Description
Book SynopsisAt the center of Lincoln's political thought and career is an intense passion for equality that runs so deep in the speeches, messages, and letters that it has the force of religious conviction for Lincoln. George Kateb examines these writings to reveal that this passion explains Lincoln's reverence for both the Constitution and the Union.
Trade ReviewIt is a delicate moral exercise, Kateb’s attempt to affirm Lincoln’s greatness while nonetheless chastening our idolatry and leaving us with a troubling image of ourselves. There are few writers since Emerson who have even attempted this sort of thing, let alone succeeded at it…Kateb refuses to simplify. The words in his book both bleed and provoke; his double-edged honesty cuts repeatedly against his own druthers, as he says what idolaters and debunkers alike wish not to hear…George Kateb has added a splendid and bracing chapter to [Emerson’s]
Representative Men. -- Jeffrey Stout * Commonweal *
Unforgiving and original. -- David Bromwich * Reuters *
An erudite work that gently unravels the great man’s distortions and political expediency…The book is compelling throughout. * Kirkus Reviews *
Kateb is the most interesting and important philosopher of liberalism alive today, and whatever he says is worth thinking about. Although I disagree, sometimes heatedly, with many of the arguments here, it’s also a book I’m going to continue to think about, a book I’m going to have with me for a very long time. -- John Burt, author of
Lincoln’s Tragic PragmatismI have read quite a few Lincoln books over the past few years, and
Lincoln’s Political Thought is the most enjoyable. For those who know Kateb’s work – and I have been a fan of his for a long time – all of his characteristic flourishes are here on display. -- Steven Smith, editor of
The Writings of Abraham Lincoln
