A SelfMade Man, Sidney Blumenthal
A SelfMade Man, Sidney Blumenthal
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A Self-Made Man
The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809 – 1849

Author: Sidney Blumenthal

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Unabridged: 21 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/10/2016


Synopsis

The first in a sweeping, multi-volume history of Abraham Lincoln—from his obscure beginnings to his presidency, death, and the overthrow of his post-Civil War plan of reconciliation—“engaging and informative and…thought-provoking” (The Christian Science Monitor).

From his youth as a voracious newspaper reader, Abraham Lincoln became a free thinker, reading Tom Paine, as well as Shakespeare and the Bible. In the “fascinating” (Booklist, starred review) A Self-Made Man, Sidney Blumenthal reveals how Lincoln’s antislavery thinking began in his childhood in backwoods Kentucky and Indiana. Intensely ambitious, he held political aspirations from his earliest years. Yet he was a socially awkward suitor who had a nervous breakdown over his inability to deal with the opposite sex. His marriage to the upper class Mary Todd was crucial to his social aspirations and his political career. “The Lincoln of Blumenthal’s pen is…a brave progressive facing racist assaults on his religion, ethnicity, and very legitimacy that echo the anti-Obama birther movement….Blumenthal takes the wily pol of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals and goes deeper, finding a Vulcan logic and House of Cards ruthlessness” (The Washingtonian).

Based on prodigious research of Lincoln’s record, and of the period and its main players, Blumenthal’s robust biography reflects both Lincoln’s time and the struggle that consumes our own political debate. This first volume traces Lincoln from his birth in 1809 through his education in the political arts, rise to the Congress, and fall into the wilderness from which he emerged as the man we recognize as Abraham Lincoln. “Splendid…no one can come away from reading A Self-Made Man…without eagerly anticipating the ensuing volumes.” (Washington Monthly).

About Sidney Blumenthal

Sidney Blumenthal is the acclaimed author of A Self-Made Man and Wrestling with His Angel, the first two volumes in his five-volume biography, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln. He is the former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton. He has been a national staff reporter for The Washington Post and Washington editor and writer for The New Yorker. His books include the bestselling The Clinton WarsThe Rise of the Counter-Establishment, and The Permanent Campaign. Born and raised in Illinois, he lives in Washington, DC.


Reviews

1809-1849 The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln You may struggle to understand the presidential years of Abraham Lincoln unless you gain a better understanding of the man. This book by Sidney Blumenthal is a good choice to fill in the blanks. The man who became President Lincoln had a very difficult......more

Goodreads review by Bill on September 14, 2022

I must confess that I'm kind of disappointed. I’ve been looking forward to reading this series for a long time, and had saved it for late in the year in the hopes it would serve as something of a crescendo in my Year of Reading Nothing But Lincoln Books. But I felt like I didn’t learn anything new o......more

Goodreads review by Gavin on June 01, 2016

I have to admit that I did not come into reading this book easily. Sidney Blumenthal is not a current American high on my list, but due to an interview with him on the John Batchelor Show ([URL not allowed]-...) I decided this was worth my time. I'm glad that I read it. Not to men......more

Goodreads review by Steven on June 24, 2017

This is a terrific biography of Abraham Lincoln (well, the first of three volumes). Some time ago, I read another fine biography of Lincoln, this one penned by David Herbert Donald. Several themes emerge in this portion of Lincoln's life (1809-1849): a more full blown discussion of his relationship......more

Goodreads review by Bfisher on July 31, 2016

The title of this book is misleading. Rather than a description of how Lincoln refashioned himself from mudsill to up-and-coming politician, it frames Lincoln’s rise in the politics of Jacksonian and post-Jacksonian America. Blumenthal makes some interesting points. For example, when the story of Lin......more