“Leadership is situational” It makes sense, for it is mighty difficult to think of leadership outside of a context, a challenge, a before and an after. But if leadership is contingent, dependent upon the who, where, when and what, how do we understand leaders? What makes them, shapes them, and makes them tick? What is successful leadership all about?
Without a doubt one of America’s greatest political leaders was Abraham Lincoln. Studied, researched, worshiped and studied some more, Lincoln remains a larger than life figure. He can be larger than history, too, as his presidency was extraordinarily transformational to our development as a united United States. We all know the contours of his life, from the log cabin origins to the Lincoln-Douglas debates to the Civil War and his murder at the theater. But how often do we go deeper? There are so many studies of Lincoln.
I had not read a biography of Abraham Lincoln for decades when I received (thank you for the gift!) Sidney Blumenthal’s A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln. This is the first of a multi-part biography from Blumenthal, a journalist, political operative, public intellectual, author and Lincoln scholar. If you are interested a more deliberate, thoughtful take on the man and the context in which he lived his earlier years, this is an outstanding book. It follows Lincoln from birth until 1849, when he left Congress. The book is scrupulously researched, relies on primary sources, and is beautifully written.
A Self-Made Man balances the extraordinary uniqueness of Lincoln as a young man with a carefully constructed presentation of early 1800s America. Poverty had sharp and powerful teeth then, highlighting the importance of free versus slave. Blumenthal reinforces this, for the harshness of day-to-day life, especially for young Lincoln, was not unique. Death and contingency were woven into his childhood. As a teen, Abraham was sold out, like a slave, by his father. These forces were a cauldron, shaping Lincoln’s character in partnership with his incredibly drive and intelligence. While a presidency was far from certain, those around the young Lincoln were well aware that he was no ordinary person. Blumenthal captures this very effectively, situating Lincoln’s exploratory growth in the dynamic economics and politics of the period. It matters, for example, that as a young man Lincoln worked on a boat ferrying goods to New Orleans, that he was profoundly disturbed by the city’s slave market, and that these experiences were not forgotten by the future president. He distanced himself from his father, a cruel man, and truly crafted an independent identity.
Lincoln was a voracious and focused reader from his earliest years. He hungered for books, consistently finding time to read. Importantly, he wove together what he read with what he said and did. Early on, despite his reputation for jokes and tales – and by all accounts Lincoln could be extremely entertaining – the main maintained a rare sort of profundity. Lincoln was not a church-goer and organized religion played a little role in his life. He wrestled with deep question through different means: books, friends, foes, and the rough and tumble of antebellum politics. Blumenthal’s experience in politics gives Lincoln’s history an immediacy that leaps from the page.
Sprinkled throughout A Self-Made Man are historical events, personages and conflicts that are referenced with care and consideration. Blumenthal does not tick boxes. Instead, he pulls together threads of conflict, of power and change to explain. I often found myself going to the footnotes and the internet, not because I didn’t understand something. Rather, it was because I found Blumenthal’s narrative so interesting. There’s a hefty sense of curiosity and real wonder in the book. Far from pedantic, A Self-Made Man nevertheless is quite educational.
And that, dear reader, leads me to my final observation, for now, about A Self-Made Man. This biography would probably not figure prominently in many college history courses. Introductory courses tend to rely on a mixture of textbooks and monographs. Amid the vast Lincoln scholarship, it is far from likely that this fine work would be regularly assigned. It could be, but it is far more likely that it would be read by the vast numbers interested in Lincoln, the Civil War, and Americana in general, a group that tends to be older. Yet if we were to consider historical figures whose important today might have resonance, Lincoln immediately comes to mind.
David Potash