1860
1864
19th c
A01=Matthew Pinsker
abolition
america
antebellum
assassination
Author_Matthew Pinsker
Category=DNBH
Category=JPH
Category=JPHL
Category=JPQ
Category=NH
Category=NHK
civil war
confederacy
democracy
election
emancipation proclamation
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eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
executive branch
politics
presidency
reconstruction
republican
slavery
union
whig
Product details
- ISBN 9780393240788
- Weight: 932g
- Dimensions: 163 x 244mm
- Publication Date: 10 Feb 2026
- Publisher: WW Norton & Co
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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We know Abraham Lincoln as the eloquent, compassionate leader of a nation torn by civil war. But he had another, less visible side, central to his character and leadership: he was a master of party politics. His decades of experience as a party leader proved invaluable to him as president and commander in chief during the Civil War.
Matthew Pinsker’s groundbreaking history draws on Lincoln’s private correspondence to realize a flesh-and-blood character in Boss Lincoln. Behind closed doors he was shrewd and insistent, capable of deft manipulation, blunt intimidation or thoughtful argument as needed. As a decision-maker he was attentive to detail but kept his own counsel and trusted his own acumen.
With emancipation and the war’s outcome at stake, facing withering criticism from all sides, Lincoln won re-election by building a new political coalition through the Union party. Here was Boss Lincoln at his height, captured in absorbing detail in this indelible portrait.
Matthew Pinsker is one of our foremost historians of Lincoln and the Civil War. He holds the Pohanka Chair in American Civil War History and is director of the House Divided Project at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
