Michael J. Gerhardt

Lincoln's Mentors, a book that I thought was long overdue. I got it and jumped right into it. The narrator was good, the work was just OK to begin with, but after about 1/3 of the way through it started to pick up steam. I was worried at a few point that it was turning into just another Lincoln biography, but each time Gerhardt (the author) seemed to find his purpose and reel it back into the discussion of the people who seemed to influence Lincoln's life the most. An interesting topic for sure, but the noted issues I mentioned above have kept it from becoming a true 4/5 star title. Still a good listen and recommended to more than just Lincoln fans and scholars.… (more)

"....he was born in a one-room cabin on February 9, 1809." (From "Lincoln's Mentors" (LM) page 10, by Michael J. Gerhardt, aka G in this review). Well, that's shocking to this reader on two levels. First, like me, anyone in grade school in the 1940-50s knows there were two special birthdays in February, and we knew those dates better than our own parents' birthdays: Lincoln, February 12 and Washington, February 22. National holiday, no school in cold, dreary late-winter Chicago. And for me, another special birthday, February 9th. My own. Now 70+ years later , here's an author claiming I share Feb 9 with Old Abe, hisself! Maybe. G supports his case for the 9th by pointing out that there were no records kept in the rurals especially during those days, and a lot of dates are word of mouth "records" that just got accepted blindly. Ok, no problem - but the author doesn't exactly make a strong case for Feb 9 either. I searched more than once on the web re Feb 9 and found nothing to support G's case. Nothing. An interesting start but not an extremely credible one.

So, Lincoln's mentors. Who were they ? Five in number, some more influential than others. Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, John Todd Stuart, and Orville Browning. I worked in corporate America for some Big Companies whose executives believed firmly in mentoring. In many cases, mentoring began before the first day on the job. Based on some special achievement - athletic, academic, ancestral etc, you were asterisked as high potential. You got face-time periodically with a key executive, plum assignments, broad experience, occasionally bail. Mentoring was/is very interactive. Not so in LM. Lincoln never met some of these mentors. Rather the context here is mentoring through example. One example - Jackson was passionate about one issue in particular - keeping the Union together. Nothing, absolutely nothing kept him from his commitment to the Union. Hence portraits of Jackson in Lincoln's White House, Jackson anecdotes, Jackson appointments. Jackson and Lincoln never had a significant meeting though on at least one occasion they were at the same large political gathering. Lincoln's mentors were mentors by example, mentors with a known history. Mentors with behaviors often studied and adopted by Lincoln. So, for me, use of the term "mentor" is a bit of a stretch.

I've read other books about Lincoln; this one is OK, though I've found some others more interesting. One big plus for LM is that it details Lincoln's political growth prior to 1860 in considerably more detail than most other bios, and paints a picture of a very canny politician that I underestimated. Worth consideration.… (more)