Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings

Basler has gone through the body of Lincoln utterance and his selections from it in a very peculiar time, a global war time and that war interwoven with many civil wars, a war in which the American Union of States issued as a colossal and decisive force among world powers. What have we to learn from Lincoln in this time when unprecedented and incalculable forces are to operate on our future, when the mind of man and his will and vision must meet the challenge of what is termed AA1, the Year One of the Atomic Age, when we hear the oft-recurring question, "What would Lincoln do now?" And now comes Mr. Basler to lay before you the best writings and speeches of Lincoln for you to find what of Lincoln is usable for these terrific history-shaping years. As a writer and speaker Lincoln had several styles and used them according to what events and occasions demanded. Plain talk, blunt and utterly lucid statements, these are to be found in plenty throughout his writings and speeches. Then again you may find him employing a prose that is cadenced, sonorous, masterly and having its relation to certain masterpieces of literature that had become part of him. - Preface.