Six Encounters with Lincoln

A President Confronts Democracy and Its Demons

By: Elizabeth Brown Pryor

Narrated by: Kimberly Farr, Beverly Brown

From an award-winning historian, an engrossing look at how Abraham Lincoln grappled with the challenges of leadership in an unruly democracy.

An awkward first meeting with US Army officers, on the eve of the Civil War. A conversation on the White House portico with a young cavalry sergeant who was a fiercely dedicated abolitionist. A tense exchange on a navy ship with a Confederate editor and businessman.

In this eye-opening book, Elizabeth Brown Pryor examines six intriguing, mostly unknown encounters that Abraham Lincoln had with his constituents. Taken together, they reveal his character and opinions in unexpected ways, illustrating his difficulties in managing a republic and creating a presidency. Pryor probes both the political demons that Lincoln battled in his ambitious exercise of power and the demons that arose from the very nature of democracy itself: the clamorous diversity of the populace, with its outspoken demands. She explores the trouble Lincoln sometimes had in communicating and in juggling the multiple concerns that make up being a political leader; how conflicted he was over the problem of emancipation; and the misperceptions Lincoln and the South held about each other. Pryor also provides a fascinating discussion of Lincoln's fondness for storytelling and how he used his skills as a raconteur to enhance both his personal and political power.

Based on scrupulous research that draws on hundreds of eyewitness letters, diaries, and newspaper excerpts, Six Encounters with Lincoln offers a fresh portrait of Lincoln as the beleaguered politician who was not especially popular with the people he needed to govern with, and who had to deal with the many critics, naysayers, and dilemmas he faced without always knowing the right answer. What it shows most clearly is that greatness was not simply laid on Lincoln's shoulders like a mantle, but was won in fits and starts.

©2017 Elizabeth Brown Pryor (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Fascinating reading on its own terms, Six Encounters with Lincoln nevertheless confronts readers with startlingly relevant questions...the notion that democracy involves compromises resonates today.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“Deeply researched, telling moments in the life of arguably the most written-about man in history...gets beyond the hagiographic portrayals of Lincoln, allowing rare glimpses of the man as vulnerable, clumsy, inarticulate, and very human...Kudos to Pryor for offering readers something fresh about our 16th president – no small feat.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred)

“Pryor’s impressive final book will be of great appeal to Lincoln aficionados...What makes the encounters particularly fascinating is that the participants recorded them at the time, so they remain uncolored by the sentimentality of post-assassination remembrance.” (Publishers Weekly)

A new perspective for Lincoln fans

This a remarkable book for people for whom other Lincoln biographies begin to sound repetitive, written by a fascinating storyteller. While not negative towards Mr. Lincoln, her unique perspectives include solid and fresh critiques. Not polemical in any way.

Monday morning quarterbacking

It seems that the author's preconceived idea was that Lincoln was not a great president and that almost anyone else would have done a better job and likely would have prevented the Civil War.

20-20 hindsight.

Disappointing bias and conjecture

I should have known from the prologue that I would not enjoy the book. I compare it to watching Fox News talk about Obama's failures. Or watching MSNBC talk about Trump. It is not that extreme, but it is certainly slanted. The prologue tees this up as "real experiences" from people who knew Lincoln. But it is not that. It is an amalgamation of facts and throwing blame at Lincoln that he didn't do a better job. It is a thesis that Lincoln succeeded in spite of himself, and that is the true miracle of his presidency. It comes across as petulant Monday Morning Quarterbacking from a historian that disagrees with the embellishment of modern members of the Republican party, as she sat in the quiet comforts of her study more than a century later. She claims to base her opinions solely on the facts, but there is no fair context for Lincoln's situation. She takes as her source material people who had a bone to pick with him. Hopefully history will not judge any of us as Pryor does to Lincoln, through the perspective of people who hated him most.

Ironically the author suggests that a Winston Churchill would have been a better president, as if Winston Churchill had no significant failures, which of course he did. She also ironically blames Lincoln for choosing the "popular way" ignoring that Churchill changed parties and changed his views on several notable occasions.

The bias in criticising Lincoln is blatant. For example, Pryor blames Lincoln for not reigning in Salmon Chase when he wrote letters to the military leaders directly. She does nothing to talk about Chase's unfaltering ambition and shamelessness, nor does she balance it with Lincoln's dire need to have him in the cabinet to keep the North together. Team of Rivals dealt with Lincoln's troubles and failures in a much more understanding way. Understanding that Lincoln was by no means King of the Country, had no natural constituency that was loyal to him per se, and had to cobble together loyalties to even begin making headway. He was not dealing with a United North on all fronts. He wasn't even using a united cabinet. He was dealing with a recently born Republican party, with multiple power brokers, apart from the civil war.

This is a waste of time.