And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (Random House Large Print)

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With his singular gift for compelling narrative and groundbreaking analysis, Jon Meacham illuminates not only Lincoln and his times but, just as much, the troubled society that we live in today.” —Michael Beschloss At the beginning of this review I referred to today's January 6 Committee hearing. I might add here that yesterday I listened to “The Argument,” a podcast from the New York Times. The topic under consideration was whether the United States is headed towards a second civil war. The discussion was thoughtful, serious, and — of course — inconclusive. This podcast was also on my mind as I wrote this review. If you feel starved for truth, grace, humility, and true nobility, meet Mr. Lusseyran. Please! He is there to help. Lusseyran, Jacques (2016). Against the Pollution of the I: On the Gifts of Blindness, the Power of Poetry, and the Urgency of Awareness. New World Library. pp.5–. ISBN 978-1-60868-386-4 . Retrieved 8 January 2017. Lalieu, Olivier (2019). Jacques Lusseyran en déportation. Entre histoire et mémoire. In: Marion Chottin, Céline Roussel, and Zina Weygand (eds). Jacques Lusseyran, entre cécité et lumière. Éditions Rue d’Ulm/Presses de l’École normale supérieure, ISBN 978-2-7288-0606-5. p.55

Did it surprise you how little of the book is actually in camp? At the beginning of the book, in the introduction, he actually says, “I will not take you all the way into Buchenwald.” Is this different from other books about the camps? Why do you think he chose to focus on the rest of his story? Do you think it was a good decision as an author? Is it powerful? Is it removed? Brunel, Pierre (2019). Préface. Que la lumière soit. In: Marion Chottin, Céline Roussel, and Zina Weygand (eds). Jacques Lusseyran, entre cécité et lumière. Éditions Rue d’Ulm/Presses de l’École normale supérieure, ISBN 978-2-7288-0606-5. p.10 And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle,” by Jon Meacham (ISBN 9780553393965), publication date 25 October2022, is a riveting book that easily earns five stars. Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil. stars. This is a rich and inspiring story about the life of President Lincoln and his pivotal role in ending slavery and keeping the Union intact. I loved reading his well-thought-out words and watching him grow and expand in wisdom and courage over time. I am grateful he wrote and talked so openly about his reliance on God so we could more fully see how God was guiding and strengthening him. I appreciated learning more about his unique position that allowed him to be elected (by taking a more moderate and unifying stance), and then his heartfelt prayers of faith that pushed Him to make the decisions he felt divinely-inspired to act on. While he didn’t do as much as some would’ve liked, we can learn much from his compromising and moderate steps in the right direction. Lastly, I enjoyed learning more about Mary Todd, her strengths, her struggles (including her hereditary mental illness—14 members of her family were said to have been in asylums) and their courtship (I’ll share a cute quote below). I have enjoyed spending time with and learning from Lincoln this past week and hope to emulate some of his admirable strengths.

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And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance. New York, NY: Parabola Books, 1998. ISBN 0-930407-40-7. Jacques Lusseyran lost sight in an accident at the age of eight. Due to his parents efforts, he continued, as much as possible, to live normal life (regular school, playgrounds etc.) and for the most part avoided being bitter about his fate and feeling sorry for himself. What do you think saved Jacques, in all the different ways he was saved in this novel? Is it the light? Is it gratitude? Is it the people he had the fortune to interact with? Is it something else? It's certainly not my place to hazard an answer to this question; personally I find Lincoln endlessly fascinating so the idea that new books about him are superfluous is perplexing. As it happens, though, I am writing this only a few hours after what might be the final public hearing of the January 6 committee so my mind is in a particular place. I suspect it is very similar to the place Jon Meacham was in as he wrote this evocative book. Readers on GoodReads have given this book 4.2 of 5 possible points (as of October 2015). Does that rating ring true for your experience with the book?

So much more than another account of Abraham Lincoln’s life, Jon Meacham’s profound new biography dives into Lincoln’s very soul, and the result is one of the most compelling and absorbing portraits ever crafted. This book instantly takes its place at the forefront of the Lincoln literature.” —Harold Holzer When Jacques first goes blind, he tries to see as he used to see and is filled with despair. But then he says he realizes he was “looking too far off, and too much on the surface of things.” What does he mean by this? In what ways are we “blind” in a positive way? In what ways are we “blind” in a negative way? All told, however, with the intention of introducing the genius of Lincoln to an audience of people with short attention spans who are predisposed to think everyone who lived before Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday are likely to have had unspeakably racist attitudes, Meacham succeeds. I'm trying to remember if I've read a book about Abraham Lincoln but I don't think I have since elementary school. A couple years ago I read book about John Wilkes Booth which was very good but not Abraham Lincoln. I obviously know alot about him and I've watched countless documentaries about him. I even watched that boring movie starring Daniel Day Lewis. Besides the skillful and readable writing, one measure of the scope and depth of this biography is to review the bibliography. In addition to the expected extensive listing of books and scholarly papers, there are 23 sermons Meacham used as resources along with books on race, faith, prayer, the Scottish Enlightenment, and morals.Germany invaded France in 1940. In the spring of 1941, at the age of 17, Lusseyran formed a Resistance group called the Volunteers of Liberty with other students from the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the Lycée Henri-IV. [5] [6] He was put in charge of recruitment. The group later merged with another Resistance group called Défense de la France. In July 1943 he participated in a campaign to drop pro-resistance leaflets on trains: forty squads of ten members each passed out seventy thousand leaflets. The squads carried tear gas pens to stop people from interfering, though these were never used, and there were no arrests. [ citation needed] [7]