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Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography, by William Lee Miller
Download Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography, by William Lee Miller
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How did an unschooled career politician named Abraham Lincoln, from the raw frontier villages of early-nineteenth-century Illinois, become one of the most revered of our national icons? This is the question that William Lee Miller explores and answers, in fascinating detail, in Lincoln’s Virtues.
Lincoln, Miller says, was a great man who was also a good man. It is the central thrust of this “ethical biography” to reveal how he became both, to trace his moral and intellectual development in the context of his times and in confrontation with the leading issues of the day—most notably, of course, that of slavery.
Following the rough chronology of Lincoln’s life up to the crucial decisions in the winter of secession, the narrative portrays his conscious shaping of himself as a writer, speaker, moral agent, politician, and statesman. Miller shows us a man who educated himself through reading, had a mind inclined to plow down to first principles and hold to them, and combined clarity of thought with firmness of will and power of expression, a man whose conduct rose to a higher moral standard the higher his office and the greater his power. The author takes us into the pivotal moments of “moral escalation” in Lincoln’s political life, allowing us to see him come gradually to the point at which he was compelled to say, “Hold fast with a chain of steel.” Miller makes clear throughout that Lincoln never left behind or “rose above” the role of “politician,” but rather fulfilled the highest possibilities of this peculiarly honorable democratic vocation.
Lincoln’s Virtues approaches this much-written-about figure from a wholly new standpoint. As a biography uniquely revealing of its subject’s heart and mind, it represents a major contribution to the current and perennial American discussion of national moral conduct, and of the relationship between politics and morality.
- Sales Rank: #1108569 in Books
- Published on: 2002-01-15
- Released on: 2002-01-15
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.49" h x 1.75" w x 6.40" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 544 pages
Amazon.com Review
William Lee Miller's Lincoln's Virtues is less an "event" chronology than the tracing of the moral and ethical core of Abraham Lincoln's beliefs, what Miller calls the man's "unintended preparation for greatness." Miller posits that Lincoln rightly deserves his nonpareil place in American history. But, he continues, Lincoln's greatness is best appreciated only when we realize he was merely mortal and therefore free to follow any number of courses of actions. Miller, through scores of eloquent exegeses of Lincoln's writings and speeches, explores the path--consistent, though evolving--this free agent took. Lincoln chose politics as his work. As a politician he was subject to the very real constraints of collective action. However, such was the man's "moral self-confidence," that the mantle of greatness alit on his shoulders alone. This is a revealing, delicate, and at times soaring work. It also presupposes its readers are much more than casually familiar with Lincoln's life and times. - -H. O'Billovitch
From Publishers Weekly
In a narrative that positions a careful analysis of Lincoln's life against his popular legend and "ritual celebration," University of Virginia historian Miller (Arguing About Slavery) provides an incisive and shrewd discussion of Lincoln's development as a person and a politician. If it is assumed from the outset that Lincoln was "a spectacularly wonderful man," Miller argues, it "may diminish our appreciation of the ways in which he may actually have become one." Thus Miller's project to chronicle man rather than myth is explicitly concerned with the evolution of Lincoln's character, motivations and ideals. Chronicling his rise from an Appalachian boyhood to the corridors of power, the author makes a host of wise observations about this "ungainly westerner" that are informed as much by Miller's considerable knowledge of human nature as by his study of Lincoln's utterances over the years. According to Miller, Lincoln's life was motivated by the desire to distance himself from his humble origins; though he may have begun as a young man of the people, he quickly sought a place among the intellectual and cultural elite that Thomas Jefferson had dubbed the "natural aristocracy." He never introduced his sons to his father and stepmother. He harbored an intense dislike for all forms of menial labor, and was displeased when campaign posters positioned him as a rail-splitter. In this same spirit, he despised the simple, petty bigotries common among the working classes of his day and eschewed the Know-Nothingism popular in the United States of the 1850s as being beneath him. It is this Lincoln's studied and cultivated aloofness from the banal Miller argues, that positioned him for greatness. (Jan. 22) Forecast: This brings a fresh and refreshing perspective that Lincoln devotees will appreciate.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Miller (Arguing About Slavery) recasts Lincoln's life as a lesson in political morality. Less biography than an extended essay on the process whereby Lincoln learned to think and act in moral terms, Miller's wide-ranging probe of the sources of Lincoln's thought and the character of his action on such topics as slavery, secession, party politics, family, and community explores what being a public man meant, up to the moment of Lincoln's inauguration as President. In Miller's hands, Lincoln emerges as a purposeful learner and thinker whose moral and political compass came from Scripture, Shakespeare, the law, and "the people," to whom he listened but never pandered. Miller's great contribution is showing that Lincoln's call to public service demanded an ethical stance and that he owed his success to his moral clarity on the issues of the day. Though readers will chafe at Miller's sometimes too precious arguments, obscure asides, and unabashed admiration of Lincoln, they will appreciate his insistence that politics must be a noble calling, as Lincoln would (and did) have it. Recommended for large public and academic libraries. Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Riveting, if a bit long-winded
By David Kim
Miller's careful discovery of Lincoln's moral and ethical disposition is amazingly perceptive. I am struck by how Lincoln's generosity and good nature did not diminish his moral resolve. Miller himself writes that whereas the saying goes absolute power corrupts absolutely, for Lincoln, greater power meant that he became all the more serious about his stewardship to do good. Miller asserts that this Lincoln hallmark was the result of Lincoln's deliberate and deep reflections about what he believed is right and wrong.
One aspect of Miller's style that readers may not enjoy is that he is sometimes long-winded. He tends to enjoy exegesis of Lincoln's speeches or letters, and sometimes repeats himself with just a few different words. However, for me, this was just an attestation to Miller's admiration for his subject. I think even serious Lincoln readers will benefit from Miller's analyses, as he overturns more than a few common beliefs about Lincoln's character.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Extraordinary and Relevant
By A Customer
This unconventional "ethical biography" of Abraham Lincoln is an extraordinary book that deserves a wide audience, although its merits - careful writing, rich idea content, and serious purpose - are the very things likely to prevent that outcome. Miller presents Lincoln to us a traveler on a lifelong journey of ethical growth. As we follow that journey, we learn not just about Lincoln and his times. We learn lessons about the issues we face today and the possibilities - embodied in Lincoln's own astonishing achievements - still open to us to discover our own "better angels." The parallels to be found (in my opinion, not as expressed by the author) between (a) the U.S. wars against Mexico and Iraq and (b) Presidents Polk and Bush are particularly striking and should provoke a great deal of reflection. Bottom line: a well written, intricately researched, and important volume that will reward careful reading.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
How did it happen?
By R. BULL
This is a fascinating look at how an untutored and barely educated frontier man developed an exquisite sense of compassion and empathy when others in similar circumstances did not. It is sort of a moral developmental history of Lincoln, which does not fail to recognize his mistakes and his sometimes painful failures as well as his successes. I do not know that anyone can truly chart the evolution of thinking and belief of a person as briliant and complicated as Lincoln, but Miller makes a truly thoughtful and convincing attempt. I know of no other book on Lincoln that comes close to this.
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