Lincoln Stein's latest book, "Network Programming with Perl", is a must-have text for anyone who is doing Perl network programming, or may be doing so in the near future. It reviews the basics of Perl I/O, explains the details of Perl's network functions, and covers the ever-evolving examples with line-by-line descriptions. From telnet, mail, ftp, and the Web, from Usenet News to custom services, this 650-page book covers any networking task currently known to man, and gives you the skills to manage the unknown tasks to come.

This book has excellent coverage of forking, multithreading, multiplexing, and non-blocking IO. Good coverage of this material is hard to find. Most books just concentrate on specific protocols such as POP, IMAP, FTP, SMTP, etc. This book also covers that material, but unlike other books, this one will actually start you off understanding sockets, pipes and signals rather than just showing you how to to use a bunch of libs. There is plenty of example source code here too.

This is one of my favorite Perl books. It really serves what it says it will. It covers a great amount of Perl coding, but like the title says, goes into a lot of networking code, functions and so on. For Perl network programming, you really should have and use this book.

W. Bruce Lincoln does the best job I've seen so far of covering the ENTIRE Romanov history and that of her mother Russia. From rise to fall no writer could have imagined a greater plot. It was once said "to understand the present you must look to the past". To understand modern day Russia I suggest you look to this book.

Lincoln made a really tremendous accomplishment. He examined 300 year history of Romanov Dynasty in his peculiar way. Descriptions of military campaigns and court intrigues were very nice. But the most attractive part was one about Russian literature. He explained novels of great Russian writers and their relationships with Romanov Dynasty in such details that I could not help reading some of the novels.

When Peter the Great moved to St. Petersburg and forcefully imported Western European culture and europeanized his subject noblemen, a deep cleavage was made between aristocrats and peasant masses. That cleavage eventually led to the Revolution in 1917 under the weak personality of Nicholas II.

Lincoln excelled other historians in that he cast a new light upon Rasputin. In the fact that Rasputin recommended candidates for cabinet ministers to Aleksandra and she pressed her choices upon Nicholas, we should not forget the fact that Russian religious peasants prayed to Maria and Maria pressed the peasants' wishes to Jesus Christ or so did they believe. It seems to me that the whole Rasputin affair was politically arranged by extreme reactionaries with Nicholas' approval, though they miscalculated very much. This tragedy seems to have derived from the fact that the Tsar and aristocrats suspected each other. Lincoln provided many circumstantial evidences about this and just let readers judge it.

It would be very interesting to imagine what would have happened in Russia if Russian military machine had worked better and the Revolution had not happened. Protopopov must have become dead Rasputin's spokesman and a surge of religion would have dominated Russia and Balkan slavic countries.

Mr. Lincolm, unlike Robert Massie who wrote "Peter the Great," left me with the clear impression that he understood the source material he had at hand, and was able to verify through corroboration every thing he said. Some of the more incredible stories, or speculative rumors are left out. This does not make his work any less enjoyable, but it does lend Mr. Lincoln's work a feeling of solid thoroughness in its research--something that is lacking in Massie's book. If a story was left out, I felt quite confident that Mr. Lincoln knew of the story, but could not corroborate it to his satisfaction.

This book is very thorough and incredible in its vast sweep. But it is broken apart into major periods. Each period is further broken down into topics, such as political history, economic history, social history, and so on. This format makes the book quite useful as a reference as well as enjoyable to read. This is the best book on the story of the Romanov family in the English language to date. And I can see this book firmly establishing itself as a timeless classic, alongside Shelby Foote's "Civil War," or Gibbons, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."

I knew nothing of goalkeeping before purchasing this book. This book is easy to read and understand, well organized, and full of easy-to-follow visuals. I purchased it to understand our goalkeeper's job and loaned it to him to read. He played keeper for years, and even he learned from it and INSTANTLY improved. An injury prevents him from playing this season. With this book as my only coach and practicing what was in it, we (myself and my defense) earned a shutout in just my second game as keeper. Lincoln Phillips provides coaching in every aspect of goalkeeping and tells you exactly what you need to know. I recommend this book for beginning keepers, experienced keepers, coaches, and anyone else interested in the position and its importance. BUY THIS!

