Freedom - A Novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War

This is a beautifully written historical novel, one of the best I've ever read, and I've read quite a few. Whether it's because of the author's skill or simply because the story of Abraham Lincoln is so captivating, is hard to say. Before picking up Safire's book I thought of Lincoln simplistically as "the good guy who freed the slaves". Now I think of him as one of the greatest ever masters of the art of politics. We see here that the man who became president in 1861 was quite the nobody. He was a good "stump" speaker from backwoods Illinois, not a terribly high level Republican and something of an eccentric. His tall hat and long beard, accentuating an already tall frame, was remarkable even in those days and not, as many tend to assume, simply a fashion of the era. He was known to carry documents in his hat, as if it were a brief case. He was also reputedly prone to bouts of depression. Anyway, even though Lincoln had some standing he was not the logical choice as Republican nominee for President in the election of 1860. The really high men in the GOP, people like Salmon P. Chase (founder of the Chase bank and, as Lincoln's Treasury Secretary, inaugurator of the greenback), figured that the Democrats had a lock on the presidency that year. So they nominated Lincoln, the ambitious bumpkin from Illinois, as a sacrificial lamb. The only reason Lincoln then won the election was because the Democrat Party - incredibly - split. Effectively, two Democrat candidates instead of one opposed Lincoln for the presidency. The Republican then won the election with less than 50% of the vote. After the shock of his victory had sunk in, the north-eastern US establishment (including the New York media) treated Lincoln with disdain. Never mind, they said: he won't last long. If you think George Bush has problems today, you won't believe what Lincoln had to face. For starters, he was confronted with the problem of geo-physics. We conveniently label the US Civil War as a battle between North and South, but in 1860 there may not have been a real "North". Let alone a northern army to defend it. When Lincoln first traveled by coach across Baltimore to reach the White House he disguised himself as a woman. He was laughed at across the nation when the press reported on this. Shortly after he arrived in Washington a Stonewall Jackson-led southern force won a battle at the Potomac and would certainly have captured Washington and the incumbent president if they had advanced just a few more kilometres. Jackson thought the then non-existent "northern army" would be there to protect Washington. So Lincoln managed to survive and to painstakingly mould a northern coalition and raise an army, often against considerable odds. Cabinet, Congress, the Europeans, the media, the States, his army generals - all had their own agendas and often dismissed Lincoln as a mere roadbump on the way to power. Everyone seemed to take him for granted and to plot agains

Freedom professes to be "A Novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War," but it has a much more specific purpose than that, dealing with the political machinations that resulted in the Emancipation Proclamation. More than any other account that I have, biographical or fictional, William Safire constructions a complete portrait of Lincoln. This is a Lincoln who is always thinking and talking, so there is more depth than you find in Sandburg, but also a Lincoln grounded in the historical record of the time, and therefore more grounded than you find in Vidal. In "Freedom" you will find your best appreciation of Abraham Lincoln as the only political figure in the entire country who would have taken the political tack that saved the nation. I should confess that I am extremely jealous of this book. Years ago I thought of writing a book on the Civil War dealing specifically with the attempt to get McClellan to march on Washington and take over the government as a military dictator. I also thought that it was be fun to have a work of historical fiction that contained photographs of those characters who really existed as well as a bibliography and footnotes. Imagine my surprise when I discovered this was, for all intents and purposes, the book I had in mind, down to the scene where the two non-commissioned officers discover Lee's orders before the battle of Antietam. Did I mention I was extremely jealous?Safire spent eight years researching and writing this book, which has an Underbook of over 100 pages of sources and commentary. When he takes historical liberties, such as the mutual attraction of Lincoln's secretary John Hay for Kate Chase, ambitious daughter of the Secretary of the Treasury, he takes pains to explain his purposes. Safire masterfully weaves recorded and imagined conversations dealing with the personages and events, the issues and demands of the time. By the end of "Freedom" you look back and see the chess match that has been played out with the endgame being the need for the slightest military victory to allow Lincoln to sign his proclamation, thereby changing the nature of the Civil War and altering the future of the nation. From now on, when you see a painting of Lincoln sitting with his Cabinet and holding that piece of parchment in his hand, you will have a much greater appreciation for how he managed to construct that particular moment in history.My personal preference was to read each chapter of the Underbook as I completed the corresponding chapter of the novel. Even if you are not interested in the minutiae of history as to where Safire found which particular tidbit, the frequent insights into the author's thinking is a rare treat, both illuminating and interesting.

This is the Abraham Lincoln you don't learn about in high school, the one who leveraged his tenuous power in ways that seem almost unimaginable. Reading this phenomenal book gave me huge appreciation for Lincoln and his capacity to free the slaves in the context of the Civil War. (I also never realized how pathetic his cabinet was!) Whenever I pass by the Lincoln Memorial, I now get a chill thinking about his greatness. Our country came so close to permanent division, and was saved almost singlehandedly by this remarkable man.

Safire's "Freedom" gives the E.L. Doctorow fact/fiction treatment to the period of the Civil War from Lincoln's inauguration to the Emancipation Proclamation. By weaving fact in with invented dialogue, guessed-at meetings and more than a few dreamed-up liaisons, Safire creates a seamless and fascinating tale that is as compelling as good fiction but with historical accuracy. Most striking is it's honest treatment of Honest Abe, who we find was shrewd, crafty, manipulative, micromanaging, melancholy, pedantic and in general could be anything but honest. Any fan of Safire's OpEd columns in the NY Times will appreciate the fact that White House intrigue isn't limited to the late 20th century, but is nearly as old as the Republic. If the reader ever feels Safire's trying to modernize the political intrigue of the Lincoln White House-well, perhaps. But his facts are well documented. He admits to inventing dialogue by the duplicitous Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a Hamlet-like former Vice President John Breckenridge, a scheming Salmon P. Chase and several other key characters. Yet his story fits precisely with the historical record. The best part is the concurrent reference in the back of the book. Instead of burdening the reader with intrusive footnotes, Safire scrupulously documents what is fact and what is fiction, then organizes it by book and chapter. He lets you turn the pages to find what is truth, what is made up and what falls in-between. If you don't care, you'll be no worse off. My only disappointment is "Freedom" doesn't cover the entire Civil War, only the first two years, when the Emancipation Proclamation and a Union victory at the Murfreesboro, seems, by the book's inference, set the Union on an inevitable course toward victory. Left out is Gettysberg, Sherman's march on Atlanta, the NY riots and several other battles and political events that kept the outcome in doubt up to Sept. 1864. No matter. One can only hope that someday Safire will write an equally fascinating sequel covering this period. Even if you've seen Ken Burns' "Civil War" a thousand times and read all types of Civil War books, you'll find "Freedom" informative and entertaining. It's one of the best books I've ever read.

Far be it for me to even attempt to review a book by Mr. Safire but this is truly a classic. At over one thousand pages, it is quite the tome. However, once you start you will not be able to put it down. It took me a number of weeks to read this book; seven or eight years less than it took Safire to write it. His research was extensive and thorough for what must have been truly a labor of love. Beware: he dickers a little with time and characters but the truth is laid out clearly in an underbook.I can only say that anyone who has an interest in Lincoln and his times should read this book.