Scan barcode
papidoc's review against another edition
4.0
Lincoln’s Greatest Journey, by Noah Andre Trudeau, covers a sixteen-day period of time in the closing days of the Civil War, when Lincoln, exhausted with the stress and emotional strain of the war, left Washington to visit Grant’s headquarters and see in person what was happening. There is much of value in this account, and I found that it helped complement the more extensive and in-depth biographies of Lincoln that have been provided by others. For good reason, it received the Richard Harwell Award, given by the Civil War Roundtable of Atlanta.
The book is titled Lincoln’s Greatest Journey, but the title is a misnomer – it’s not nearly as much about Lincoln as it is about other characters, such as U.S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sheridan, or even more, about the events that took place during the sixteen days in question. Actually, relatively little of it was directly about Lincoln. I appreciated the historical facts, events, and context provided by Trudeau’s research; it just wasn’t what I was expecting when I purchased the book.
While I appreciated this historical account of a relatively short period in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, I did have a couple of issues with it. The biggest one is the speculation engaged in by the author. It has been described as an “extensively researched and detailed story,” but it seemed that every time I listened to a few pages, I was hearing “It appears that…” or “Perhaps he…” or “It may be that…” or other such ventures into the unknown. It seems to me that occasionally, and with compelling evidence, a historian may be excused a bit of speculation, but it was so frequent in Trudeau’s account that it became distracting and annoying. I would give the effort a “B” if I were grading it. He also follows tangents more often than I would like, which made it a bit difficult to follow the main train of thought, but I suspect that is as much a function of the short period of time he was examining. It would be difficult not to explore details when you are only working with a sixteen-day period.
My other complaint isn’t with the book, but with the reader. A professional should be…professional. You don’t expect a writer to frequently misspell common words; neither do you expect a professional reader to regularly mispronounce common words. Yet that is exactly what happened, all too often. For example, it’s not CAL-vary, it’s CAV-al-ry. That having been said, I liked his ability to bring different voices, accents, and so forth to life.
All in all, I enjoyed the book, and appreciated the added context and flavor it gave me about one of our greatest presidents.
The book is titled Lincoln’s Greatest Journey, but the title is a misnomer – it’s not nearly as much about Lincoln as it is about other characters, such as U.S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sheridan, or even more, about the events that took place during the sixteen days in question. Actually, relatively little of it was directly about Lincoln. I appreciated the historical facts, events, and context provided by Trudeau’s research; it just wasn’t what I was expecting when I purchased the book.
While I appreciated this historical account of a relatively short period in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, I did have a couple of issues with it. The biggest one is the speculation engaged in by the author. It has been described as an “extensively researched and detailed story,” but it seemed that every time I listened to a few pages, I was hearing “It appears that…” or “Perhaps he…” or “It may be that…” or other such ventures into the unknown. It seems to me that occasionally, and with compelling evidence, a historian may be excused a bit of speculation, but it was so frequent in Trudeau’s account that it became distracting and annoying. I would give the effort a “B” if I were grading it. He also follows tangents more often than I would like, which made it a bit difficult to follow the main train of thought, but I suspect that is as much a function of the short period of time he was examining. It would be difficult not to explore details when you are only working with a sixteen-day period.
My other complaint isn’t with the book, but with the reader. A professional should be…professional. You don’t expect a writer to frequently misspell common words; neither do you expect a professional reader to regularly mispronounce common words. Yet that is exactly what happened, all too often. For example, it’s not CAL-vary, it’s CAV-al-ry. That having been said, I liked his ability to bring different voices, accents, and so forth to life.
All in all, I enjoyed the book, and appreciated the added context and flavor it gave me about one of our greatest presidents.
papi's review against another edition
4.0
Lincoln’s Greatest Journey, by Noah Andre Trudeau, covers a sixteen-day period of time in the closing days of the Civil War, when Lincoln, exhausted with the stress and emotional strain of the war, left Washington to visit Grant’s headquarters and see in person what was happening. There is much of value in this account, and I found that it helped complement the more extensive and in-depth biographies of Lincoln that have been provided by others. For good reason, it received the Richard Harwell Award, given by the Civil War Roundtable of Atlanta.
The book is titled Lincoln’s Greatest Journey, but the title is a misnomer – it’s not nearly as much about Lincoln as it is about other characters, such as U.S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sheridan, or even more, about the events that took place during the sixteen days in question. Actually, relatively little of it was directly about Lincoln. I appreciated the historical facts, events, and context provided by Trudeau’s research; it just wasn’t what I was expecting when I purchased the book.
While I appreciated this historical account of a relatively short period in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, I did have a couple of issues with it. The biggest one is the speculation engaged in by the author. It has been described as an “extensively researched and detailed story,” but it seemed that every time I listened to a few pages, I was hearing “It appears that…” or “Perhaps he…” or “It may be that…” or other such ventures into the unknown. It seems to me that occasionally, and with compelling evidence, a historian may be excused a bit of speculation, but it was so frequent in Trudeau’s account that it became distracting and annoying. I would give the effort a “B” if I were grading it. He also follows tangents more often than I would like, which made it a bit difficult to follow the main train of thought, but I suspect that is as much a function of the short period of time he was examining. It would be difficult not to explore details when you are only working with a sixteen-day period.
My other complaint isn’t with the book, but with the reader. A professional should be…professional. You don’t expect a writer to frequently misspell common words; neither do you expect a professional reader to regularly mispronounce common words. Yet that is exactly what happened, all too often. For example, it’s not CAL-vary, it’s CAV-al-ry. That having been said, I liked his ability to bring different voices, accents, and so forth to life.
All in all, I enjoyed the book, and appreciated the added context and flavor it gave me about one of our greatest presidents.
The book is titled Lincoln’s Greatest Journey, but the title is a misnomer – it’s not nearly as much about Lincoln as it is about other characters, such as U.S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sheridan, or even more, about the events that took place during the sixteen days in question. Actually, relatively little of it was directly about Lincoln. I appreciated the historical facts, events, and context provided by Trudeau’s research; it just wasn’t what I was expecting when I purchased the book.
While I appreciated this historical account of a relatively short period in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, I did have a couple of issues with it. The biggest one is the speculation engaged in by the author. It has been described as an “extensively researched and detailed story,” but it seemed that every time I listened to a few pages, I was hearing “It appears that…” or “Perhaps he…” or “It may be that…” or other such ventures into the unknown. It seems to me that occasionally, and with compelling evidence, a historian may be excused a bit of speculation, but it was so frequent in Trudeau’s account that it became distracting and annoying. I would give the effort a “B” if I were grading it. He also follows tangents more often than I would like, which made it a bit difficult to follow the main train of thought, but I suspect that is as much a function of the short period of time he was examining. It would be difficult not to explore details when you are only working with a sixteen-day period.
My other complaint isn’t with the book, but with the reader. A professional should be…professional. You don’t expect a writer to frequently misspell common words; neither do you expect a professional reader to regularly mispronounce common words. Yet that is exactly what happened, all too often. For example, it’s not CAL-vary, it’s CAV-al-ry. That having been said, I liked his ability to bring different voices, accents, and so forth to life.
All in all, I enjoyed the book, and appreciated the added context and flavor it gave me about one of our greatest presidents.
More...