Portside

The role of the enslaved in the political crisis that led to the Civil War is not as well known as it should be, but this volume adds to our knowledge on this topic.

Biographer Chernow "gives us a military genius who understood the full scope of the war and pursued a winning strategy," writes reviewer Richard Moe, "and a sometimes inept president who, though unschooled in politics, made his highest priority the protection of the lives and rights of freed slaves."