabinet that was frequently disharmonious with each other, and many didn’t care for their Commander in Chief (see Doris Kearns Goodwin’s excellent book “Team of Rivals”).

What this book really shows, is Abraham Lincoln’s leadership and calm demeanor throughout all of these events.  Most normal men would explode with the amount of idiocy and insubordination that is ever present at the time, but somehow, this president knows exactly how to juggle all of the balls and keep everyone content while slowly moving the nation towards the direction where it needs to go.  It’s a slow, painful, time, and strong patience is needed if changes are to be made and for the country to begin the healing process and become great again.

Are all of his moves perfect?  Well, no.  Example: He’s all for freeing the slaves, but doesn’t believe that the two races can live in harmony, so he begins exploring ways to ship the freed slaves <I>back</I> to Africa while setting up a colony for them.  This idea doesn’t go over well with the black population (freed and slave).  Even though they’ve had a tumultuous time during their entire life, America is now their home.  Wisely, Lincoln quickly abandons the idea.

The book ends at the conclusion of 1862.  Oh sure, we all know what happens during the next few years, but I, for one, kind of wish that the author would have kept going.  I would have loved to have read about all of the events, however painful, up to Appomattox, and Lincoln’s eventual assassination.  Perhaps this was the original intent of the author, yet he realized that the “best stuff” was from this one year.  Since this one year ultimately shaped the president and was the precursor to setting the nation on the right track, it isn’t a bad thing that we’re limited to 1862.  I found this to be a great book about a great man that had to lead the country during its worst time in history.

 As I write this review in March 2016, it kind of makes problems like Donald Trump seem incredibly inconsequential.