I thought this was an interesting, if not terribly gripping, look at the life of Abraham Lincoln around the time that the Republican Party was being founded, around 1856. The book kind of hops around between his legal career and his political labors. This makes it a little disjointed, but that is how life goes. A couple of his more spectacular cases are developed in depth. I learned that actually, justice didn't necessarily move as fast as I thought in the 19th century, either, especially for cases handled while the court was traveling the circuit. If it didn't get settled promptly, it had to wait until the judge was back in town.

The case sited in the subtitle was apparently a sensation at the time, but not a big issue in Lincoln's life. George Anderson, a prosperous blacksmith, was first repeatedly given sub-lethal doses of strychnine, which were agonizing, and then bludgeoned to death one night while going to the privy in his own back yard. His wife Jane, and nephew Theodore, were accused of adultery and murder. Lincoln was not involved in the lengthy preliminaries, but he was offered the chance to work for either the prosecution or the defense. He took the defense. The two were acquitted, and the case was never solved. I think that the two doctors who realized that George was being poisoned, but decided not to do anything about it, should has lost their licenses.

On the political front, Lincoln was a whirlwind of activity, making as many speeches as humanly possible all over the state, and Fenster credits him with guiding the party, built from fragments of other parties, into a viable political organization. Oh that we had him now. So often when I talk politics with people, I feel they had lost the distinction between being an advocacy group and the practicalities of governing. Fenster, perhaps jokingly, credits him with being the possible Father of Junk Mail for one of his tactics.

I also felt considerable sympathy for Mary Todd Lincoln, trying to hold the family together during his constant absences, at one point almost single-handedly overseeing a major addition to their house. Lincoln did appreciate her, and at one point remarked that she proved what a woman could do when she put her mind to something.

I came away with a much better understanding of how great and respected a lawyer he was, and how he ended up as a presidential candidate despite having held so few offices. He was so intelligent, reasonable, and persuasive, that those really involved in politics saw his worth.

I did find a few rather minor mistakes. Lincoln's step-nephew is called Thomas Johnson, when according to Wikipedia and a Google search, it was Johnston. Usher T. Linder, according to a similar check, is Usher F. Linder. ( )

Very well researched. A little slow, but I got into it as it went along. ( )