I have over 100 soccer books including goalkeeping books by Wilson, Shilton, Luxbacher, Waiters,Machink and the videos of Machnik, Hoek and Dicicco. Lincoln Philips's book was worth the money and more for several reasons. He has the wisdom of years of playing experience at the the national team level as well as college coaching and USSF Staff coaching duties. He has an excellent discussion on the art of stopping penalty kicks and develops a list of visual cues goalkeepers can use to predict where kicks will go. He examines techniques for prevailing in 1v1 breakaways I had not previously encountered. Finally he has an excellent section on defending restarts which is particularly valuable to the goalie in light of the high percentage of goals which result from poor defensive communication and organization at these times.

As a former international goalkeeper, I can appreciate the value of this well written book of goalkeeping. During my collegiate and international career, I have benefited from the lessons and inspirations of Mr. Phillips' teachings and I highly recommend this book to all aspiring goalkeepers and professionals as well. Having faced numerous game situations, I relied on the fundamental principles laid out in this book to lead my teams to numerous championships.

Most importantly, Lincoln Phillips has demonstrated that goal keeping is the most important player on the team. Teams should develop the psychological aspect of their goalkeepers in addition to the physical dimension. As the sub-title states, the goalkeeper is not only the last line of defense, but also the first line of attack. Any team that has won championships credits quality goalkeeping as a main ingredient. I look forward to future works from Lincoln Phillips.

The book is all about the life and struggles of Abe Lincoln, on how he led a life of poverty to presidency. The book goes into not the history of the time but the relationships he created to the common everyday person he dealt with. I read the book and just devoured it. For people many times just see the person and not the struggles that created that persona for who we know and well loved.

Mr. Carnegie has made reading history fun. I am very interested in reading about U.S. and World History(Democracy In America, Federalist Papers, Napoleonic Wars,etc.). A co-worker of mine, who is not a history buff, read this book and just gushed about how great a read it was. AND IT IS. If you had any doubt about the making of a character, read this before you read any self-help book.

This is a thoroughly engrossing book. I could not put it down after finding it in my grandmother's collection of old books. It inspired me to become a better person and to strive for perfection and integrity in everything that I do. This book talks about the Lincoln that we were not taught about in history classes. I was impressed with the fact that Lincoln totally despised slavery. Especially after witnessing the treatment of a mulatto slave girl on the auction block by prospective buyers. His triumphs and failures make him seem much more human. Not only was he a great President, but a great human being as well. It illustrates the fact that the only true measure of real success is the ability to endure pain. If you can get your hands on this book, it is a must read.

Bruce Catton is, in my opinion, the most readable author of American Civil War history. Whenever I've labored through some book I wanted to read but have struggled with, I reward myself with something he has written. This trilogy is, as all his work is, thoroughly researched and very balanced. It would be hard to detect any bias in this native Michiganer of the first half of the 20th century, though I vaguely suspect he had more sympathy for the South, if only for the "pluck" (he likes that word in fact) of their "David vs. Goliath" undertaking. In any case, this first volume delivers a very important message in a very complete way, and it's a message I had never before considered: The Army of the Potomac's loyalty to the government was never compromised, but it was fretted about in some pretty high places, perhaps not the least important of which was in the White House. So completely was this Grand Army made in the image of its creator, McClellan, that his removal gave cause for many to hold their collective breath and pray that it would remain intact and loyal to the Union once stripped of its beloved leader. That it did, and the rest, as they say, is history. McClellan is thoroughly understood by the reader of this work. He is a man of some complexity and some sympathy, diminished by his ego perhaps. Despite many lost opportunities that would have made the war much shorter and correspondingly less bloody, he was a good soldier caught between military logic and political caution. In fact, Catton points out to us that never before had there been a general of a great army of a democracy, and that that arrangement itself is tenuous at best. In the end, we understand that the Army of the Potomac was Lincoln's Army for just as long as he remained the Commander-in-Chief, and despite their love for McClellan, they always stood ready to do what was asked of them.

"Mr. Lincoln's Army" is the first volume in Bruce Catton's celebrated trilogy chronicling the history of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, one of the most exciting war narratives in literature. Catton had grown up in Michigan around men who had served in that Army and these books were his attempt "to find out about the things which the veterans never discussed." Catton relies on a host of source material to weave his tales, from autobiographies of Generals McClellan and Howard, to the correspondence of Generals Sedgwick and Meade, to dozens of soldiers' reminiscences and regimental histories, to military histories relating to specific battles, campaign, military tactics and weapons. As you read these books you are always feel that you are dealing with living literature rather than dead history. This is because Catton privileges "The Diary of an Enlisted Man" by Lawrence Van Alstyne and the history of "The 27th Indiana Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion" more than he does "McClellan's Own Story."

