100 books like Lincoln

By Jan Morris,

Here are 100 books that Lincoln fans have personally recommended if you like Lincoln. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer

Dean Calbreath Author Of The Sergeant: The Incredible Life of Nicholas Said: Son of an African General, Slave of the Ottomans, Free Man Under the Tsars, Hero of the Union Army

From my list on a fresh takes on the Civil War.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by the Civil War ever since I was a kid, traipsing through battlefields and digging up old Minie balls and bullets from the backyard where my dad played when he was younger. The war was America’s defining moment, in many ways more important than the Revolution itself, setting the stage for our continuing evolution as a nation. But often, the history we’re taught is incomplete and imperfect. As a journalist who’s done some prize-winning investigative work, I like to use those skills to peel away the cobwebs of history to find the untold stories that are too often hidden from view.

Dean's book list on a fresh takes on the Civil War

Dean Calbreath Why did Dean love this book?

I always thought I had a pretty good grasp of the story of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Still, this book is so well-crafted that it managed to keep me on the edge of my seat, full of suspense about John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators' getaway and the government’s attempts to track them down.

I loved the way the author pinned the action-packed story to a backdrop of a nation laid low by the Civil War, with civil liberties temporarily shunted aside under the threat of terror, with some parallels to life after 9/11. A great true crime story.

By James L Swanson,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Manhunt as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

An enthralling hour-by-hour account of the twelve days in 1865 between President Abraham Lincoln's assassination and the capture and death of his murderer, John Wilkes Booth. From 14th to 26th of April 1865, the hunt for Booth and his accomplices transfixed, thrilled and horrified a nation of mourners as Booth led the army on a wild chase through the swamps of Maryland and into the forests of Virginia. At the centre of the story is the ultimate anti-hero: John Wilkes Booth. A handsome stage actor, Booth was as famous in his day as any big Hollywood star today, but threw…


Book cover of Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero

Dean Calbreath Author Of The Sergeant: The Incredible Life of Nicholas Said: Son of an African General, Slave of the Ottomans, Free Man Under the Tsars, Hero of the Union Army

From my list on a fresh takes on the Civil War.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by the Civil War ever since I was a kid, traipsing through battlefields and digging up old Minie balls and bullets from the backyard where my dad played when he was younger. The war was America’s defining moment, in many ways more important than the Revolution itself, setting the stage for our continuing evolution as a nation. But often, the history we’re taught is incomplete and imperfect. As a journalist who’s done some prize-winning investigative work, I like to use those skills to peel away the cobwebs of history to find the untold stories that are too often hidden from view.

Dean's book list on a fresh takes on the Civil War

Dean Calbreath Why did Dean love this book?

It is a riveting story of heroism triumphing over adversity as a South Carolina slave appropriates a Confederate transport ship and sails it out of Charleston Harbor, ferrying his fellow enslaved crewmen and their families to freedom. And that’s just the opening act, as he goes on to serve as a pilot in the Union Navy and later as a newspaper publisher and U.S. Congressman.

I came away from this book very impressed with Smalls and the level of research that went into telling his story. The Civil War was full of unsung heroes like this, and it’s great to see some of them finally getting their due.

By Cate Lineberry,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Be Free or Die as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It was a mild May morning in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1862, the second year of the Civil War, when a twenty-three-year-old enslaved man named Robert Smalls boldly seized a Confederate steamer. With his wife and two young children hidden on board, Smalls and a small crew ran a gauntlet of heavily armed fortifications in Charleston Harbour and delivered the valuable vessel and the massive guns it carried to nearby Union forces. Smalls' courageous and ingenious act freed him and his family from slavery and immediately made him a Union hero. It also challenged much of the country's view of…


Book cover of The Good Lord Bird

Moriel Rothman-Zecher Author Of Before All the World

From my list on historical novels brimming with life.

Why am I passionate about this?

I believe that we betray the past when we treat it as the past, and we abandon our ancestors, actual and spiritual, when we dehumanize them as denizens of history, as fundamentally different from us in terms of their lusts and appetites and political nuances and strange senses of humor and nose picking and dance moves and love. Novels, I think, are a powerful mode for understanding and perhaps even undoing the cultural patterns that would have us believe that history is behind us and that the past is not part of the forever dance of the present. 

