I'm currently reading David Herbert Donald's Lincoln biography. It's excellently researched and very thorough, and it well deserves the praise it's gathered. However, I don't know if it's only me but it seems that Donald is somewhat hostile towards Lincoln, or rather not as positive as other writers usually are. For one, when talking of the 40-acres and a mule proposal, Donald emphasizes that Lincoln was not a radical, which is right, but he also says that Lincoln's reluctance was because he did not think that Blacks could achieve equality. Foner, by contrast, mentions Lincoln's warm support for the free-labor experiments in Mississippi and the South Carolina sea islands, which makes Lincoln seem more progressive when compared with Donald's portrayal. Likewise, Donald portrays Lincoln's abandonment of colonization as him resigning himself to failure and having to accept that African-Americans would remain in the country, while others like McPherson and Foner instead portrait it as a genuine change in heart born out of failure and Black resistance.

Altogether, I think Donald's book portraits Lincoln as a much more flawed and conservative figure than usual. I welcome a depiction of Lincoln with warts and all, and I do recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn about Lincoln. Just take into account that academics are never free of biases and personal prejudices, try as they might to be completely impartial. James McPherson, for example, obviously likes Lincoln and Grant, feels some sympathy for Davis as someone stuck in an impossible situation, and dislikes McClellan. Similarly, Freehling is more willing to cut Stephen A. Douglas some slack, and seems to see John Brown as more a fanatic, if a noble and sincere one.

I don't think Donald dislikes Lincoln, but he strikes me as someone much more skeptical of Radical Republicanism as a whole, and it seems to me that his books sometimes let his personals opinions through. Although I haven't read it, his biography of Charles Sumner has been criticized for presenting "distorted picture which overstressed Sumner's intellectual arrogance, humorlessness and other unpleasant attributes.". In other words, for letting his personal dislike of Sumner colore his writing. I believe something similar happens here, for Donald also stresses Lincoln's conservative thinking in social issues and his flaws.

Anyway, I still recommend the book as an excellent one-volume biography of the greatest American President. And all that came before is just my personal opinion, of course!

I'm looking for book recommendations for basically anything in English covering Russian History pre Romanov

Does anyone have any thoughts on the book Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang?

I've been looking into Korean history recently and I keep seeing this book pop up. I was wondering if it was a worthwhile read (even if it isn't just about Korea). I've seen a wide range of opinions about it.

I'm looking for three book recommendations:

First, President Dwight Eisenhower. Hopefully it would give an overview of all his accomplishments, but I would like to learn more about his political positions and rhetoric when he was president.

Second, a friend just read AC/DC: The savage Tale of the First Standards War by Tom McNichol. The main criticisms seem to be that it was brief and overly friendly to Edison. Is there a more comprehensive work on the Current War?

Third, for future winter reading, I'm looking for a book about the Asiatic migrations into Europe during the decline of Rome. Where did all those different ethnic groups move in from, and what motivated them? Every winter I pick up some big tome, usually involving Old Russia, Byzantium, or the Crusades, but these migrations a big hole in my understanding of how the current map of Eurasia was formed.

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Thanks!

I've been finishing off a little foray into the more Early Modern phase of the Qing Dynasty this week, and if you have a look on the Late Imperial China list you will find three new entries to do with that: Mark C. Elliott's The Manchu Way, Laura Hostetler's Qing Colonial Enterprise and Pamela Crossley's A Translucent Mirror. I'm a little too pooped tonight to talk about this, but I'll hopefully go into a little more detail on this next week.

Does anyone know of a book about the creation of the Distrito Federal and annexation? I'm very curious how Mexico City went from an island in Lake Texcoco to the entity called the D.F. If there is no book like this, I can ask the question as its own thread.

Are there other free online sources ala Encyclopedia Iranica, but for other areas of history? (And maybe with a better search function?)

I’m looking for recommended books about Italian history, preferably in the period of the Reinassance or before

I was wondering if anyone could offer any suggestions for books on the Warlord Era and/or the Chinese Civil War?

Hi, I'm looking for books on the history of American conservatism post-WWII. The more related to constitutional conservatism and/or originalism, the better. But general histories will do.