Differ We Must - How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America

Informationen zum Autor Steve Inskeep is a cohost of NPR’s Morning Edition , the most widely heard radio program in the United States, and of NPR’s Up First , one of the nation’s most popular podcasts. His reporting has taken him across the United States, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Pakistan, and China. His search for the full story behind the news has led him to history; he is the author of Instant City , Jacksonland , and Imperfect Union . Klappentext "From journalist and historian Steve Inskeep, a compelling and nuanced exploration of the political acumen of Abraham Lincoln via sixteen encounters before and during his presidency, bringing to light not only the strategy of a great politician who inherited a country divided, but lessons for our own disorderly present ... The man who went on to become the sixteenth president of the United States has assumed many roles in our historical consciousness, but most notable is that he was, with no apology, a politician. And as Steve Inskeep argues, it was because he was willing to engage in politics--to work with his critics, to compromise with those whom he deeply opposed, and to move only as fast as voters would allow--that he was able to lead a social revolution ... While it isn't clear if Lincoln was able to alter his critics' beliefs--many went to war against him--nor if they were able to change his, what is notable is that he learned how to make his beliefs actionable, via precise and practical techniques. Lincoln was a skilled storyteller, and a great orator. He told jokes, he relied on sarcasm, and often made fun of himself. But behind the banter was a master storyteller, who carefully chose what to say and what to withhold. He knew his limitations and, as history came to prove, he knew how to prioritize."-- Leseprobe Chapter 1 Protagonist: Abraham Lincoln 1809-1846 Lincoln was born in Kentucky and was seven when he suffered the first of several great disruptions. His father lost his farm in a dispute over the title, put his family on a wagon, and started for a new life in Indiana. A glance at a map doesn't convey how hard their journey was in 1816; they moved fewer than one hundred miles from their old home, but it took about five days, ending with a ferry across the Ohio and a trek through roadless woods. The travel time was longer than a modern journey from Kentucky to Afghanistan-and their destination was wilderness, the newest state of the Union, only recently cleared of most of the Indians after whom it was named. Thomas Lincoln claimed land for a new farm, handed his son an axe, and told him to help clear the trees. He was not quite eight when he began this ceaseless labor and not even ten when his mother died of a mysterious sickness. The year after that, Thomas returned to Kentucky to find a new wife, leaving Abraham and his sister Sarah behind. When Thomas reappeared many days later he brought a whole new family, having married a widowed mother of three. Abraham never detailed how he felt about these experiences, but an observation he made as an adult was revealing: "In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares." How did he escape obscurity on that farm? It's common to credit his reading. Though his schooling totaled less than a year, he learned to write by scratching letters on wood, and if he had to walk for miles to borrow a book he'd do it. His self-education is among the most inspiring stories about him, passed on in children's books to this day. But this story is incomplete. His reading was neither wide nor deep, limited to books within reach, and he once described his youth in two words: "Education defective." He needed a different form of learning, for which resources were more available: his study of ...

Product details

• Authors: Steve Inskeep
• Publisher: Penguin Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 03.10.2023
• EAN: 9780593297865
• ISBN: 978-0-593-29786-5
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 160 mm x 242 mm x 30 mm
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education