About the Author

Richard Carwardine, the Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford University, is the first British scholar to be awarded the Lincoln Prize, the largest award in the United States for nineteeth-century American history. His previous work includes "Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America." He lives in Oxford.

Reviews

"An illuminating and thoroughly intelligent assessment of Lincoln the politician. . . Carwardine provides a comprehensive study of how an essentially good man could gain and wield power, even in scoundrel time."
--Kevin Baker, "The New York Times"
"One closes this biography wondering how postbellum politics might have been different were it not for that fateful gunshot on April 14, 1865. Carwardine's Lincoln Prize-winning study is not only analytical and smart, it's also delightfully readable -- and it will surely emerge as one of the most important Lincoln books to be published this decade."
--"Publishers Weekly," starred review
"Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power stands up to any comparison. Carwardine's confident writing and exemplary scholarship come together well in this faceted, evenhanded treatment of the 16th president. . . Carwardine wisely reinterprets many sources to present his nuanced overview of the moral man who was Abraham Lincoln."
--Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett, "The Oregonian
""Among the most thoughtful of the many [books] that have been pouring out in anticipation of the Lincoln bicentennial now three years away."
--T.C. Johnsen, "The Christian Science Monitor
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"This is the biography of a prudent, decisive, activist Lincoln the world has been waiting for. Richard Carwardine has drawn a true portrait of the strengths of Lincoln's personal character, the development and tenacity of Lincoln's ethical convictions, his subtle and deliberate political acumen, his respect and embrace of moral principles for the conduct of personal relations and public statecraft; and, finally, Carwardine demonstrates Lincoln's mastery of men and of public opinion."
--Lewis E. Lehrman, Co-Chairman of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
"The book offers an insightful, judicious, and, in some ways, original study of Lincoln's public career."
--Eric Foner, "London Review of Books
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"Rarely does a b