As Lincoln understood, the work of democracy at home is indispensable to the work of peace abroad.
With insight, he chooses familiar and lesser-known Lincoln phrases to remind readers how much we still have to learn from our 16th president. "Avlon’s durable faith in Lincoln offers a boost of confidence at a time when our history, instead of uniting us, has become yet another battleground. These are not unfamiliar tales to students of Lincoln, but Avlon makes the retelling affecting and powerful." - The New York Times Book Review And, Avlon believes, the Lincolnian example could be a similar balm for our political wounds today.To read these chapters is to discover Lincoln’s rare compound of 'empathy, honesty, humor and humility.'. "In this elegant, almost conversational, exposition of Lincoln the 'soulful centrist,' the 16th president appears as the reconciler in chief, who not only saved democracy from destruction in war but also pointed the way to saving it from inertia and futility in peace. Lincoln’s plan to win the peace is his unfinished symphony, but in its existing notes, we can find an anthem that can begin to bridge our divisions today. But he also understood that peace needs to be waged with as much intensity as war. Even during the Civil War, surrounded by reactionaries and radicals, he refused to back down from his belief that there is more that unites us than divides us. Lincoln and the Fight for Peace reveals how Lincoln’s character informed his commitment to unconditional surrender followed by a magnanimous peace. As US General Lucius Clay, architect of the post-WWII German occupation, said when asked what guided his decisions: “I tried to think of the kind of occupation the South would have had if Abraham Lincoln had lived.” While his assassination sent the country careening off course, Lincoln’s vision would be vindicated long after his death, inspiring future generations in their own quests to secure a just and lasting peace.
Lee at Appomattox that April were a direct expression of the president’s belief that a soft peace should follow a hard war.
Grant’s famously generous terms of surrender to General Robert E. Balancing moral courage with moderation, Lincoln believed that decency could be the most practical form of politics, but he understood that people were more inclined to listen to reason when greeted from a position of strength. He used humor, logic, and scripture to depolarize bitter debates. He did not demonize people he disagreed with. The power of Lincoln’s personal example in the closing days of the war offers a portrait of a peacemaker. It is a story of war and peace, race and reconciliation.Īs the tide of the Civil War turned in the spring of 1865, Abraham Lincoln took a dangerous two-week trip to visit the troops on the front lines accompanied by his young son, seeing combat up close, meeting liberated slaves in the ruins of Richmond, and comforting wounded Union and Confederate soldiers. The headline on this story has been corrected to note that Trump was talking about generals, not aides.A groundbreaking, revelatory history of Abraham Lincoln’s plan to secure a just and lasting peace after the Civil War-a vision that inspired future presidents as well as the world’s most famous peacemakers, including Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. "Great and irreparable harm": Milley assailed Trump in draft resignation letterĮditor's note. What to watch: The pair's book, " The Divider," is set to come out Sept. Mark Milley wrote that Trump was "doing great and irreparable harm" to the country in a never-sent draft resignation letter in June 2020. The big picture: The excerpt also shows how Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. "No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him," Trump replied."You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?" Kelly said."The German generals in World War II," Trump responded.Why it matters: The exchange underscores the growing contentious relationship between the former president and his top military officials toward the end of his presidency.ĭriving the news: "You f*cking generals, why can't you be like the German generals?" Trump complained one day to former chief of staff John Kelly, per the book excerpt, published in the New Yorker. Former President Trump told his top White House aide that he wanted his generals to be more loyal, like the generals who had reported to Adolf Hitler, per an excerpt from Susan Glasser and Peter Baker's forthcoming book.
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