The President and the Freedom Fighter: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Their Battle to Save America's Soul

I read the book and it was awesome.

A view you never received at school

This is an outstanding book! Articulate, descriptive, and charts the parallel paths of Lincoln and Douglass and their collaboration to defeat the Confederacy and save the nation. Kilmeade presents the interesting and historical backgrounds of both men, towering giants in the pantheon of great and consequential Americans whose combined efforts brought an end to slavery.Many compelling and unknown facts about Frederick Douglass are brought to light, revealing him to be a man of astounding courage and character, as well as a gifted writer with a keen intellect and irrepressible fighter for justice. His face belongs on Mount Rushmore or, at least, on our money.It's a riveting read that teaches volumes about this epic, essential chapter of American history and pays tribute to the brave commitments of Lincoln and Douglass to expose themselves to danger in service of a greater cause. Stirling examples of the best aspects of human nature.

This is an accurate view of the problems of the time. It tells the life of each of Douglas and Lincoln and how they eventually met. It gives their thoughts at the time as shown by their writings and speeches. It does not try to give a narrative only what the men were like and how their lives intertwined. Great read if you are interested in Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, or the Civil War.

I was so intrigued by the title that I bought this wonderful history of these two great, evolving leaders of our nation's history told in a way that not only left me anxious to read the 'next' chapter but in a way that illuminated history that I thought I knew, unfolding nuances and hidden purposes of these two great thinkers and political movers. I've read nearly the entire Bruce Catton series on the Civil War, all of Fredrick Douglass' autobiographies, and several Lincoln histories, too, not to mention the many videos by recognized historian documentarians. This little book makes them all come together in a way that makes one dare to think that we have so much we must do, we are still able to do to bring their shared dream of equality and humanity into that great whole righteousness of Christianity and brotherhood, of love for one another, as friends able to share and discuss pathways, even with our differences, to achieve these supremely honorable common goals.

This is the third book I have read by Brian Kilmeade. The other two were Thomas Jefferson and the Pirates of Tripoli (The Forgotten War that Changed American History & George Washington Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Save the American Revolution).The truth about the relationship between President Lincoln and Frederick Douglas was truly an eye opener. Believing that this was going to be another song and dance tale filled with untruths and regular history book folklores which has been expresses for the past 150 years about wayward occurences leading up to the American Civil War. Reading this I was shocked out the candidness that President Lincoln expressed concerning his feelings about black Americans and their plight for freedom. He was often torn between personal feelings and right and wrong about how humans were being treated. Brian comparison and contrasting of both leaders’ emotions and toil about how to bring slavery to an end was duly expressed within the pages of this book. He also includes others who worked to bring slavery to an end such as the plight of John Ossawattomie Brown who believed that this fight was worth it even if it meant death. An exceptionally poignant and truthful perspective on the many events involved in the struggle to keep America from total collapse at the end of the 19th century.

In this book Kilmeade set himself the difficult task of telling a story told many times over, trying to do so in a new and interesting way. The number of books on Lincoln and the Civil War are legion and attempting another on the subject should not be taken lightly.There seems only a couple of ways for such a book to work. One would be if the project were written in stunning and exquisite prose, a voice so original the story would look new. The other would be to give the subject a new twist with an attention-getting gimmick.Kilmeade chose the second tack, intertwining the stories of President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass in a joint “battle to save America’s soul.” The quote is the subtitle of the work, obviously figurative, a theme the author tries to fit to the facts, but in the end comes across as merely pretentious. The allusion to religion is not unintentional. The two main characters are portrayed almost as saints who “steered America through this moral crisis [Civil War]” and are credited with a shared “commitment to the Constitution”, together they would “help America live up to its values”, and again, they were “determined to make the grand democratic experiment live up to its values.” All this from the book flap and preamble. You can see where this is going.The oft-told story of Lincoln is presented with comparison and contrast to that of Douglass, a lesser-known figure. Born in slavery as Frederick Bailey and enduring the worst sufferings of bondage, he escaped, changed his name and went on to become a radical abolitionist. Douglass is entirely sympathetic and like the other main character, a self-made man, but unlike Lincoln, he was not a power-driven politician.The book is structured in a series of alternating vignettes of Lincoln and Douglass, showing them progress on the national stage through the turmoil of Civil War toward their individual fates. The narrative is interspersed with pivotal events leading up to the war such as the attack on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. The author describes raider John Brown in sympathetic terms although Douglass himself thought Brown a madman. While a U.S. marine and several civilians died in the attack, the assault is justified in the name of abolitionism.In what historians consider the war’s beginning, the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter, no one is killed, yet the author is one-sided explaining it. This lack of balance appears throughout the book. Early on, Kilmeade describes the Confederacy as an “illegal rebel conclave”, frequently claiming the South was in “rebellion” for leaving the Union, although before the war secession was considered a right by many states, north and south.Occasionally the author gives perspective, for example, citing Lincoln’s statement: “It is a war for a great national object and the Negro has nothing to do with it.” Such insights are rare in a book declaring the conflict “the war to abolish slavery”. Indeed, this was the aim of the radical abolitionists who had called for the country’s destruction if this would end Black bondage.At first glance Lincoln’s quote appears contrary to the Emancipation Proclamation until the reader understands the edict was meant as a war measure to undermine the South, many hoping it would foment servile insurrection.The claim the war was over slavery has been around since hostilities ended at Appomattox. Many historians have refuted the argument and one of the best is the small book of lectures on the American Civil War by Italian academic Raimondo Luraghi. Lecture three is a brilliant explanation for the causes of the war, arguing the South saw itself headed toward becoming a colony of the North and left the Union over principle. Popular historian Thomas Fleming says something similar in his book “Disease of the Public Mind.” Fleming asks why the United States, among all slaveholding countries, went to war to end what other nations abolished peaceably. America’s war had to have been about more than slavery.At worst, Kilmeade’s book is another iteration of the “it’s all about slavery” genre and at best it is an unbalanced account meshing the stories of two towering figures in the Civil War. For readers new to the subject, Shelby Foote’s magisterial trilogy is highly recommended.

I got as a Christmas gift for my son.

Brian Kilmeade is a great writer.

Lincoln and the the others democrats did not want to have the free slaves to stay in America, he planned to deport them to central America or Liberia or Haiti. The Civil War was not about the freedom of slaves but about the fight against the Southern states which did not want free trade with Britain. Abolition of slavery was a policy to destroy the economy of the Southern states. This book quotes the speeches of Lincoln and other democrats leaders and put the truth first

Seems maybe an agenda was being done with the book?Not Kilmeade's best work in this series. Hope for improvement in the next one.