Moriel's book list on historical novels brimming with life

Moriel Rothman-Zecher Why did Moriel love this book?

This book is, on its face, a sardonic, strange, delightful, and wild retelling of the story of John Brown from the perspective of a formerly enslaved teenager, who John Brown half rescues, half kidnaps, and who is bullied by the Old Man into pretending he is a girl. The story is phenomenally researched and brilliantly told, and the tone accomplishes the magnificent feat of being simultaneously iconoclastic and generous—perhaps even irreverent and reverent. This is a must-read.

By James McBride,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Good Lord Bird as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Now a Showtime limited series starring Ethan Hawke and Daveed Diggs

Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction

From the bestselling author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Deacon King Kong (an Oprah Book Club pick) and The Color of Water comes the story of a young boy born a slave who joins John Brown’s antislavery crusade—and who must pass as a girl to survive.

Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1856--a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces--when legendary abolitionist John Brown arrives. When an argument between Brown and Henry's master turns…


Book cover of American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal

Dean Calbreath Author Of The Sergeant: The Incredible Life of Nicholas Said: Son of an African General, Slave of the Ottomans, Free Man Under the Tsars, Hero of the Union Army

From my list on a fresh takes on the Civil War.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by the Civil War ever since I was a kid, traipsing through battlefields and digging up old Minie balls and bullets from the backyard where my dad played when he was younger. The war was America’s defining moment, in many ways more important than the Revolution itself, setting the stage for our continuing evolution as a nation. But often, the history we’re taught is incomplete and imperfect. As a journalist who’s done some prize-winning investigative work, I like to use those skills to peel away the cobwebs of history to find the untold stories that are too often hidden from view.

Dean's book list on a fresh takes on the Civil War

Dean Calbreath Why did Dean love this book?

This is not really a Civil War book, but a meditation on how history (including the Civil War and Reconstruction) impacts our culture today, penned by a journalist hiking the 200+ miles from Washington, D.C., to New York City.

Beautifully written, with a gentle conversational tone, I felt like I was hiking along with him as he talked about the scenery, history, philosophy, and his own impending sense of mortality (the hike was during a respite from a long-running bout with cancer). One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

By Neil King,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked American Ramble as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“American Ramble is a dazzling mixture of travelogue, memoir, and history. At times profound, funny, and heartbreaking, this is the story of a traveler intoxicated by life. I couldn’t put it down.” — Nathaniel Philbrick

A stunning, revelatory memoir about a 330-mile walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City—an unforgettable pilgrimage to the heart of America across some of our oldest common ground. 

Neil King Jr.’s desire to walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City began as a whim and soon became an obsession. By the spring of 2021, events had intervened that gave his desire greater urgency.…


Book cover of The Civil War: An Illustrated History

Derek R. King Author Of The Life and Times of Clyde Kennard

From my list on lesser-known Civil Rights.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South in the 1950s and 60s for many years. Keen to understand not just events in that timeframe, I also needed to understand how those entrenched and diametrically opposed positions had occurred. What triggered the responses of water cannon, German shepherd dogs, and Billy clubs to seemingly peaceful students marching or seated in a particular section of a café? Over a period of seventeen years, I amassed a private collection of books, magazines, newspapers, over two hundred in all, along with material from various state-run Departments of Archives of History, further amplifying my fascination and providing fodder for my book.

Derek's book list on lesser-known Civil Rights

Derek R. King Why did Derek love this book?

It may seem odd to have a Civil War book on a Civil Rights book recommendation list, but many of the issues faced by the Civil Rights movement, in many respects, were unfinished business from the times preceding and post the Civil War. 

What this book does, aside from touching on the various battles, is to touch on the social, political, and economic scenarios in both the north and south prior to the War, during the War, and afterward during the reconstruction period.

Worth bearing in mind in some cases survivors of the Civil War period were only a couple of generations removed from the conflict at the time of the Civil Rights movement. Aside from being a great read, this book provides an invaluable resource of information.

