What does it take to make a U.S. president lead effectively in a
crisis? Turning to the past can help to answer the question.
Eric Foner, a leading U.S. historian, has edited a collection of
new essays on the 16th president’s heroic and tragic life and
times, Our Lincoln: new perspectives on Lincoln and his world
(W.W. Norton, 2008). The writers look well past the obvious to
flesh out intriguing relations among and between the forces that
shaped Lincoln’s leadership. James M. McPherson explores
Lincoln’s efforts “to convert a strategy of liberating slaves to
weaken the Confederacy into a policy of abolishing slavery as a
war aim second in importance to preserving the Union.” With only
state militia to wage war at the start, he faced quite a
dilemma. Lincoln opted to appoint “political generals” to help
expand the ranks of the Union army. Later, he dealt with the
battlefield miscues these generals created confronting Southern
forces. Today, the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cry out for
a president who can