With Malice Toward None: A Biography of Abraham Lincoln

Written by Stephen B. Oates

Narrated by T. Ryder Smith

“The standard one-volume biography of Lincoln.” —Washington Post

“Certainly the most objective biography of Lincoln ever written.” —David Herbert Donald, New York Times Book Review

The definitive life of Abraham Lincoln, With Malice Toward None is historian Stephen B. Oates's acclaimed and enthralling portrait of America's greatest leader. In this award-winning biography, Lincoln steps forward out of the shadow of myth as a recognizable, fully drawn American whose remarkable life continues to inspire and inform us today.

Oates masterfully charts, with the pacing of a novel, Lincoln's rise from bitter poverty in America's midwestern frontier to become a self-made success in business, law, and regional politics. The second half of this riveting work examines his legendary leadership on the national stage as president during one of the country's most tumultuous and bloody periods, the Civil War years, which concluded tragically with Lincoln's assassination.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Jun 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9780063082724

Stephen B. Oates

Stephen B. Oates (1936-2021) was a professor emeritus of history at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst. His books include Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln. Oates has been awarded numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and Nevins-Freeman Award of the Civil War Round Table of Chicago for lifetime achievement in the field of Civil War studies.

Reviews for With Malice Toward None

[Kofi OA · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow, what a man! He laid down his life for his country and to free people!! I shed tears at the end...

[Shiloh Bernache · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A captivating view of the life of Abraham Lincoln. Writer Stephen B. Oates draws one into the life, heart, and mind of the 16th President, leaving one in awe of this incredible man. A man that viewed himself as just a normal American, doing his duty for this country he loved so dearly. Well worth the time to read. Read and be inspired!

[kslade-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very good biography of Abraham Lincoln, who I admire. There are a lot of legends about him!

[catsandcherrypie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well organized biography of Lincoln. Easy reading. Highly recommend this book.

[bobnolin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Deserves all of the accolades it has received. Very well done, very readable biography. Highly recommended.

[drneutron_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Abraham Lincoln is one of the giants of American history. By this, I mean that so much has been written about him and his times that it's hard to get one's arms around the subject. Just like Washington and Jefferson, one could spend a lifetime of reading and find that there's still more to be read. Where to start?With Malice Toward None serves well as an introductory biography of Lincoln. On the one hand, Oates makes his subject come alive. On the other hand, Lincoln is more than he appears here. I left this work wanting to dig much deeper - perhaps that's the best recommendation for a popular biography of such a complex man.

[vibrantminds · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book addresses Abraham Lincoln on a more personal side. We come to see Lincoln’s awkward appearance, self doubts, personal struggles in relationships, and his often reflection on mortality. We follow Lincoln through his earliest beginnings in Kentucky to which he was embarrassed to come from a family of illiterates to his eventual election as president of the United States. Lincoln wanted something better for himself, so sought to educate himself and improve his circumstance. His political career begins as a lawyer, his run for the Senate, to his presidential election. The conflicts of the Civil War reflected heavily on him. He was inexperienced and waivered on how to deal with war and slavery. The book brought Lincoln to a level where the average person can relate to him and not only see him as one of the “greats” of our time. He had insecurities and problems like the rest of us.

[dougwood57 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this small but valuable volume, Oates explores the reality beyond the two sources of Lincoln myth: the primary myth of a saintly and folkloric Lincoln of Carl Sandburg and a secondary myth of the 'white honky' Lincoln of the 1970's revisionists. Oates emphasizes that Lincoln drew deeply upon the "spirit of his age", which was a profoundly revolutionary time across the world. Oates relates how Lincoln absorbed one of the core lessons of America from the example of Henry Clay: : "in this country one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably". That slavery was the cause of the Civil War is beyond all doubt. As Oates explains, however, the North did not go to war to free the slaves. In the standard phrasing, the North went to war to 'preserve the union'. Oates explores Lincoln's fears that the spread of slavery in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision would lead to the destruction of democratic society. The debate then still raged on the world stage whether a republican form of government could last. Lincoln rejected the "ingenious sophism" that states could freely leave the Union. "With rebellion thus sugar coated [southern leaders] have been drugging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years." Secession posed nothing less than a final challenge to popular government. If a minority could destroy the government any time it felt aggrieved, then no government could endure. Thus the war had to be fought to preserve not just the American Republic, but the possibility of republican government. Lincoln did in fact oppose slavery from early on. His views on racial matters apart from slavery became more fully progressive over time. Lincoln, however, hoped that slavery would slowly melt away in a losing competition with free labor and that liberated slaves would resettle in Africa. It is part of Lincoln's greatness that he later gave up these views. Oates explores this evolution in his thinking. Oates debunks the notion that the Emancipation Proclamation was unimportant in liberating the slaves. Oates also refutes the notion that Lincoln would have favored an easy hand during Reconstruction. On the contrary, the evidence strongly suggests he would have led the so-called Radical Republicans. Highly recommended for any reader with an interest in Lincoln, the Civil War era, or really pretty much any American.