| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Hans L. Trefousse. "First Among Equals": Abraham Lincoln's Reputation during His Administration. New York: Fordham University Press. 2005. Pp. xiv, 199. $27.95.
Abraham Lincoln is the most revered president in United States history, but was he as popular during his time in the White House? That is the question that Hans L. Trefousse seeks to answer in this book. Trefousse, one of the most prolific living Civil War historians, argues that Lincoln was indeed well liked during his administration, even in the dark days that followed news of Union military defeats and controversial executive policies, including the Emancipation Proclamation. Trefousse's claim of Lincoln's wartime popularity is unlikely to surprise lay readers, but it comes as a challenge to the conventional wisdom of historians, who still tend to accept the old argument of James G. Randall, who in a 1943 essay titled "The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln" contended that Lincoln offended more people than he pleased during his administration.	1
Trefousse's book is an extended reply to Randall. From nomination to assassination, Trefousse argues, Lincoln enjoyed a reputation as a wise and moral leader. In the absence of public opinion polls, which did not exist in the Civil War era, Trefousse rests his case on the written record of diarists, letter writers, and, especially, journalists. He makes such good use of newspapers, in fact, that this slim volume with its analytical bite makes a nice companion to Herbert Mitgang's 1956 broad-ranging collection of newspaper excerpts, Lincoln as They Saw Him (reprinted in 1971 as Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait).	. . .

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