By Geoffrey C. Ward, Ric Burns, Ken Burns

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Civil War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things.... It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads: the suffering, the enormous tragedy of the whole thing."- Shelby Foote, from The Civil War

  When the illustrated edition of The Civil War was first published, The New York Time hailed it as "a treasure for the eye and mind." Now Geoffrey Ward's magisterial work of history is available in a text-only edition that interweaves the author's narrative with the voices of the…


Book cover of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Why am I passionate about this?

I have had a long career as a professor of organizational behavior. My view is that the most ignored and undervalued aspect of leadership is the development and implementation of political skills. Any leader who claims, “I don’t do politics” or “I’m not political,” is not serving themselves very well and, in fact, may be setting themselves up for failure. Whether in organizational life, in the sphere of public policy, or in daily life, we need to overcome the obstacles that impede our capacity to implement agendas and ideas and achieve our aspirations. Dreamers who lack political skills remain dreamers, not leaders. 

Samuel's book list on books for leaders who need to master the political skills to move ideas and innovations and overcome resistance

Samuel Bacharach Why did Samuel love this book?

This book has become a classic. It’s a brilliant book.

Doris Kearns Goodwin gives specific examples of how Abraham Lincoln was a master in creating coalitions and mobilizing support in the face of continuous resistance. His cabinet was made up of senior and ambitious individuals, many of whom were strong leaders in their own right.

Lincoln had to figure out how to get them on his side and create viable coalitions in order to move his key agenda—win the war and ensure the passage of the 13th Amendment. In many ways, he was not simply a visionary but a master of balancing persuasion and authority—which is a desirable leadership skill.

By Doris Kearns Goodwin,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Team of Rivals as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of the most influential books of the past fifty years, Team of Rivals is Pulitzer Prize–winning author and esteemed presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s modern classic about the political genius of Abraham Lincoln, his unlikely presidency, and his cabinet of former political foes.

Winner of the prestigious Lincoln Prize and the inspiration for the Oscar Award winning–film Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, directed by Steven Spielberg, and written by Tony Kushner.

On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago.…


Book cover of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

Cathal J. Nolan Author Of Mercy: Humanity in War

From my list on how wars are won and lost.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm an award-winning teacher and writer who introduces students and readers to war in a profession that today is at best indifferent to military history, and more often hostile. That gives me a wry sense of irony, as colleagues would rather teach about fashion than fascism and truffles over tragedy. Having written a multiple award-winning book that covered 2,000 years of war, frankly I was sickened by how the same mistakes were made over and again. It has made me devoted to exploring possibilities for humane behavior within the most inhumane and degraded moral environment humanity creates; where individuality is subsumed in collective violence and humanity is obscured as a faceless, merciless enemy.

Cathal's book list on how wars are won and lost

Cathal J. Nolan Why did Cathal love this book?

Beautifully written masterwork on one of the most important wars of the 19th century. It takes the reader from the experience of ordinary soldiers in battle to key debates around the cabinet table, in a rare display of dexterity and understanding of all levels of war. You will enter Grant’s HQ from where he ran the critical Western theater of operations and sit across from Lincoln as he makes the key decision for a hard war that let the Union maximize its resources and win. And you will walk into Lee’s HQ where the Confederacy lost the war in bursts of Southern hubris that led to two ill-conceived invasions of the North that provoked the final crushing.  

By James M. McPherson,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Battle Cry of Freedom as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Now featuring a new Afterword by the author, this handy paperback edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom is without question the definitive one-volume history of the Civil War.
James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. Packed with drama and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentous episodes that preceded the Civil War including the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. From there it moves into…


Book cover of West from Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War

David Prior Author Of Between Freedom and Progress: The Lost World of Reconstruction Politics

From my list on how the Civil War changed history.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a historian of the Civil War, I love thinking about how the war shaped what came after it. The Civil War, and the abolition of slavery that was wrapped up with it, is perhaps the most important turning point in the history of the United States. It had so many afterlives and made such a deep impact on everything from the daily lives of the formerly enslaved in the southern states to popular culture to the shape of the country’s economy. As a historian of the period, I’ve written and edited multiple books and scholarly articles on the period. Still, I remain fascinated by how much more there is to learn and study!  

David's book list on how the Civil War changed history

David Prior Why did David love this book?

I can’t help but be struck by how Richardson brought together so many big topics so smoothly in one volume.

Usually, historians treat the stories of the post-war South, North, and West separately, but Richardson unites them by looking at how Civil War-era Americans thought about foundational ideas like work, freedom, and order.

Arguing that the whole country went through a broader, national reconstruction, Richardson follows ideas about “bad workers” and “special interests” from 1865 down to the early 20th century, using vignettes of interesting and important individuals to move the story along.  

By Heather Cox Richardson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked West from Appomattox as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of the popular "Letters from an American" newsletter: a sweeping story of how Northerners, Southerners, and Westerners together created modern America in the years from Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller

The story of Reconstruction is not simply about the rebuilding of the South after the Civil War. Instead, the late nineteenth century defined modern America, as Southerners, Northerners, and Westerners gradually hammered out a national identity that united three regions into a country that could become a world power. Ultimately, the story of Reconstruction is about how a middle class formed in…


Book cover of The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln

Tim Wendel Author Of Rebel Falls

From my list on Civil War that goes beyond battles and generals.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up, I enjoyed reading about history, especially the Civil War. So, when I stumbled upon the exploits of John Yates Beall and Bennet Burley (the rebel spies are mentioned in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals), I didn’t believe it at first. After all, my hometown is near Niagara Falls, N.Y., and I’d never heard of this plan to seize the U.S.S. Michigan warship on Lake Erie. As I learned more about the extensive spy network that once existed along our northern border with Canada, I discovered how this audacious plan connected with Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, John Wilkes Booth, William Seward, and other luminaries from the time.  

Tim's book list on Civil War that goes beyond battles and generals

Tim Wendel Why did Tim love this book?

Before the Civil War broke out, tens of thousands of freedom seekers fled enslavement in the South, trying to reach British Canada. Only there could they be truly free, and even today, Canadians pride themselves on being on the “good side” of the Civil War. But the real story is much more complicated.

Some Canadian businessmen, politicians, and financiers supported the Confederacy. Montreal became a hub for rebel spies and mercenaries. In fact, when John Wilkes Booth was apprehended after assassinating Abraham Lincoln, a banknote from a branch in Montreal was found on his person.

The New York Times proclaimed many of those involved in the plot to kill the president had been “harbored in Canada.”  

By Julian Sher,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The North Star as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever

Nick Vulich Author Of 1861

From my list on capturing the essence of the Civil War.

Why am I passionate about this?

What could be cooler to a kid growing up in the 1960s and 1970s than the Civil War? TV spoon-fed us westerns—Bonanza, F-Troop, The Lone Ranger, and The Wild, Wild West. Many of the stories were set during the Civil War or had characters molded by it. And then, somewhere in the mid-1960s, my parents took me to a civil war reenactment. Guns cracked. Cannons boomed, and men fell. I was hooked. I’ve devoured every Civil War book I could get my hands on for the past fifty years and watched every movie remotely connected to the subject. So, it’s only natural I wrote a book about it.

Nick's book list on capturing the essence of the Civil War

Nick Vulich Why did Nick love this book?

If Abraham Lincoln had survived the war, the country might have followed an entirely different track. Rather than send carpetbaggers to rule the southern states, Lincoln planned on working with the existing rebel governments to transition them back into the Union. However, his policy toward the newly freed blacks was uncertain. Lincoln’s hope was that blacks and whites would learn to live together given time. He just hadn’t figured out how to make that happen.

What’s certain is that Andrew Johnson’s ascendancy to power derailed many of Lincoln’s plans and reversed many of the gains African-Americans had won. Johnson favored quick restoration of the southern states. At the same time, he refused to educate the freedmen and work them into society. His hope was that things would go back to the way they were before the war. Blacks would no longer be slaves but still be dependent on their former…

By Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Killing Lincoln as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The anchor of "The O'Reilly Factor" recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history - how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfil Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War, and the White House?

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