How History Gets Shaped

Events happen, such as Lincoln's election as president, the prewar battles, and the Civil War. However, as Zeitz demonstrates, history itself gets shaped. His book is worthwhile as a history of the period, much of it concise and trenchant. His biographies of John Hay and John Nicolay are focused and comprehensive. But it's the characterization of Lincoln, the Lincoln we know, or, as Zeitz puts it, the Lincoln Memorial Lincoln and the revisionist histories of the Civil War most readers will find enlightening.

In the first part of the book, Zeitz covers the early lives of Hay and Nicolay, the foundation of their individual character. Also here, he succinctly and clearly takes readers through the issues leading up to the election of 1860, in particular the various compromises that kept the lid on a boiling cauldron, as well as the machinations of the election process. The rabid partisanship before and after the war will disabuse readers of the notion there is anything singular about current American politics. Along the way, Zeitz offers a few keen observations that still ring true, among them this on postwar prosperity:

"Rarely did it occur to business and political elites that they had not prospered strictly by the rules of the free labor economy. Railroad companies profited heavily from government land grants and financial subsidies. The Timber Culture Act (1873) and the Desert Land Act (1877) gave away millions of acres of public land to those with the means to plant trees and irrigate arid allotments in the Southwest....At every turn, an activist state born of necessity to prosecute the Civil War found new and increasingly inventive ways to subsidize business concerns that had grown out of the same armed struggle. Many of the primary recipients of this public largesse remained oblivious to the role that the government played in making them wealthy."

In the last third, Zeitz shows how Hay and Nicolay, with the support of Robert Lincoln, shaped the President Lincoln we know today, primarily in their serialized and widely read 10-volume biography, Abraham Lincoln: A History, and Nicolay's condensed one-volume version, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln: Condensed From Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History. Without them, we might have inherited a different Lincoln, one more shaped by William Herndon, Lincoln's old Springfield law partner, and others, without the pair's first-hand knowledge of Lincoln's true character and witness-to-history status.

While successful in giving us the Lincoln we know today, Hay and Nicolay were less fruitful in preserving the historical perspective that the South rebelled, that a Civil War was fought, and that the central issue leading to conflict was slavery. Revisionism took over for a reason Zeitz explores, leaving us with concepts like The War Between the States, competing economic systems, states rights, brother against brother, and the like.

Finally, Zeitz does an excellent job of illustrating how Hay and Nicolay's attitude on race evolved from when they were young men in pre-Civil War America to when they were older and wiser men. Anti-slavery didn't mean racial equality to them, or Lincoln, or most any anti-slavery advocate. But over time, attitudes changed.

All in all, you'll find it a superb and enlightening excursion into the most crucial period in the Republic's history. Includes footnotes, bibliography, index, and a small collection of photos. ( )

How History Gets Shaped

Events happen, such as Lincoln's election as president, the prewar battles, and the Civil War. However, as Zeitz demonstrates, history itself gets shaped. His book is worthwhile as a history of the period, much of it concise and trenchant. His biographies of John Hay and John Nicolay are focused and comprehensive. But it's the characterization of Lincoln, the Lincoln we know, or, as Zeitz puts it, the Lincoln Memorial Lincoln and the revisionist histories of the Civil War most readers will find enlightening.

In the first part of the book, Zeitz covers the early lives of Hay and Nicolay, the foundation of their individual character. Also here, he succinctly and clearly takes readers through the issues leading up to the election of 1860, in particular the various compromises that kept the lid on a boiling cauldron, as well as the machinations of the election process. The rabid partisanship before and after the war will disabuse readers of the notion there is anything singular about current American politics. Along the way, Zeitz offers a few keen observations that still ring true, among them this on postwar prosperity:

"Rarely did it occur to business and political elites that they had not prospered strictly by the rules of the free labor economy. Railroad companies profited heavily from government land grants and financial subsidies. The Timber Culture Act (1873) and the Desert Land Act (1877) gave away millions of acres of public land to those with the means to plant trees and irrigate arid allotments in the Southwest....At every turn, an activist state born of necessity to prosecute the Civil War found new and increasingly inventive ways to subsidize business concerns that had grown out of the same armed struggle. Many of the primary recipients of this public largesse remained oblivious to the role that the government played in making them wealthy."

In the last third, Zeitz shows how Hay and Nicolay, with the support of Robert Lincoln, shaped the President Lincoln we know today, primarily in their serialized and widely read 10-volume biography, Abraham Lincoln: A History, and Nicolay's condensed one-volume version, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln: Condensed From Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History. Without them, we might have inherited a different Lincoln, one more shaped by William Herndon, Lincoln's old Springfield law partner, and others, without the pair's first-hand knowledge of Lincoln's true character and witness-to-history status.

While successful in giving us the Lincoln we know today, Hay and Nicolay were less fruitful in preserving the historical perspective that the South rebelled, that a Civil War was fought, and that the central issue leading to conflict was slavery. Revisionism took over for a reason Zeitz explores, leaving us with concepts like The War Between the States, competing economic systems, states rights, brother against brother, and the like.

Finally, Zeitz does an excellent job of illustrating how Hay and Nicolay's attitude on race evolved from when they were young men in pre-Civil War America to when they were older and wiser men. Anti-slavery didn't mean racial equality to them, or Lincoln, or most any anti-slavery advocate. But over time, attitudes changed.

All in all, you'll find it a superb and enlightening excursion into the most crucial period in the Republic's history. Includes footnotes, bibliography, index, and a small collection of photos. ( )

Not much new Lincoln history but an engaging expose on Nicolay and Hay. The political and historical analysis was exceptionally top drawer, insightful and relevant. ( )

Quite a good summary of Hay and Nicolay's work as Lincoln's secretaries and their great efforts later in life to pen a massive biography of Lincoln. While this is at the center of Zeitz's narrative, he also does an excellent job of removing the pair from Lincoln's shadow - necessary and desirable, since both led interesting lives in their own right. ( )

Welcome to Great Moments with Mr. Lincolns… Friends. Zeitz wants to showcase Lincoln’s two secretaries, (and later important statesmen of their own right,) John Hay and John Nicolay and their contributions to Lincoln’s legacy. The first part of the book their lives are understandably intertwined with Lincoln, but later are shown in their own careers and the putting together of their biography of Lincoln. The interweaving of the hot button issues of the day and the work of Hay and Nicolay is seamlessly handled and provides a welcome addition to world of Lincoln studies.

Free review copy. ( )