A few days before his death, Abraham Lincoln said, “I have only been an instrument. The logic and moral power of Garrison, and the anti-slavery people of the country and the army, have done all.” Henry Mayer's All on Fire captures Garrison, and the logic and moral power he gave to his country, as no other work has. It is one of the great American biographies of one of the greatest Americans: psychologically acute; sympathetic but open-eyed about its subject; deeply knowledgeable about the times it chronicles; keenly analytical; gracefully and powerfully written. For anyone who cares about American history, the place of religion in public life, and the role of the agitator in democratic politics, it is a book worth pondering and savoring.