?Cruel, merciful; peace-loving, a fighter; despising Negroes and letting them fight and vote; protecting slavery and freeing slaves.? Abraham Lincoln was, W. E. B. Du Bois declared, ?big enough to be inconsistent.? Big enough, indeed, for every generation to have its own Lincoln?unifier or emancipator, egalitarian or racist. In an effort to reconcile these views, and to offer a more complex and nuanced account of a figure so central to American history, this book focuses on the most controversial aspect of Lincoln?s thought and politics?his attitudes and actions regarding slavery and race. Drawing attention to the limitations of Lincoln?s judgment and policies without denying his magnitude, the book provides the most comprehensive and even-handed account available of Lincoln?s contradictory treatment of black Americans in matters of slavery in the South and basic civil rights in the North....
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