From NPR story about good books to read about Abraham Lincoln: http://www.npr.org/2012/11/06/164389344/books-offer-insight-into-abraham-lincoln
INSKEEP: Doris Kearns Goodwin, when we asked our panel here for recommendations of Lincoln books, you sent us one that is about more than that one man, "Battle Cry of Freedom," by James McPherson, which is a history of the Civil War.
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN: I think the reason that that one meant so much to me was that he is such a narrative genius, McPherson. And somehow when you read "Battle Cry of Freedom," what he's done is to mix together the battles, Lincoln's leadership, the home front, the finances, the Cabinet - all together.
But it drives forward as a story, and you don't know until finally, perhaps, Atlanta, whether the North is really going to win this war. And that's the way the people who lived in it felt it at the time.
INSKEEP: And I guess that's a good thing to think about if we think about Abraham Lincoln. All of his decisions that seem so brilliant now, could not be known as brilliant at the time.
GOODWIN: Absolutely. It took a while for the country itself to understand him. We know the ending. We know that he was martyred. We know that the war was won. But the people living then certainly didn't know that. And I think that's what McPherson's pace allows us to see.
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