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9780809339501

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Reviews

""A solidly researched and eminently readable biography that both chronicles Edward Bates's life and offers compelling insights about American political life during the American Civil War.""--Paul Kahan, author of Amiable Scoundrel: Simon Cameron, Lincoln's Scandalous Secretary of War ""Lincoln's cabinet received a fine group portrait in Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, which has been ably supplemented by recent biographies of William Henry Seward, Edwin M. Stanton, Salmon P. Chase, and Simon Cameron, but not Attorney General Edwards Bates--until now. Joining those fine works is Mark A. Neels'sca life of that eminent Missouri jurist, whose advice Lincoln valued and whose opinions--particularly one establishing citizenship rights for African Americans--proved highly influential. This is a welcome addition to the literature of Lincoln and the Civil War.""--Michael Burlingame, author of Abraham Lincoln: A Life ""Edward Bates long has needed a modern biography, and Mark Neels has provided it. Lincoln's attorney general has been a peripheral figure in many examinations of Civil War politics and the cabinet. Neels makes a strong case for Bates's importance as a leader of conservatism and role in the events of his time, and presents a life in full. Anyone who reads this will come away with a fine grasp of Bates's life and times.""--Michael S. Green, author of Lincoln and Native Americans ""This is a long-needed biography of the attorney general of the United States under President Abraham Lincoln. Neels takes us inside the cabinet to show the divisions within the Republican Party and sheds light on the thinking of a leading conservative within the party that led the country through the crisis of the Civil War and Reconstruction. In addition to filling the biographical void, the book also illustrates how conflicts within the party were often generational as well as ideological.""--A. James Fuller, author of Oliver P. Morton and the Politics of the Civil War and Reconstruction

"""A solidly researched and eminently readable biography that both chronicles Edward Bates's life and offers compelling insights about American political life during the American Civil War.""--Paul Kahan, author of Amiable Scoundrel: Simon Cameron, Lincoln's Scandalous Secretary of War ""Lincoln's cabinet received a fine group portrait in Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, which has been ably supplemented by recent biographies of William Henry Seward, Edwin M. Stanton, Salmon P. Chase, and Simon Cameron, but not Attorney General Edwards Bates--until now. Joining those fine works is Mark A. Neels'sca life of that eminent Missouri jurist, whose advice Lincoln valued and whose opinions--particularly one establishing citizenship rights for African Americans--proved highly influential. This is a welcome addition to the literature of Lincoln and the Civil War.""--Michael Burlingame, author of Abraham Lincoln: A Life ""Edward Bates long has needed a modern biography, and Mark Neels has provided it. Lincoln's attorney general has been a peripheral figure in many examinations of Civil War politics and the cabinet. Neels makes a strong case for Bates's importance as a leader of conservatism and role in the events of his time, and presents a life in full. Anyone who reads this will come away with a fine grasp of Bates's life and times.""--Michael S. Green, author of Lincoln and Native Americans ""This is a long-needed biography of the attorney general of the United States under President Abraham Lincoln. Neels takes us inside the cabinet to show the divisions within the Republican Party and sheds light on the thinking of a leading conservative within the party that led the country through the crisis of the Civil War and Reconstruction. In addition to filling the biographical void, the book also illustrates how conflicts within the party were often generational as well as ideological.""--A. James Fuller, author of Oliver P. Morton and the Politics of the Civil War and Reconstruction"

Author Information

Mark A. Neels was the recipient of the 2017 Hay-Nicolay Dissertation Prize. He holds a doctorate in history from Southern Illinois University and currently teaches history in St. Louis, Missouri.

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