You have not been recognized as a subscriber to Indiana Magazine of History online. About 216 words from this article are provided below; about 456 words remain.
 		 
If you are a individual subscriber to Indiana Magazine of History, you may:
• login here if you have already registered for online access.
• Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.

If you are not a subscriber to Indiana Magazine of History, you can:
• subscribe here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of Indiana Magazine of History.

Instititutions can:
• Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.
| Book Review | Indiana Magazine of History, 104.1 | The History Cooperative
104.1  
Journals link Search link Partners link Information link
March, 2008
Previous
Next
Indiana Magazine of History

Table of Contents
List journal issues
Home
Get a printer-friendly version of this page
 

Reviews

An Honest Calling
The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln

By Mark E. Steiner
(DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2006. Pp. x, 272. Notes, select bibliography, index of cases, general index. $42.00.)

Traditionally, the study of Abraham Lincoln's legal career has been limited by two obstacles. One was the lack of accessible primary sources— historians assumed that few legal records had survived relating to cases in which Lincoln was involved, and that those few were scattered in courthouses and county offices throughout Illinois. The second was a lack of technical knowledge. The complexities of the law in general, and of nineteenth-century Illinois law in particular, have lain beyond the expertise of most professional historians, who left the subject to be addressed by lawyers with an interest in Lincoln. These writers, including John J. Duff, John P. Frank, and more recently Frank J. Williams, understood the law but in turn lacked historical training. In 2000, the first obstacle was overcome with the publication of The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln, the culmination of a ten-year search that yielded over 100,000 pages of original documents relating to Lincoln's legal career. The appearance of An Honest Calling, written by a professional scholar of both law and history, suggests that the second obstacle is falling as well. . . .
There are about 456 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.