Stanton, the Life and Times of Lincoln's Secretary of War.

Rating:
Summary: The authoritative biography
Review: First of all, this book is NOT by Edwin M. Stanton, who died in 1869. The authors are Benjamin P. Thomas, the distinguished historian who was also the author of Abraham Lincoln: A Biography, which I read with great appreciation on 22 Jan 1993 and which was published in 1952 and which is generally considered the best one-volume biography of Lincoln at least until David Donald's superlative biography of Lincoln (read by me Feb 4, 1996) came along in 1995 and Harold M. Hyman, the co-author of Equal Justice Under Law: Constitutional Development 1835-1875 (read by me with much approval on 10 July 1982). I found Stanton a good book, tho some of the parts, where the Civil War and the problems with finding a general are reviewed, did not happen to excite me. But there can be little doubt that Stanton did yeoman service during the War and that he played a big role in the North's successful effort. The dramatic events during the dispute between Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans in 1866-1868 are detailed well in this book, though very laudatory to Stanton. While I agree with much of the viewpoint of the Radical Republicans I have never felt that the impeachment effort should have succeeded, and I thought the biography of Andrew Johnson by Hans L. Trefousse (which I greatly enjoyed when I read it 31 July 1999)reinforced that feeling for me--and Trefousse is certainly no apologist for the forces against the Radical Republicans. In fact, the course Stanton pursued during the impeachment fight, when he refused to obey the orders of the president of the United States, his commander-in-chief, grate on one accustomed to the current view of presidential power. The book is well-footnoted, with the footnotes where they belong (at the bottom of each page, so one can see whether they need to be read or whether they are merely source notes), but there is, sadly, no bibliography. But as far as I know this is the best biography of Stanton, a man of great interest to any student of the 1860s.

Rating:
Summary: The authoritative biography
Review: First of all, this book is NOT by Edwin M. Stanton, who died in 1869. The authors are Benjamin P. Thomas, the distinguished historian who was also the author of Abraham Lincoln: A Biography, which I read with great appreciation on 22 Jan 1993 and which was published in 1952 and which is generally considered the best one-volume biography of Lincoln at least until David Donald's superlative biography of Lincoln (read by me Feb 4, 1996) came along in 1995 and Harold M. Hyman, the co-author of Equal Justice Under Law: Constitutional Development 1835-1875 (read by me with much approval on 10 July 1982). I found Stanton a good book, tho some of the parts, where the Civil War and the problems with finding a general are reviewed, did not happen to excite me. But there can be little doubt that Stanton did yeoman service during the War and that he played a big role in the North's successful effort. The dramatic events during the dispute between Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans in 1866-1868 are detailed well in this book, though very laudatory to Stanton. While I agree with much of the viewpoint of the Radical Republicans I have never felt that the impeachment effort should have succeeded, and I thought the biography of Andrew Johnson by Hans L. Trefousse (which I greatly enjoyed when I read it 31 July 1999)reinforced that feeling for me--and Trefousse is certainly no apologist for the forces against the Radical Republicans. In fact, the course Stanton pursued during the impeachment fight, when he refused to obey the orders of the president of the United States, his commander-in-chief, grate on one accustomed to the current view of presidential power. The book is well-footnoted, with the footnotes where they belong (at the bottom of each page, so one can see whether they need to be read or whether they are merely source notes), but there is, sadly, no bibliography. But as far as I know this is the best biography of Stanton, a man of great interest to any student of the 1860s.