"Mr. Lincoln's Army" covers the Army of the Potomac from its creation to the Battle of Antietam. Despite the title the central figure in the book is General George B. McClellan, the war's most paradoxical figure who gave this Army the training it needed to become a first rate military unit and who then refused to use the great army he had created. There are 6 sections to the book: (1) "Picture-Book War" actually covers the events in 1862 that led to McClellan being placed back in charge of the Army of the Potomac, setting up a rather ironic perspective for what happens both before and after that decision; (2) "The Young General" provides the background on McClellan and details his formation of the Army; (3) "The Era of Suspicion" covers the ill-fated Peninsula Campaign; (4) "An Army on the March" centers on the Second Battle of Manassas/Bull Run when the Army was under John Pope; (5) "Opportunity Knocks Three Times" begins with the great intelligence coup of the Civil War, the discovery of Lee's Special Order No. 191 and establishes how the upcoming battle was handed to McClellan on a silver plate; (6) "Never Call Retreat" tells the story of how McClellan snatched defeat--or at least a bloody tie--from the jaws of victory.

Bruce Catton's books on the Civil War are eminently readable, and with his History of the Army of the Potomac he finds his perfect level, writing about the men who were the common soldiers as much if not more than he does about the generals and politicians. You certainly get the feeling his heart was in these volumes more than it was in his larger histories of the Civil War. For those who are well versed in the grand details of the war, these books provide a more intimate perspective on those great battles.

As other reviewers have mentioned, Bruce Catton is considered to be one of the best authors to read if you are interested in the Civil War. Despite many recommendations from others I had not read any of Catton's books until now. Having just finished Mr. Lincoln's Army, I can finally understand why Mr. Catton has received so many accolades (to include the Pulitzer prize). This book is an outstanding introduction to General McClellan, and the Army he commanded.

I truly enjoyed this book for several reasons. First, the writing style is excellent. This book is not boring history (facts, figures, hyposthesis, conclusion). Instead, Catton tells the interesting story of what happened to the Federal Army from the beginning of the war up until the battle of Antietam. The book reads more like a good novel, than a history text book. Having read many Civil War authors, I would put Catton in the top category.

Secondly, Catton includes many observations and stories from the everyday soldier which add vivid details to events as they unfold. His description of the Battle of Antietam comes alive when he includes descriptions of what the men who fought actually saw and experienced. I learned a lot and gained new insight into many events which speaks volumes to the quality of this book, considering it was written back in the 1950s.

Lastly, Catton stays focused on his topic and does not try to cover too much material. The book is about the Union Army, so he does not waste time getting into too many details about what was happening on the Confederate side. I enjoyed this perspective because Catton succesfully answers the question of why the Union Army could not defeat the Confederates early in the war, despite the great advantage of resources that it possessed.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Civil War. Whether you are a "Civil War Buff", or just trying to find out more about this pivotal event in American history, you will enjoy this book.

I've read just about every book on Einstein's theories meant for the general reader (as well as not-so-general reader) and this is the clearest, most concise, and best-written book ever done on the subject.

I read this book almost 30 years ago and it's good to see from the other reviews here that people still know about this terrific book. It's a little masterpiece of science reportage done during a time (1950) when there were very few talented writers doing this sort of thing (unlike today), and in which there wasn't much demand for science writing in general. Lincoln Barnett was a gifted journalist and he produced a little classic in this book.

Lincoln Barnett has created a master piece of scientific literature for the uninitiated to the world of scientific thought. I feel that this book was written in a way that any person who reads it can grasp the basic concepts of relativity and electromagnatism. It should be required reading for all high school students with the anticipated result of turning out many more scientists and engineers in this country. I have owned the book for more years than I can remember and have read it and reread it multiple times and over time have given copies to youngsters that I thought had a potential scientific inclination. I still have a copy on hand and do not understand why in is not in print today.

I feel that this book is a must for any home library. If you are experienced in physics, this book is extremely interesting because it delves deaply into the philosophy that brought Dr. Einstein to his great accomplishments. For those that have little knowledge of relativity, the universe, and quantum matters it offers a great introduction with a minimum of complex math. A simple way to understand how Dr. Einstein changed the entire universe. I have studied Albert for years. This is the first time I have read anything that gave me such an insight to his personality and thought processes. HONESTLY, the best book I have ever read.

James McPherson is not only the preeminent Historian of the US Civil War, but one of the greatest historians working today. He offers razor sharp analysis of complicated issues, with fair consideration of all points of view. Best of all, McPherson does all that in clear, concise and at times poetic language, that is remarkably easy to read.

'Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution' enjoys all the benefits of McPherson's considerable scholarship. Its problems are almost exclusively editorial.

This thin volume (152 pages of text; 20 more pages for notes, bibliography and an index) contains seven essays about the two themes in the title - The US Civil war seen as the second American Revolution, and Abraham Lincoln's role in it.

The first essay argues convincingly that the Civil War did radically change the Unites States. From a Slaveholding Republic, it became a free one. Politically, the center of gravity moved from the South to the north. Economically, the Industrial revolution, earlier contained in New England, spread out and defeated the plantation economy. In the South, the prevailing order was weakened, although not surmounted, and the situation of Blacks improved considerably, although equality was still very far. The theme McPherson is most interested in, however, is the change from a philosophy of negative liberty - freedom from government oppression - to one of positive liberty - the right for protection - guaranteed by the Federal government.

The second essay discusses Lincoln's role as the leader of the revolution. Lincoln, McPherson argues, was a pragmatic revolutionary. The revolution, which he brought on America, was caused by Lincoln's accurate assessment of necessities, not by a strong ideological tie to the revolution. Lincoln was no Lenin - he held sternly to the one principle of democracy, and the second American Revolution happened as a by-product of defending this principle.

In the third essay, 'Lincoln and Liberty', McPherson discusses how Lincoln's struggle for positive liberty was seen as despotic by those holding the principles of negative liberty. The Republicans wanted to restrict and ultimately destroy the rights of Southerners to hold slaves - and to enforce these restrictions by government action, if that was what it took.

Lincoln's role as supreme military commander is a neglected issue in Civil War historiography, claims McPherson, and he sets out to remedy that in the following essay. Lincoln's most important contribution, he concludes, was his unyielding hold on the doctrine of Unconditional Surrender. This issue also returns in Essay number 6, which compares Lincoln to Northerners who were not nearly as clear about the goal of fighting as he was.

Lincoln's rhetoric and the use of metaphors is the subject of the fifth essay. In an interesting comparison with Jefferson Davis, McPherson concludes that Lincoln's usage of metaphors in writing and speaking made him a superb communicator, which Davis wasn't. Thus, McPherson agrees with David Potter that had Lincoln been the leader of the South in the war, the confederacy might have maintained its independence.

One weakness of the collection is the lack of coherence in topics. The illuminating comparison between Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln in this essay, for example, is sadly missing from other chapters. Take War Leadership -Lincoln's grasp of the northern grand strategy made him replace popular generals who nonetheless could not follow his concept of total war. Jeff Davis on the other hand, despite his superior military background (as a war hero and a West-Point graduate), never articulated war aims as Lincoln did, and the Confederate war policy was constructed de facto by the decision of its irregularly brilliant generals. Lincoln would have made much better use of Robert E. Lee than Davis did.

The absence of such themes concurring through the book weakens the narrative, and it remains more an anthology than a focused monograph. Another such problem is the repetition between the essays. The final essay repeats almost all of the discussion about Isaiah Berlin's concepts of positive and negative liberty, before launching into the new theme. That theme, the turning away from positive liberty back to negative liberty during reconstruction, is fascinating. During reconstruction, Republicans had to constantly use the military in order to enforce equality for blacks on the unwilling Southrons. The disillusionment from Reconstruction and the resurrected fear from governmental tyranny left the racist policies of the South for another century, when Martin Luther King finished that job that Abraham Lincoln has began.

Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution is a collection of seven related essays by James M. McPherson. Each essay shows us a perspective from which the Civil War can be seen as a "revolution." They are all provocative and intense -- two things that are rare in history. From the first page to the last you'll be saying to yourself "I never thought of it that way before ..." A must for anyone even remotely interested in the Civil War.

This is an acute uncovering of the concealed revolution in the Civil War era with its great transformation, as the released energy 'under a war footing' accelerated the real evolutionary emergence of the freedom declared but never fulfilled in the age of the Founding Fathers.
One of the ironies is that the reification of concepts of revolution can result in confusion,while, here, change happened without the label. It is also true that the last step foundered, and the counterrevolution began and hardened, in the tragic era of reconstruction, leaving still another revolution with an ambiguously sour note.

