With Malice Toward None: A Biography of Abraham Lincoln

Stephen B. Oates

Jun 2009 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

New York Times–Bestseller: “The standard one-volume biography of Lincoln.” —The Washington Post

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 the tumultuous and bloody Civil War years, which concluded tragically with Lincoln’s assassination.

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

“A masterful work.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“Superb . . . thoroughly researched.” —Milwaukee Journal

“Here, in these pages, Lincoln is still alive.” —Los Angeles Times

Ratings and reviews

This is one of the most impartial books on Lincoln. It present the good and the bad side to a very human person who had to do very hard things in his life.

I read it many years ago.Excellent book about Lincoln.

About the author

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.