I was really looking forward to this book. I read it about two years ago or so. And then shared it with my son who is now in his second year as a History/Education major. I did this because I wanted to get his 'second opinion'.We agreed--this book is devastatingly BAD. Chapter after chapter the author is in attack mode like the shower scene from psycho. I was hoping this would be a good read, with some critical insight into Lincoln and his decision making and leadership---since no one is perfect. But this book became tiresome to read with 'waterfall of nonsense' attacking Lincoln every step---I was shocked it was an academic that wrote it.I see that the author wrote a second one to this--I browsed it at Borders--it looked like a rehash