| The year 2009 marks the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s 16th president, and the man often considered its greatest leader. As the United States endured its greatest crisis, this self-educated common man supplied the leadership and the moral force that bound Americans together and carried them to victory. His vision spanned diplomacy and military strategy, political thought and elemental justice for all Americans --- including the African-American slaves he emancipated. The essays gathered here introduce readers to this “best and most widely acclaimed of all Americans. |