About the Author

William C. Harris, professor emeritus of history at North Carolina State University and recipient of the Lincoln Diploma of Honor, is author of nine other books, including Day of the Carpetbagger: Republican Reconstruction in Mississippi, With Charity for All: Lincoln and the Restoration of the Union, and most recently Lincoln's Last Months.

Reviews

Illuminates Lincoln's remarkable rise from obscurity to the presidency and shows in fresh detail how he acquired, and exercised, the political skills and the wisdom that made him a great leader when he got there. William Lee Miller, author of Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography ""An insightful account that convincingly portrays Lincoln as a tactically shrewd, strategically principled, and eloquently forceful leader and reconciler of the heterogeneous antislavery elements in both Illinois and the North at large.... A worthy companion to Harris's prize-winning studies of Lincoln's presidency."" Michael Burlingame, author of The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln ""A fine, well-written study that provides sophisticated and balanced insights."" Phillip Shaw Paludan, author of The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln