According to a recent review in The Kansas City Star, reading Rise to Greatness is a great way to prepare for watching Steven Spielberg’s movie, Lincoln, so I read it. The movie concentrates on the President’s efforts to pass the 13th Amendment during the last months of his life in 1865, but this book examines the suspenseful developments of 1862 that led to Lincoln’s writing the Emancipation Proclamation. This is a captivating, well researched story. Your assumptions about Lincoln’s views about slavery and race relations will likely be adjusted, and you will likely gain a new appreciation of his anguish and his political skills in dealing with hostile British and French diplomats, Union generals, members of Congress, and members of his Cabinet during the Republic’s most challenging year. I can’t wait to see the movie now.