76 pages • 2 hours read
Jon MeachamA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Assess Jon Meacham’s biography of Lincoln. What is Meacham’s fundamental understanding of Lincoln? Do you think these claims match the facts as presented in the text?
Meacham treats Lincoln as a figure motivated both by personal ambition and by moral vocation. In your view, does Lincoln seem more possessed by one factor than other? Why?
Consider how Meacham approaches the narrative of Lincoln’s life, emphasizing or deemphasizing various aspects. How do these choices contribute to Meacham’s fundamental understanding of Lincoln?
Meacham’s book presents itself as simultaneously a biography of the man and of the nation at a particularly crucial moment of its history. How does Lincoln’s personal strife mirror those of the country?
Assess Lincoln’s attitudes to slavery, to abolition and abolitionists, and to racism.
One potential upshot of Meacham’s understanding of Lincoln is that, though Lincoln was very politically progressive for his time, he was also virulently racist by 21st century standards. How should we appraise historical figures in light of the wide cultural gulfs between the America of the 1860s and the American of the 2020s?
Lincoln seems to have been affected at times by depression and, especially, grief. (He lost his mother at a young age, a fiancé as a young man, and two of his children as an adult.) What role, if any, do you think death played in Lincoln’s view of life?
Meacham frequently engages the literature of both the freed Black community and the abolitionists to show how the most fervent and committed antiracists of the era understood Lincoln. What role did Black voices play in shaping the president’s conscience and political action? How does Lincoln seem to have interacted with those who pushed him toward abolition and true equality?
Speculate about a counterfactual American history in which the Union lost the Civil War and the Confederacy endured. What might the world be like now? Did Lincoln, as a singular actor, change the course of history fundamentally? Why or why not?
Having completed the biography, assess Lincoln’s character and accomplishments as depicted by Meacham. Where would you place Lincoln in the pantheon of American presidents?
By Jon Meacham