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Lincoln and Leadership: Military, Political, and Religious Decision Making

Online ISBN:
9780823243488
Print ISBN:
9780823243440
Publisher:
Fordham University Press
Book

Lincoln and Leadership: Military, Political, and Religious Decision Making

Randall M. Miller (ed.)
Randall M. Miller
(ed.)

Professor of History

St. Joseph's University
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Published:
14 August 2012
Online ISBN:
9780823243488
Print ISBN:
9780823243440
Publisher:
Fordham University Press

Abstract

This book of original essays on “Lincoln and Leadership,” by leading Lincoln and Civil War scholars, explores Lincoln’s understandings and uses of leadership during the Civil War. The essays focus especially on Lincoln as Commander in Chief and war president, as party leader, and as moral guide by looking at his talents and practices in decision-making in critical moments of his presidency. They assess the myths of Lincoln by examining his ability to understand and direct military strategy, communicate with military men, shape public opinion, manage party affairs, move himself and the nation toward emancipation as policy and then as fact, accept the use of black troops, grapple with the moral and religious meaning of the war, empathize with the sufferings of his people, and explain the purpose of the war to the nation and posterity. They emphasize Lincoln’s ability to establish priorities, most especially the preservation of the Union and democratic government at all costs and the realization of the promise of freedom embodied in the Declaration of Independence, which gave Lincoln a unity of purpose and clarity that informed and emboldened his leadership, while they also show Lincoln’s flexibility as to means, which gave Lincoln the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, deal with contending interests, and gain support for his policies.

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