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.
“Presidential historians love to claim at the beginning of a
biography that they will demonstrate some remarkable evolution by
the end, but it’s often imperceptible in the pages between. In
Inskeep’s hands, by contrast, Lincoln advances as a person and a
politician. To a large extent, Inskeep shows, the president’s
growth was a product of his ability to interact patiently with
others, even when their conduct or character was troubling . . .
Inskeep’s Lincoln isn’t yet the Great Emancipator we know; the
famously self-taught, craggy-faced, frontier-raised man figures out
how to get there through these conversations. He understood that
people were motivated by self-interest, but delineating that
interest was an art. He wasn’t precious about who he spoke to, and
he was always compassionate . . . Differ We Must offers important
parallels with the present . . . The key to preserving democracy in
a moment of crisis, Inskeep reminds us, is electing a leader who is
committed to something far greater than himself: America.” —The
Washington Post
“Inskeep details how much Lincoln’s political skill was a part of
the late president’s legacy and character . . . The brisk
biography, filled with lively anecdotes and interesting analysis,
offers more than enough to stand out among recent additions to the
collection of Lincoln biographies.” —Associated Press
“[Inskeep] reminds us that the 16th president was a moral and
pragmatic politician, who listened to, learned from and worked with
his critics.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“What if what we really ought to learn from Lincoln isn’t how
principled and humane he was, but rather how capable he was of
getting down and dirty, of forging ugly compromises and making
questionable alliances, to advance what he thought the
greater good? What if Abraham Lincoln was American Machiavelli, and
what if that’s good, actually? [Steve Inskeep’s] new book on the
subject is titled Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a
Divided America, and it’s fascinating reading. It’s not a
biography—there have been so many of those. Rather, it’s an account
of a handful of encounters between Lincoln and people he disagreed
with, people he often nevertheless needed to get his way.”—Anand
Giradharadas, The.Ink
“Steve Inskeep, the genial NPR host who spends his days
respectfully eliciting the views of all, finds in our 16th
president a model for our age. He has written an instructive and
entertaining introduction to Lincoln by telling the stories of 16
men and women whose lives intersected with his, ranging from
William Seward, his scheming secretary of state, to his troubled
wife, Mary. Most will be familiar to avid Lincolnophiles, but some
less so, such as Lean Bear, the Cheyenne chief who was part of a
delegation that met with Abe in the White House in 1863; and
William Florville, the Haitian barber and entrepreneur who cut
Lincoln’s unruly hair in Springfield. What emerges is a
multifaceted picture of a man who collected friends from
everywhere.” —Air Mail
“A satisfying new look at one of the most written-about political
figures in American history. . . An admirable addition to
Lincolniana.” —Kirkus
“Abraham Lincoln’s ambidextrous political acumen is the focus of
journalist and public radio personality Inskeep (Imperfect Union) .
. . The energetic narrative and intriguing cast of characters keep
things moving . . . Lincoln buffs will relish this unique account.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Abraham Lincoln, America’s greatest president, comes freshly alive
in Steve Inskeep’s brilliant rendering of his interactions with
many individuals, famous and obscure, of varied backgrounds and
viewpoints. Inskeep’s Lincoln is flexible, witty, and
wise--sometimes cagey but always rock-solid in his principles.
Differ We Must is a read-we-must in a time when America is almost
as divided as it was in Lincoln’s era.” —David S. Reynolds, author
of Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times
“Lincoln was an artful politician capable of portraying himself
differently to different people. Yet he rose to the level of
statesman. Steve Inskeep captures the artfulness and the ascent in
this fascinating, insightful account of Lincoln’s dealings with
sixteen of his contemporaries—men and women whose cooperation he
solicited, whose opposition he parried, and whose diversity
informed the more inclusive republic he did so much to create.”
—H.W. Brands, author of The Zealot and the Emancipator
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