Lincoln's Quest for Union

"Surpassingly eloquent."—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times

"This is a remarkable book with extraordinary insights about the inner life of Abraham Lincoln. It will be read and studied for years to come, for Charles Strozier brings to every chapter the very qualities that Lincoln himself possessed—empathy, wisdom, balance, and creativity."—Doris Kearns Goodwin, Author of No Ordinary Time

"When Lincoln's Quest for Union was first published, it was immediately recognized as the best-informed and most perceptive analysis of Lincoln's inner life. This new edition, extensively revised and expanded, is even more rewarding. This is a basic book in the Lincoln canon—a work of great intelligence, written with sensitivity and literary grace. I cannot recommend it highly enough."—Prof. David Herbert Donald, Author of Lincoln

"Provocative and persuasive when it originally appeared in 1982, this new edition is even better. Strozier incorporates recent scholarship, fortifies his arguments, answers his critics, and offers a compelling psychological portrait of our most admired and enigmatic president."—Cullom Davis, University of Illinois at Springfield

"Eighteen years after it first appeared, Lincoln's Quest for Union still does what only the very best books about Lincoln do: It makes us think afresh about how so great a man could have grown from such meager beginnings."—from Geoffrey Ward's Foreword

In Lincoln's Quest for Union, Charles Strozier gives the most probing account available of Lincoln's inner life—from the time he was a young man in Illinois, just finding himself, through his ascent to the presidency when he guided the nation and articulated for the country the meaning of the Civil War. With the probity of an open-minded historian and the skills of a trained therapist (he is both), Strozier examines Lincoln's relationships to women: his mother, stepmother, two young loves, and Mary Todd. He also considers Lincoln's feelings toward his father and male friends and colleagues.

For this revised edition, Professor Strozier has incorporated new sources—most important, the writings of William Herndon, Lincoln's long-time law partner—to update and expand his psychological portrait of our 16th president.

Charles B. Strozier, a historian and practicing psychoanalyst, is a professor of history at John Jay College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, and faculty and Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst at TRISP in New York. Strozier is the author of Until The Fires Stopped Burning: 9/11 in the Words and Experiences of Survivors and Witnesses; Heinz Kohut: The Making of a Psychoanalyst; and Apocalypse: On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America, among other books. His forthcoming book is Young Man Lincoln: Joshua Speed and the Crucible of Greatness.