| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 96.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 96.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History. By Charles Bracelen Flood. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009. xviii, 521 pp. $30.00, ISBN 978-1-4165-5228-4.)
Charles Bracelen Flood has produced a well-written and engaging account of Abraham Lincoln's ordeal through the year that marked the climax of the Civil War. Punctuated by telling anecdotes that succeed in personalizing the broad sweep of events, his fast-paced narrative guides readers through the spring's multipronged Union offensive and the political maneuverings surrounding Lincoln's renomination, the summer's dark days of military stagnation, the fall's stunning military and political turnaround that culminated in Lincoln's triumphant reelection, and the winter's dramatic advance to the brink of victory.	1
Flood did not set out to write a scholarly history, and he has not. As in his previous works, the author combs secondary accounts and published primary sources to construct a moving story that foregoes analysis for human drama. He offers no introduction, but one is not really necessary, for the author's thesis is readily apparent throughout the text: Lincoln faced and overcame tremendous challenges, both great and small, in gaining reelection and engineering victory.	. . .

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