Lincolns Melancholy, Joshua Wolf Shenk
Lincolns Melancholy, Joshua Wolf Shenk
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Lincoln's Melancholy
How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness

Author: Joshua Wolf Shenk

Narrator: Derek Shetterly

Unabridged: 11 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 10/26/2021


Synopsis

Drawing on seven years of his own research and the work of other esteemed Lincoln scholars, Shenk reveals how the sixteenth president harnessed his depression to fuel his astonishing success.
Lincoln found the solace and tactics he needed to deal with the nation’s worst crisis in the “coping strategies” he had developed over a lifetime of persevering through depressive episodes and personal tragedies.

With empathy and authority gained from his own experience with depression, Shenk crafts a nuanced, revelatory account of Lincoln and his legacy. Based on careful, intrepid research, Lincoln’s Melancholy unveils a wholly new perspective on how our greatest president brought America through its greatest turmoil.

Shenk relates Lincoln’s symptoms, including mood swings and at least two major breakdowns, and offers compelling evidence of the evolution of his disease, from “major depression” in his twenties and thirties to “chronic depression” later on. Shenk reveals the treatments Lincoln endured and his efforts to come to terms with his melancholy, including a poem he published on suicide and his unpublished writings on the value of personal—and national—suffering. By consciously shifting his goal away from personal contentment (which he realized he could not attain) and toward universal justice, Lincoln gained the strength and insight that he, and America, required to transcend profound darkness.

About Joshua Wolf Shenk

JOSHUA WOLF SHENK is a curator, essayist, and the author of Lincoln's Melancholy, a New York Times Notable Book. A contributor to The Atlantic, Harper's, The New Yorker, and other publications, he directs the Arts in Mind series on creativity and serves on the general council of The Moth. He lives in Los Angeles.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Always on May 03, 2017

I really enjoyed this book and getting to know more about Lincoln because I never knew how humorous and kind he was. It's hard when learning history in school to see people who lived before you as being human too and I really enjoy these biographies for humanizing people for me. I think the author d......more

Goodreads review by Eric_W on November 16, 2009

I just don't know what to make of this book. It's interesting and filled with all sorts of delectable detail, but as far as the major premise goes, I remain skeptical. The author's assumption is that because melancholy and depression change your focus on how you see the world and because Lincoln suf......more

Goodreads review by Danya on December 02, 2008

If you suffer from a mood disorder you will find great solice here. To know of one who accomplished such great things while suffering from great things, gives hope.......more

Goodreads review by Eric on January 03, 2018

Had my full attention from the prologue, which recounts Tolstoy's infatuation with Lincoln. Bottom line: this is a book that is carefully researched; rarely overreaches; and makes a compelling case that Lincoln's life was punctuated by a depression so severe and defining that we might as well call i......more

Goodreads review by John on December 21, 2013

I will note at the beginning that I am very glad that someone has written a book that treats this subject as thoroughly as Shenk has treated it. It seems likely that Shenk has established depression as an element of Lincoln's biography that the industry can no longer ignore. I think also that the su......more