Differ We Must

May 1, 2023

Cohost of NPR's Morning Edition and a Loeb Award winner, Inskeep highlights Abraham Lincoln's political smarts, showing that he managed a divided nation because he knew how to manage those who opposed him--by working with them or getting around them--even as he succeeded in making his own beliefs reality in clearly contentious times. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2023 Library Journal

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2023
A satisfying new look at one of the most written-about political figures in American history. Inskeep, longtime co-host of NPR's Morning Edition and author of Imperfect Union and Jacksonland, emphasizes that Lincoln is a "Christlike" figure in the popular mind but also mostly admired by scholars who, when they point out a flaw, tend to blame it on "politics." Never a respected vocation, the American politician today seems to have reached a nadir as "the province of money, power, cynicism, and lies." The brutal truth is that no one wins election in a democracy without appealing to a great many people, many of whom hold unsavory opinions. After a chapter on Lincoln's early life, the author moves on to his encounters with various individuals that "show a master politician's practical and moral choices, along with his sometimes mysterious character." During the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln never denied Douglas' assertion that African Americans were subhuman (an opinion then shared by most Illinois voters), but he maintained that this was a distraction from the real issue: the spread of slavery. Sen. William Seward was the front-runner in the 1860 Republican convention, and his manager, Thurlow Weed, was the nation's most powerful political boss. Both were furious at their defeat, but Lincoln won them over. Once elected, he chose his Cabinet with little regard for competence but rather to please a cross section of influential Republicans. When many proved difficult, he managed them, like good politicians do. His first commander in chief, Gen. George McClellan, despised him and displayed a maddening reluctance to fight. Still, almost everyone admires soldiers more than politicians, and McClellan's dismissal was overwhelmingly unpopular in the Army and controversial among civilians--though most scholars agree that it was the right move. Some characters do not fit the mold, but few readers will complain. Lincoln's barber, an immigrant from Haiti, prospered in the tiny Illinois Black community, and Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd, seemed immune to his political skills. An admirable addition to Lincolniana.

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August 28, 2023
Abraham Lincoln’s ambidextrous political acumen is the focus of journalist and public radio personality Inskeep (Imperfect Union) in this eclectic assortment of encounters Lincoln had with those who quarrelled with him. Spotlighting 16 diverse people and their disagreements with Lincoln, Inskeep reveals how the president “learned, adapted, and sought advantage” through these interactions. Some of the meetings Inskeep covers are famous—including Lincoln’s winning over of crestfallen presidential hopeful William H. Seward and Lincoln’s “exceptional patience” dealing with the tetchy and quasi-insubordinate Union general George G. McClellan—while others are obscure (his Black barber in Illinois and a woman disguising herself as a man to fight in the Union Army). Inskeep suggests that Lincoln did not try to win every argument, but rather “concentrated his power on fights he had to win to keep from losing everything” and always “considered his audience,” seeking to address the other person’s interest or motive (a skill he refined in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, when he asked voters to consider why they were best served by opposing slavery). Inskeep’s selection of encounters is varied and sometimes unexpected, as when he concludes with Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, and their famously difficult marriage; Inskeep contends that the skills Lincoln “needed at home resembled some he needed for work.” Though Inskeep’s novel thesis sometimes gets buried by each encounter’s backstory and minutiae, the energetic narrative and intriguing cast of characters keep things moving. Lincoln buffs will relish this unique account.