Reviews
An American Marriage: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd by Michael Burlingame
tschmitty's review against another edition
2.0
In all his years of researching Lincoln, I can feel this author's growing hatred for Mary Todd Lincoln fuming from every page. And he must have really despised her. Glad I am done finally done reading this.
socraticgadfly's review against another edition
4.0
Mary Lincoln with the bark off — WAY off.
First, contra one-star screeds on Amazon — they are — and, if any similar ones arise here, Burlingame has excellent research skills and shows it by the amount of material he cites, as well as by pointing out BAD research (and that might be charitable) by previous Mary Lincoln biographers. And no, he's not a misogynist. Citing national statistics about how many men are victims of domestic abuse is not misogynist.
Now that that's out of the way, let's proceed to the book, shall we?
Burlingame thoroughly documents just how much of a "problem" Mary Lincoln was. Having read many Lincoln bios as well as the one about Robert Lincoln that came out a few years ago, I still have to say that a fair amount of this was new to me.
Contra a reviewer here, and exactly to overturn the one-starrers at Amazon and those previous bad biographers, yes, Burlingame needed to refer extensively to all the research he had done. He also puts the lie to the claim that Herndon was a lifelong hater of Mary Lincoln.
Now, just how bad? Mary assaulted Abe with both hot coffee and hot tea, with stove wood, and repeatedly with a broom. She drew blood on one occasion. I had heard only about the stove wood.
Tying back to Bob Lincoln? I knew that Mary was severely depressed after Willie's death in 1862. I don't know that I had before heard that Abe himself had talked at that time about the possibility of institutionalizing her.
Nor had I heard of the full degree of mental/emotional/verbal abuse she heaped on him, from shortly after they were married to, essentially the end of his life. Burlingame documents this with many comments from women as well as men in Springfield. He also has comments from or about servants that Mary ran off due to her abuse of them.
Next, the grifting and grafting as First Lady. Again, I'd read a fair amount of this before, but not THIS much. Essentially accepting bribes to push people on her husband for nominations to a variety of positions, especially ones with opportunities for graft, like about anything related to the Collector of Customs for the Port of New York. And, I'd heard nothing before about the payroll skimming scheme. That's enough, to avoid spoiler alerts.
Then, there's the issue of the start of the marriage itself. Lincoln wanted to save his honor after breaking the engagement. Burlingame offers circumstantial evidence that Mary helped him help himself out by seducing him, with Abe being a semi-willing partner. (The circumstantial evidence includes Bob being born less than nine full months later, and the wedding being a rushed affair and not in a church.)
In his appendix — and don't you love it when academics squabble? — Burlingame throws several biographers of both Lincolns under the bus. The name probably best-known today is that of the "venerated" David Herbert Donald. In essence, Burlingame said they had much of the material available to them that he had (some of the items he used were only released in the middle 1990s), but took a powder.
BUT?
While it purports to be well-researched and gives every impression of that? No footnotes or endnotes. And, unlike some modern nonfiction, I'm not even referred to a website where they might exist. Kirkus Reviews talks about footnotes, but as I just told it on Twitter, ain't none in my copy.
So, it loses a star.
That's too bad, in light of the one-starrers, but it is what it is. And that "is," is inexcusable in a book that the author surely knew would be controversial both with the general public and with his fellow academics. There's also no formal bibliography.
First, contra one-star screeds on Amazon — they are — and, if any similar ones arise here, Burlingame has excellent research skills and shows it by the amount of material he cites, as well as by pointing out BAD research (and that might be charitable) by previous Mary Lincoln biographers. And no, he's not a misogynist. Citing national statistics about how many men are victims of domestic abuse is not misogynist.
Now that that's out of the way, let's proceed to the book, shall we?
Burlingame thoroughly documents just how much of a "problem" Mary Lincoln was. Having read many Lincoln bios as well as the one about Robert Lincoln that came out a few years ago, I still have to say that a fair amount of this was new to me.
Contra a reviewer here, and exactly to overturn the one-starrers at Amazon and those previous bad biographers, yes, Burlingame needed to refer extensively to all the research he had done. He also puts the lie to the claim that Herndon was a lifelong hater of Mary Lincoln.
Now, just how bad? Mary assaulted Abe with both hot coffee and hot tea, with stove wood, and repeatedly with a broom. She drew blood on one occasion. I had heard only about the stove wood.
Tying back to Bob Lincoln? I knew that Mary was severely depressed after Willie's death in 1862. I don't know that I had before heard that Abe himself had talked at that time about the possibility of institutionalizing her.
Nor had I heard of the full degree of mental/emotional/verbal abuse she heaped on him, from shortly after they were married to, essentially the end of his life. Burlingame documents this with many comments from women as well as men in Springfield. He also has comments from or about servants that Mary ran off due to her abuse of them.
Next, the grifting and grafting as First Lady. Again, I'd read a fair amount of this before, but not THIS much. Essentially accepting bribes to push people on her husband for nominations to a variety of positions, especially ones with opportunities for graft, like about anything related to the Collector of Customs for the Port of New York. And, I'd heard nothing before about the payroll skimming scheme. That's enough, to avoid spoiler alerts.
Then, there's the issue of the start of the marriage itself. Lincoln wanted to save his honor after breaking the engagement. Burlingame offers circumstantial evidence that Mary helped him help himself out by seducing him, with Abe being a semi-willing partner. (The circumstantial evidence includes Bob being born less than nine full months later, and the wedding being a rushed affair and not in a church.)
In his appendix — and don't you love it when academics squabble? — Burlingame throws several biographers of both Lincolns under the bus. The name probably best-known today is that of the "venerated" David Herbert Donald. In essence, Burlingame said they had much of the material available to them that he had (some of the items he used were only released in the middle 1990s), but took a powder.
BUT?
While it purports to be well-researched and gives every impression of that? No footnotes or endnotes. And, unlike some modern nonfiction, I'm not even referred to a website where they might exist. Kirkus Reviews talks about footnotes, but as I just told it on Twitter, ain't none in my copy.
So, it loses a star.
That's too bad, in light of the one-starrers, but it is what it is. And that "is," is inexcusable in a book that the author surely knew would be controversial both with the general public and with his fellow academics. There's also no formal bibliography.
mctmama's review against another edition
1.0
I listened to this on audio - I found it repetitive, disorganized and very prejudicial against Mary Todd Lincoln. I found it very presumptuous that his appendix was entitled " An appraisal of the literature on The Lincoln's Marriage". Not that she was above reproach - she most certainly had her faults, especially with using her husband's office and her verbal abuse. I feel that she was probably suffering from a form of mental illness and there really was no explanation.
wulfwyn's review
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.75
We listened to it on Audible. The narrator did a great job. A lot of interesting information. I felt bad for both of them. I think Mary had a lot to deal with and back then there wasn't therapy options. It didn't give her the right to treat people as she did but it does help to understand. I do believe that people who are hurting, often hurt others. I learned a lot I didn't know.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Bullying, and Toxic relationship
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