I’ve not done it, but I can pretty safely assume that it’s really hard to write an in-depth, full-scale, 700-page biography. To do so with a fluid, readable, often inspiring and emotional narrative is a feat that even fewer biographers can pull off. Ron White has impressively done just that in A. Lincoln.

I’ve read a lot of Lincoln books (and there’s plenty more sitting in piles on the floor of my office) and I can pretty easily say that White’s 2009 book is the best of the bunch. David Herbert Donald’s Lincoln is often considered the leader of the pack, but it’s often dry. Lincoln comes across as a somewhat statuesque character; it lacks feeling.

The best biographies, in my opinion, not only convey facts in an organized way, but provide a depth of emotion that allows you to feel for the subject in some way—even if the person is contemptible (like Lyndon Johnson in Robert Caro’s famous series). What Ron White so magnificently does here is capture Lincoln’s utter humanity and decency. The era comes alive and we see Lincoln as the impoverished young boy, the frontier lawyer, the budding and pragmatic politician, the surprise president, the wartime leader, the reluctant abolitionist. Through it all, we see how Lincoln evolved, how he educated himself, how he stayed humble in the midst of having more power than any other man in America, and so much more.

At the end, while reading about that infamous night at the theater, White had me in tears. I obviously knew the ending of Lincoln’s story, but White made him come alive so vividly that I was surprisingly emotional when it came to our 16th president’s untimely death.

White doesn’t explicitly make the case for Lincoln as our greatest president, but it’s hard to come away from this book without holding that (correct!) opinion.

A. Lincoln immediately found its way to my top few favorite presidential biographies. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Serviceable biography on a very interesting man.

The best Lincoln Bio out there. Well written and largely written based on personal notes Lincoln wrote to himself and squirreled away into random places. As luck would have it, these notes where known to others and thus preserved after his death. These notes give us a view into his thinking and feeling on issues and puts to rest any claim that he was racist and supported slavery. It also reveals how religious he became as he grew older. It glosses over his battles with depression. Battles that got so bad that Joshua Speed and friends would remove all sharp objects from his room and barricade him inside until the fit passed. Even with this detail of his life glossed over, this is still the best Lincoln Bio to read.

It took me an embarassingly long time to read this book. It was an ambitious read for me at 676 pages of historical text (it covers Lincoln's entire life). It's the only Lincoln biography I have ever read. It was, for me, overly/extremely detailed in some parts that I didn't care about. Those parts dragged... my mind wandered. I'm sure a more historian minded reader would have appreciated the detail though. Other parts were fascinating and I was able to zip through them.

The faults I found with the book were related to my personal reading preferences. The writing was quality and I enjoyed learning more about the life of one of my favorite presidents. The book does a good job of showing Lincoln's character, through both his personal notes and the diary entries of those who knew him. I think the quote from his second inaugural address sums up Lincoln best of all, "With malice toward none; with charity for all."

This book is superb. If you're interested in Lincoln, you need to read it. For me, it gave exactly the right amount of detail. It is very well written and even after 600+ pages, I didn't want it to end and I missed not having the next chapter to read the morning after I finished it. Lincoln is a fascinating character and I feel, after reading this book, that I understand some of the development of his thought better.

A good basic book on Lincoln. The Aurthor covers all the bases on Lincoln's life. If you can read only one book this might be a good choice. If you are looking for a more comprehensive and thorough book this might not be the best choice. I have read several books on Lincoln's Life and this book would rank as a second or third pick of books on the basic tales of Lincoln. I didn't read anything in this book that I already had read in other books. For a one volume book it is good not great.

it was full of information... I loved it

An extremely well written account of the life of the man who was instrumental in helping win the war for America's soul.

I enjoyed the first 3/4ths of this book-learning about Lincoln’s youth and early career-more than the last 1/4th. Surprisingly once he became President, the book lagged a bit.