The first short biography of the sixteenth president by America's preeminent Civil War historian, Abraham Lincoln follows the son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks from their Kentucky farm to the Illinois legislature, and finally the nation's capitol. February of 2009 marks the bicentennial of his birth and this book will be a compact, concise history of a man with big ideals and an even larger legacy. James McPherson, our country's foremost historian of the Civil War, authors this attractively packaged book on Lincoln for an audience that would prefer a brief treament rather than David Herbert Donald's 720-page opus, or Michael Burlingame's forthcoming multi-volume work.