In this quietly passionate and deeply learned book, the great William Freehling offers us a compelling portrait of the most dominant yet perennially elusive of Americans: Abraham Lincoln. As the leading historian of the road to disunion, Freehling has, in a way, spent decades building toward this subject, and the result is a delight to read.

The eloquent and touching story William Freehling tells here reveals an ambitious, struggling Abraham Lincoln, emerging in all his human complexity. It is a surprising story of a man we thought we knew.

This important book proves that something new can indeed be said about Lincoln's antebellum career. Freehling deftly shows how the future Emancipator fused his early economic and political nationalism with a moral detestation of slavery to become the Republican leader of 1860. The narrative skillfully portrays how Lincoln learned from political mistakes and misfortunes to recover from repeated defeats and attain the greatest prize of all.

Built on Freehling’s vast knowledge of the time period, this commendable biography shows the geographical division of opinions leading up to war and the life events that made the man who saved the union.... A must for every Civil War library.

In Becoming Lincoln, Freehling (emer., humanities, Univ. of Kentucky) shows how Lincoln learned to become a skilled political operative by highlighting events in Lincoln’s pre-presidential political career that show how Lincoln learned from both his successes and his failures.... A very readable and well-argued volume, Becoming Lincoln will become a standard in Lincoln biographies.

[A]n especially shrewd account of Lincoln’s political formation.... To read along in such a chronicle is like watching an expert carver give shape to something otherwise formless or burdened by a profusion of material. Excess is cut away, leaving a clean narrative that is bracing in its directness. The facts of Lincoln’s pre-Cviil War years―his rise from a Kentucky log cabin to the presidency, his years as an Illinois politician and lawyer, and his experiences as a husband and father―come newly alive, not least thanks to Mr. Freehling’s accessible, sometimes tart, style.

After a lifetime devoted to the study of proslavery radicalism, William Freehling... has produced a characteristically audacious study of Abraham Lincoln. In his telling, Lincoln’s life is a series of ups and downs, promising starts, crushing failures, and impressive recoveries.... No revisionist ever cast such an unflinching eye on the horrors of slavery. In half a dozen important books and thousands of pages of deeply researched scholarship, Freehling has traced the rise of an arrogant slaveholding aristocracy whose destruction was necessary for the preservation of American democracy.

Becoming Lincoln reveals a principled politician who tried to reconcile short-term partisan needs with consequential long-term national goals...Freehling adroitly charts his own course through a minefield of contradictory evidence... [I]nsiders will see how his multidimensional Lincoln harmonizes disparate interpretations.

This captivating book focuses on Lincoln’s journey to the presidency... The author of The Road to Disunion, Freehling considers Lincoln’s thoughts of and his relationship with his father and his failures. This relationship, Professor Freehling argues, is the driving force behind Lincoln’s constant effort to excel in his work.

In this quietly passionate and deeply learned book, the great William Freehling offers us a compelling portrait of the most dominant yet perennially elusive of Americans: Abraham Lincoln. As the leading historian of the road to disunion, Freehling has, in a way, spent decades building toward this subject, and the result is a delight to read.

The eloquent and touching story William Freehling tells here reveals an ambitious, struggling Abraham Lincoln, emerging in all his human complexity. It is a surprising story of a man we thought we knew.

This important book proves that something new can indeed be said about Lincoln's antebellum career. Freehling deftly shows how the future Emancipator fused his early economic and political nationalism with a moral detestation of slavery to become the Republican leader of 1860. The narrative skillfully portrays how Lincoln learned from political mistakes and misfortunes to recover from repeated defeats and attain the greatest prize of all.

Built on Freehling’s vast knowledge of the time period, this commendable biography shows the geographical division of opinions leading up to war and the life events that made the man who saved the union.... A must for every Civil War library.

In Becoming Lincoln, Freehling (emer., humanities, Univ. of Kentucky) shows how Lincoln learned to become a skilled political operative by highlighting events in Lincoln’s pre-presidential political career that show how Lincoln learned from both his successes and his failures.... A very readable and well-argued volume, Becoming Lincoln will become a standard in Lincoln biographies.

[A]n especially shrewd account of Lincoln’s political formation.... To read along in such a chronicle is like watching an expert carver give shape to something otherwise formless or burdened by a profusion of material. Excess is cut away, leaving a clean narrative that is bracing in its directness. The facts of Lincoln’s pre-Cviil War years—his rise from a Kentucky log cabin to the presidency, his years as an Illinois politician and lawyer, and his experiences as a husband and father—come newly alive, not least thanks to Mr. Freehling’s accessible, sometimes tart, style.

After a lifetime devoted to the study of proslavery radicalism, William Freehling... has produced a characteristically audacious study of Abraham Lincoln. In his telling, Lincoln’s life is a series of ups and downs, promising starts, crushing failures, and impressive recoveries.... No revisionist ever cast such an unflinching eye on the horrors of slavery. In half a dozen important books and thousands of pages of deeply researched scholarship, Freehling has traced the rise of an arrogant slaveholding aristocracy whose destruction was necessary for the preservation of American democracy.

Becoming Lincoln reveals a principled politician who tried to reconcile short-term partisan needs with consequential long-term national goals...Freehling adroitly charts his own course through a minefield of contradictory evidence... [I]nsiders will see how his multidimensional Lincoln harmonizes disparate interpretations.

This captivating book focuses on Lincoln’s journey to the presidency... The author of The Road to Disunion, Freehling considers Lincoln’s thoughts of and his relationship with his father and his failures. This relationship, Professor Freehling argues, is the driving force behind Lincoln’s constant effort to excel in his work.