Lincoln's Hundred Days: The Emancipation Proclamation and the War for the Union - Tapa dura

A moving, accessible portrayal of Lincoln as a deeply humble, strangely physical presence who spoke in oracular parables. Kirkus Reviews 20120801 Masur delivers an intelligent account of how Lincoln balanced politics with the goal of ending slavery... Readers will enjoy his rich, perceptive history of the passionate maneuvering that produced it. Publishers Weekly 20120723 A lucid and learned account of the process whereby Lincoln moved toward emancipation, and once so committed, made it the lodestar of the Union...Masur makes much of the importance blacks attributed to the document as their Declaration of Independence and the importance of black soldiers in giving it force...This is now the best work on the proclamation. As its sesquicentennial looms (January 2013), all persons wanting to understand the contingency of freedom should read this book. -- Randall M. Miller Library Journal (starred review) 20120801

"The time has come now," Abraham Lincoln told his cabinet as he presented the preliminary draft of a "Proclamation of Emancipation." Lincoln's effort to end slavery has been controversial from its inception--when it was denounced by some as an unconstitutional usurpation and by others as an inadequate half-measure--up to the present, as historians have discounted its import and impact. At the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, Louis Masur seeks to restore the document's reputation by exploring its evolution. Lincoln's Hundred Days is the first book to tell the full story of the critical period between September 22, 1862, when Lincoln issued his preliminary Proclamation, and January 1, 1863, when he signed the final, significantly altered, decree. In those tumultuous hundred days, as battlefield deaths mounted, debate raged. Masur commands vast primary sources to portray the daily struggles and enormous consequences of the president's efforts as Lincoln led a nation through war and toward emancipation. With his deadline looming, Lincoln hesitated and calculated, frustrating friends and foes alike, as he reckoned with the anxieties and expectations of millions. We hear these concerns, from poets, cabinet members and foreign officials, from enlisted men on the front and free blacks as well as slaves. Masur presents a fresh portrait of Lincoln as a complex figure who worried about, listened to, debated, prayed for, and even joked with his country, and then followed his conviction in directing America toward a terrifying and thrilling unknown.