To fully understand and appreciate Abraham Lincoln's legacy, it is important to examine the society that influenced the life, character, and leadership of the man who would become the Great Emancipator. Editors Joseph R. Fornieri and Sara Vaughn Gabbard have done just that in Lincoln's America: 1809-1865, a collection of new and original essays by ten eminent historians that place Lincoln within his nineteenth-century cultural context.

Contributions by: Herman Belz, Allen C. Guelzo, Harold Holzer, Myron Marty, Mark Noll, James Oakes, Richard Striner, Frank J. Williams, Kenneth J. Winkle