Doris Kearns Goodwin
Pulitzer Prize winning author and Presidential historian; Author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

“Lewis E. Lehrman does a brilliant job of dramatizing a critical moment in Lincoln's life that has never before been given the careful attention it deserves. In his book, Lincoln at Peoria, he has forever given the Peoria speech of 1854 its rightful place in Lincoln's story. As a result this elegant study provides fresh insight into both the growth of Abraham Lincoln as a masterful leader and the tumultuous decade of the 1850s. It is a book that deserves an honored place in the literature of our 16th President.”

James M. McPherson
Pulitzer Prize winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University.

“Abraham Lincoln’s speech at Peoria, Illinois in October 1854 climaxed his return to the political stage, in response to Stephen A. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act passed that year. This famous speech outlined Lincoln's political faith and marked the first of several titanic contests with Douglas that carried through the founding of the Republican party, the debates in 1858, and the presidential election of 1860. Lewis Lehrman's detailed study of the context, rhetoric, and consequences of this speech offers new insights on Lincoln's rise to greatness. Lincoln at Peoria takes its place among the important Lincoln books in this bicentennial season.”

Michael Burlingame
Award-winning author of An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln, The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln and a forthcoming multi-volume biography of Lincoln, and other books on Abraham Lincoln.

“Lewis E. Lehrman’s eloquent, thorough study of Lincoln’s first oratorical masterpiece makes a major new contribution to Lincoln studies. We have had studies of the Gettysburg Address, the Second Inaugural, and the Cooper Union Speech, but until now no study of the magnificent 1854 Peoria Speech, in which Lincoln made his debut as a spokesman for the antislavery cause. The speech deserves to be far better known than it is. Lehrman’s book, Lincoln At Peoria will achieve this purpose. As an early biographer of the sixteenth president put it, the speech was “really a great one” which ought to be carefully read by every one who desires to know Mr. Lincoln's power as a debater, after his intellect was matured and ripened by years of hard experience. Those who do know the Peoria speech will gain a fuller appreciation of its context and significance from this beautifully written, well-documented study.”

Samuel G. Freedman
Pulitzer Prize finalist, award-winning author, national columnist, and professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

“Lewis E. Lehrman has brought his gifts as a scholar and a narrative writer into full view. His book, Lincoln At Peoria, is a remarkable and eloquent treatment of Lincoln, the private citizen, during the 1850s. He gives us our greatest president at the very moment that greatness first emerged, not in the White House or at Gettysburg but in the Illinois town where, as an idealistic lawyer, he mounted his moral campaign against slavery.”

David Brion Davis
Winner, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and Bancroft Prize. Sterling Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University.

“Lewis E. Lehrman's new book provides an indispensable analysis of Abraham Lincoln's approach to the central issue of slavery. Fully attuned to the vast historiography on the subject, Lehrman focuses on Lincoln's magnificent speech in Peoria in October 1854 to demonstrate how Lincoln's fusion of firm moral principle with a comprehensive grasp of history and the pragmatics of American politics created a road to the future.”

James Oliver Horton
George Washington University, award-winning historian and co-author of Slavery and the Making of America

“This is a fascinating study of Abraham Lincoln as revealed through his words, ideas and evolving philosophy. With impressive research and writing that grips the reader, Lewis Lehrman’s meticulous analysis of one of Lincoln’s little known speeches in the turbulent decade of the 1850s contributes to our understanding of one of America’s greatest leaders during the most critical period in the nation’s history. This is a must read for anyone seeking to understand Lincoln and his time, a pivotal time that laid the foundation for our own.”