Mary Elizabeth Anderson's LINK ACROSS AMERICA is an informative and entertaining way for young and old alike to learn about the Lincoln Highway. The book combines facts, photos and entertaining Burma Shave jingle signs to help keep children interested in the topic while they read.

The history reflected makes you appreciate the roads we travel, instead of just taking them for granted. I must admit that I attended Seedling Mile School in Grand Island, Nebraska for 3 years and only recently learned why it was called such when I read Ms. Anderson's book. I had no idea the struggles made by so many to put together this road that I travel so often.

I highly recommend LINK ACROSS AMERICA to anyone with an interest in American history.

A friend of mine recommended "Link Across America", and I thourghly enjoyed reading it. I had no idea that the Lincoln Highway even existed, since I grew up here in Michigan. I was also not a fan of history as a kid, but this book is so interesting and easy to read. Children will love it. It is a great part of history that children should not miss out on. I also love all of the colorful pictures.

I thought the book LINK ACROSS AMERICA by Mary Elizabeth Anderson was excellent. I have lived by the Lincoln Highway most of my life but I was never aware of the histroy behind it. It is a fun book for children to read, and also learn at the same time. The book makes us appreciate what we have and also recognize the efforts of the people who gave us the first coast to coast highway.

There's likely been no other American so widely dissected as Abraham Lincoln. Author after author has explored Lincoln's outer world to the point of exhaustion. It's only understandable, then, that the fashion lately seems to be an exploration of his inner one. So we have a spate of books in the last few years that explore Lincoln's psyche, his religion, his sexuality,his relation with his family--and now, with Miller's new book, his moral character.

Miller tells us that he wants to begin afresh by forgetting the Lincoln myth and tracing the moral development of Lincoln in order to see where he winds up. But of course this is an impossibly objective position to attain, and the fix is in from page one: the reader knows--and so does Miller--who's going to win the race. Lincoln predictably emerges as a complex individual who rises to historical prominence not just because he grew into an astute statesperson, but also because he was a virtuous human being. The first alone would have given him power; both together give him greatness.

Most of Miller's tracing of the inner life of Lincoln isn't particularly new, although it is pleasingly systematic. But two characteristics of his approach are worth noting. First, Miller obviously admires his main character without falling into the hagiography that bedevils so many books on Lincoln. Second, Miller's thesis that the contours of Lincoln's moral character are shaped by his earnest efforts to repudiate his backwoods heritage is both novel and persuasive. This argument alone would make the book a worthy read.

But what the book doesn't do--and perhaps no single book can do this--is explain why it is that we simply can't seem to get enough of Lincoln. Lincoln is a sort of national icon. The fascination with him is apparently endless. Miller's book will contribute to the on-going fascination.

William Lee Miller's book underscores Lincoln's general goodness and honesty. This book is less so a traditional biography and more an examination of Lincoln's moral beliefs and principles. The author traces Lincoln's ethical development from a young man in New Salem, Illinois to the mature Lincoln at the height of his intellectual powers in the 1850's and 1860's. Mr. Miller indicates that yes Lincoln was a politician and could be quite good at wheeling and dealing. However, he never engaged in back room negotiations without first taking into account all angles and ramifications, and would never attempt to promote anything totally dishonest. We would describe Lincoln today as a man who was tough but fair. He sought compromise and took into account the possible "fruits" of whatever he was proposing. He was not an absolutist. He realized that the real world was a prism with shades of gray. He was never capricious, as he researched and pondered deeply all his beliefs and subsequent actions. Like any human being he was not perfect and because of his legend it is easy to fall into thinking that he was saint like. He was a truly good-hearted man, who was keenly intelligent and insightful. When our country was at war with itself his steadfastness at the helm and magnaminity he showed towards the Confederates ("with malice toward none") serve as an example of true leadership. His being an American icon is well deserved. Thank you, Mr. President.

I bought this book immediately after hearing the author give a talk about Lincoln on our local public radio station. It has been a fascinating reading experience-I read the book cover to cover right away. Now I am slowly re-reading it, with many pauses for thought and reflection on the depth of Lincoln's political and moral genius. The author's premise is that these two talents need not be incompatible, and that Lincoln's life demonstrates that both could be taken to the highest level of accomplishment. The book is not a dull moral treatise, however. It is written with spirit, humanity and humor worthy of its subject.

