In a startlingly innovative format, journalist Stephen A. Wynalda has constructed a painstakingly detailed day-by-day breakdown of president Abraham Lincolnâs decisions in officeâincluding his signing of the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862; his signing of the legislation enacting the first federal income tax on August 5, 1861; and more personal incidents like the day his eleven-year-old son, Willie, died. Revealed are Lincolnâs private frustrations on September 28, 1862, as he wrote to vice president Hannibal Hamlin, âThe North responds to the [Emancipation] proclamation sufficiently with breath; but breath alone kills no rebels.â
366 Days in Abraham Lincolnâs Presidency includes fascinating facts like how Lincoln hated to hunt but loved to fire guns near the unfinished Washington monument, how he was the only president to own a patent, and how he recited Scottish poetry to relieve stress. As Scottish historian Hugh Blair said, âIt is from private life, from familiar, domestic, and seemingly trivial occurrences, that we most often receive light into the real character.â
Covering 366 nonconsecutive days (including a leap day) of Lincolnâs presidency, this is a rich, exciting new perspective of our most famous president. This is a must-have edition for any historian, military history or civil war buff, or reader of biographies.