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Rating: 
Summary: Underwelming Presentation
Review: ..... Though the book is well designed and printed on high-quality paper, it is ultimately rather thin on content. The first half of the book, "'This Damned Old House' - the Lincolns in the White House" is a written version of a lecture Mr. Donald gave in the White House during the Bush Administration. It is an interesting glimpse into the lives of the Lincolns during the Abraham Lincoln's presidency; but, that is all it is - a glimpse. For this book version, I would like to have seen Mr. Donald flesh it out a bit and give the reader a more in depth view of the Lincolns during the presidency and the Civil War. Once I got to the letters section of the book, I couldn't help but feel that the letters were included in total in their own section as essentially filler at the end the printed version of the lecture. Mr. Donald represents these as the total sum of correspondence between Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln and their eldest son, Robert (The included letters of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln are included in their respective collected letters elsewhere - and the few to and from Robert and quick dispatches about travel arrangements, etc.) and they would have been better served if they had been intersperced in the lecture (especially an expanded version of the lecture). Many of the letters are one and two line dispatches sent via military telegraph. Overall, I was disappointed with this well designed but rather thin offering.
Rating: 
Summary: The author and the publisher insults the readers.
Review: I knew this book was coming out months in advanced and looked forward to it,because I consider Abraham Lincoln a great President. Sadly this book not only insults the readers but the President with the little content, 124 pages and really less when when consider that includeds acknowledgements and Notes. The cover price of $30.00 dollars is an absolute rip-off and if the author and the publisher did not realise this then they are incompetent, but I am presuming that they did know this, so that makes them greedy. This book came out for the holidays,so the publisher must be hoping that it is bought as a gift for someone who is hard to shop for, if you do buy this as a gift you have even less respect for the intended recipient than the publisher and the author have for us. Please buy something else as a gift. I hope you all have a very safe and very Merry Christmas.
Rating: 
Summary: Find it cheap, or forget it
Review: I'm not sure what T. Rogers who gave two reviews is talking about. Is he even reviewing THIS book? Anyway, I'll have to agree with one reviewer. No matter how you look at it, this book had $$$$$$ on it. David Donald wrote probably the greatest biography of LINCOLN in the last 40 years. Why something so shallow and pricey as this? As ABBA would say "money, money, money" - David Donald has not only sold the reader short, he has sold his own ability short. Anyone that can produce some of the prior works he has on Lincoln, and then this. Hey, this book isn't that bad as a gift (which it was for me), or something in the $1.00 bargain bin, not a bad deal at all. However, don't spend your hard earned money paying $30 (insane), $10 or even $5 on this book. Its ok, but not over $1 ok. Listen, for five dollars, I'd rather be looking over my five Dollar Lincoln instead of the five dollar Lincoln book. If your ever at a $1 book sale, I recommend! If you get it as a gift read it.
Rating:
Summary: Infidel of Pigeon Creek
Review: Lincoln idoloters will inevitably try to manufacture something to idolize in this tragic, dark, tormented figure whose desperation was so great that Alfted Taylor Bledsoe, who resided at Globe Tavern simultaneously with the Lincolns, whose law office was next to Lincoln, who joined with Lincoln in Whig politican, and who taught Lincoln the use of the broadsword when Lincoln's indiscretion caught him in the Shield's affair, could only bring forth the deepest empathy for his suffering. It was Mrs. Bledsoe who carried for Mrs. Lincoln and Robert Lincoln post-partum. And, it was Dr. Bledsoe whose monumental Was Davis a Traitor (1968) reveals as well an any the shaky and erronous philosophical base of Mr. Lincoln's perversion of the constitutional compact. Lincoln, a despairing infidel, a spiritualist, a rabid story steller and ranconteur, a white supremist and segregationist, but masterful in argument before a jury and, in fact, honest in personal dealings, the type of person who, according to Dr. Bledsoe, did not so much as plant a tree at his dwelling.
Rating: 
Summary: A Slim But Beautifully Written Volume
Review: Noted Historian Donald, the author of the classic "Lincoln" biography, has adequately captured the kindness and inner beauty of our 16th President and his love of family in this slim, but well-written volume. The book is divided into two parts, an essay written originally as a speech before former President Bush on Lincoln's domestic life in the White House - how he and the First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln coped with the agony of war and the tragic loss of their son Willie. The second part of the book comprises all of the known letter correspondence between President Lincoln, and his wife and sons - and vice versa. Here we find that Robert Lincoln clearly was not too thrilled about his father becoming the Republican Presidential nominee in 1860, how Abraham Lincoln clearly fussed and agonized over son's Tad's missing (but eventually found) goat, all the more poignant because of Willie's death, and the tragic fire that claimed Willie's pony (not mentioned in this book). Or how Lincoln seemingly dispassionately mentioned in his correspondence to his wife the loss of Mary Todd Lincoln's Brother-In-Law, the Confederate General Ben Hardin Helm at the battle of Chickamauga. Donald has given us a beautifully presented and written book, a worthy gift to the Lincoln and Civil War reader - the only reason why I gave it four stars instead of five was that it is too pricey for a non fleshed-out biography, but would definitely be worth the fifth star at a bargain-based price.
Rating:
Summary: A Slim But Beautifully Written Volume
Review: Noted Historian Donald, the author of the classic "Lincoln" biography, has adequately captured the kindness and inner beauty of our 16th President and his love of family in this slim, but well-written volume. The book is divided into two parts, an essay written originally as a speech before former President Bush on Lincoln's domestic life in the White House - how he and the First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln coped with the agony of war and the tragic loss of their son Willie. The second part of the book comprises all of the known letter correspondence between President Lincoln, and his wife and sons - and vice versa. Here we find that Robert Lincoln clearly was not too thrilled about his father becoming the Republican Presidential nominee in 1860, how Abraham Lincoln clearly fussed and agonized over son's Tad's missing (but eventually found) goat, all the more poignant because of Willie's death, and the tragic fire that claimed Willie's pony (not mentioned in this book). Or how Lincoln seemingly dispassionately mentioned in his correspondence to his wife the loss of Mary Todd Lincoln's Brother-In-Law, the Confederate General Ben Hardin Helm at the battle of Chickamauga. Donald has given us a beautifully presented and written book, a worthy gift to the Lincoln and Civil War reader - the only reason why I gave it four stars instead of five was that it is too pricey for a non fleshed-out biography, but would definitely be worth the fifth star at a bargain-based price.
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