Growing up in Illinois, I was raised on the folksy backwoods cartoonlike interpretation of Lincoln presented by populizers like Carl Sandberg. I knew there must be more to the story, and this book has opened the door to whole a new world of ideas and information about our greatest American president.

This is one of the best history books I have ever read. John C. Waugh has written a lively story of an extraordinary election campaign - the reelection of Lincoln in 1864 as the Civil War dragged on. The contrasts with modern election campaigns are striking. We take 2-term presidencies as if not a given then certainly a standard goal. When Lincoln ran again in 1864, however, no president had been reelected in over 30 years! Neither Lincoln nor his Democratic opponent, George B. McClellan (the general Lincoln fired because he had the "slows") attended the conventions that nominated them or made any campaign speeches once they were nominated. Instead surrogates did all the compaigning for the two candidates. Mr. Waugh's book is a wonderful account of all the lively personalities who were players large and small in this campaign. As a newspaperman himself, he clearly relishes the highly partisan style of journalism which was prevalent at this time, and delights in leading his reader to a lively newspaper quote, or to yet another funny Lincoln story. I would have liked to have seen a few maps to help follow the Civil War campaigns. I also think Mr. Waugh would have done well to provide a brief "cast of characters" listing to help the reader keep all these people sorted out. But these are minor quibbles and this is history the way it should be written - always lively, informative and never losing sight of the humanity of the players upon the painted stage at this pivotal moment in American history. If you are an American history buff, a Lincoln admirer, or a person who loves the presidential campaign season, then this is a book you will delight in.

John Waugh's book is a great insight into Lincoln's re-election bid in 1864. The book is replete with examples of Lincoln's astuteness as a politician. Although, Lincoln was a self-made commander in chief with no real military experience, he was very able. Lincoln envisioned, before his generals, that the war would be protracted. He came to mistrust many of his top generals; they were not aggressive enough for him. The conduct of the war is starting to wear on the morale at home. This causes a split in the fledgling Republican Party. The Abolitionist thought that Lincoln was too soft on eradicating slavery, but they couldn't get a candidate of their liking chosen at convention. The anti-war wing of the party believed that Lincoln was bleeding the country dry; they abhorred the human and economic suffering. Lincoln was able to out maneuver both factions and win re-nomination.

He then had to prepare to run against General McClellan, the Democratic Party's nominee, who he had fired for not aggressively prosecuting the war. The Democrats had selected McClellan on an anti war platform. Much to their chagrin McClellan ignores the party platform and runs as a pro-war candidate. This reversal is the first time in presidential political history that a candidate runs counter to the party platform. Despite McClellan's reversal the election is looking dire for Lincoln in August. Although Grant, the new general, is at least pursuing Lee's army, the war isn't moving fast enough. Many people in the North are looking to a decisive field victory to show that the war is at least coming to an end. All the doom and gloom in the White House comes to an end in September when General Sherman burns Atlanta. Lincoln can show the nation that the end is finally in sight. Lincoln very adroitly allows military units, especially from New York to travel home to vote. This shrewd political tactic garners Lincoln 7 out of 10 military votes. He winds up winning the election with 55% of the vote and a large portion of the Electoral College.

Waugh who is a journalist by trade writes in a style reminiscent of the great newspaper editors of Lincoln's day. He uses many of the articles as background information for the book. This was a very interesting book, which illuminates Lincoln's adroitness as a politician. As a retired Army officer and student of political philosophy, I found this to be a great book on leadership. Highly recommended.

The election of 1864 was probably the most important Presidential election in our History.It is no understatement to say that if Abraham Lincoln had not been re-elected Our History would have been very different.In fact had Lincoln not won the United States might not even exsist today. In Re-electing Lincoln John Waugh gives us a superb account of this crucial campaign.Mr. Waugh is a former Political Reporter. And it shows.As I read this Book I often had the sensation that I was reading this in the newspaper or watching it on CNN. Mr. Waugh also has the gifts of a Novelist. He gives us a powerful and a suspenseful story with a cast of simply unforgetable Characters. As a History Teacher the thing that I gained most from Re-electing Lincoln was the realization that Political campaigns really have''nt changed much in 134 years.Those who think Campaign finance practices are sleazy today will find this Book a real eye opener.This Book is a wonderful read,even if your not a Civil War Buff. Don't pass it up.