Ordered. Thanks.
Regarding Lincoln: If you want a short biography, read Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln. It's a good book and will give you some insights but this isn't my real recommendation. What you really want are his actual words:
Lincoln: Speeches and Writings: 1832-1858 (Vol 1)
Lincoln: Speeches and Writings: 1859-1865 (Vol 2)
I bought volume 1 in a used bookstore and loved the collection so much I bought volume 2 on Amazon. You will be amazed at the sense you get of Lincoln from the man himself. He was a great and very clear writer and thinker. I couldn't recommend this more strongly. You don't read them sequentially. You keep these books by the crapper and read what looks interesting until you've read them all. Then you read them again. Sheer brilliance. Your significant other will wonder why you take so long in the bathroom and you'll wonder why we accept the morons in politics that we have today. You'll also come to hate John Wilkes Booth and his asshole co-conspirators for killing such a great man.
Everyone as interested in American history as you seem to be should own this.
You may thank me in advance.
Ordered. Thanks.
You’ll love it Mark.
Read the very first entry To the People of Sangamo County. He was 23 and running for the Illinois Assembly. When has a politician actually done something to prove his worth to the electorate rather than pontificate about what he’s going to do? He describes his analysis of a railroad project his district wanted and proves why it wasn't a good use of public money while offering a cheaper alternative. He did all the work himself and even reveals what costs are known and unknown so voters can assess his plan’s legitimacy.
He lost that race but demonstrated that he had the voters’ backs. If you didn’t own the collection, you’d never have encountered this revealing little gem.
You'll soon see.
Haven’t read Blood Meridian yet as I’m not generally a McCarthy fan. To be fair, I hated The Road and haven’t tried his other stuff. I’ll give it a try though.
There was a sequel to Lonesome Dove as well titled Return to Lonesome Dove that was one of the rare sequels, in my opinion, that was excellent.