Russell Freedman has written other histories of the nineteenth century, and his knowledge of Lincoln's era is impressive. He has thoroughly researched every relevant aspect of Lincoln's life and times. Up until the Civil War, the U.S.

Lured back into politics in 1854 after an absence of five years, he felt that the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act might result in slavery becoming legal throughout the country. Lincoln had hated slavery from the very first time he came in contact with it, but after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, he began to actively campaign against it.

Freedman provides an excellent analysis of Lincoln's reaction to an institution that he found morally offensive and a threat to the freedom of all Americans.

Freedman also helps the reader to understand the...