Drawing on the latest interpretive and methodological advances in historical scholarship, The Young Eagle: The Rise of Abraham Lincoln reexamines the young adult life of America's sixteenth president. By profiling 3,000 of Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois, contemporaries, The Young Eagle creates a historical backdrop to explain how one of America's greatest leaders could be simultaneously typical and extraordinary.

Lincoln scholar Kenneth J. Winkle draws on dozens of historical sources, creating a detailed profile of ordinary Americans and then comparing their behavior with Lincoln's. Using comparative analysis, he views Lincoln's roles as husband, father, and politician, revealing details at odds with many other accounts. With a bracing, engaging narrative, The Young Eagle recasts legendary events and relationships surrounding Lincoln, such as his:
-- "humble" beginnings: they were not particularly humble
-- brief but controversial career as a merchant: bankruptcy boosted his fortune
-- love affair with Ann Rutledge: it never happened
-- controversial marriage to Mary Todd: they enjoyed a typical middle-class marriage
-- racial attitudes and antislavery stance: they were admirably advanced for his time

A must-have for Lincoln scholars and history buffs, The Young Eagle counters portrayals of Lincoln as an indecisive, irresolute leader with a fresh, credible look at the young man who rose from ordinariness to guide the country through the tumultuous Civil War. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Essential to the myth of Lincoln, writes University of Nebraska historian Winkle, is the image of the log cabin: the 16th president's humble origins made his rise to the White House astounding. Winkle shows that though his roots were modest, Lincoln was hardly a self-made man. His rise from "frontier poverty" to the presidency occurred in a specific historic context, and the strength of this biography lies less in any startling new findings about Lincoln's early years and more in Winkle's careful and consistent placement of Lincoln's choices within larger sociocultural trends. For example, historians have made much of the early death of Lincoln's mother, Nancy. But the loss of one's mother at an early age was common then, says Winkle, and scholars may have overstated the impact it had on the future president. He also examines Lincoln's much-analyzed estrangement from his fatherÄhe refused to go to his father's sick bed or even to attend his funeralÄin a broader historical context. Winkle sets this family drama against the backdrop of changes in economic and family values: as production increasingly left the home for the factory in antebellum America, "fathers... lost their privileged, patriarchal status." Similarly, Winkle describes Lincoln's turbulent courtship of Mary Todd in light of changes in the institution of marriage during the 1830s and '40s. Does all this contextualizing add up to a sweepingly revised biography of Lincoln, or even to a grand new understanding of his "rise"? No. But Winkle's attention to the particularities of time and place reminds readers that Lincoln was not simply an underdog hero who appeared on the scene in 1860, and this outlook distinguishes his book from the endless stream of Lincoln biographies. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Over the years, the life of Abraham Lincoln has been the focus of such a large number of scholarly and popular studies that many might wonder whether a new addition to this literature is warranted. Yet this work by Winkle (American history, Univ. of Nebraska; Politics of Community) demonstrates that modern historical methodology can offer new insight into this important life. Winkle utilizes community analysis to examine the life of Abraham Lincoln in its broad social and cultural context and to compare him meaningfully to his contemporaries. Drawing from a broad range of primary and secondary sources, the author is able to reconstruct Lincoln's youth in an unusual and quite well-documented study that informs the reader as much about life and politics in mid-19th century America as it does about Lincoln himself. The result is a good addition to larger public and academic libraries and especially to collections specializing in Lincoln and the Civil War. Theresa McDevitt, Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information