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  • And There Was Light

  • Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
  • Written by: Jon Meacham
  • Narrated by: Jon Meacham
  • Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (18 ratings)

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And There Was Light

Written by: Jon Meacham
Narrated by: Jon Meacham
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Publisher's Summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, charting how—and why—he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America.

“Meacham has given us the Lincoln for our time.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize • Longlisted for the Biographers International Plutarch Award • One of the Best Books of the Year: The Christian Science Monitor, Kirkus Reviews

A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations.

At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen as the greatest of American presidents—a remote icon—or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln—an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment, essential to the story of justice in America, began as he grew up in an antislavery Baptist community; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him to see the right.

This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination in 1865: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end. In a nation shaped by the courage of the enslaved of the era and by the brave witness of Black Americans, Lincoln’s story illustrates the ways and means of politics in a democracy, the roots and durability of racism, and the capacity of conscience to shape events.

©2022 Jon Meacham (P)2022 Random House Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What the critics say

“In his captivating new book, Jon Meacham has given us the Lincoln for our time. And There Was Light brilliantly interweaves the best of gripping narrative history with a deeper search for the complex interplay among morality, politics, and power in a life, in a democracy, and in an America ripped apart over slavery. Here Meacham takes us to the heart of the president who shaped events at ‘the existential hour.’ In doing so, he fortifies us to meet our own.”—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

“Biography at its best, the great historian Barbara Tuchman wrote, paints an intimate portrait of an individual which simultaneously provides a sweeping view of history. With this deep, compelling work, Jon Meacham has achieved this gold standard. Written with wisdom and grace, his story of Lincoln’s complex moral journey to Emancipation mirrors America’s long quest to live up to its founding ideals.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin

“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

What listeners say about And There Was Light

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Swimming in Genius

How extraordinary it must have been for the author to wade through such a deep ocean of wisdom, political and moral. How lucky we are he did.

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Excellent

I appreciated the rhythm Jon Meacham developed with his prose and with his voice. Top shelf.

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This book is outstanding in all ways.

I was just thinking...I was born 101 years after the Emancipation Proclamation...yet black women didn't get the vote until one year after I was born. SMH

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  • Diane Moore
  • 2022-10-31

A Winner

Jon Meacham has a way of crafting his books in a way that fully lays out the environment of the times on many levels. Soul of the Nation gave me hope for the future that we will survive this mess we are in and And There Was Light underscores for me that democracy is messy but survivable. Lincoln was a truly remarkable man and leader influenced by his environment as we all are. However his groundedness anchored him to what is right and what is truth. He sometimes waivered but never faltered. I also love that Meacham is the narrator as his voice is so calming.

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25 people found this helpful

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  • Lynn Ochberg
  • 2022-11-13

A preachy version of Lincoln's life.

Anyone who loves America should read as much as he/she can find about our nation's fine role model, Abraham Lincoln, and Meacham's treatment is very much a hagiography. But for the prevalence of quotes from Christian preachers that were Lincoln's contemporaries, this book is satisfyingly rich in primary sources of many points of view of our 16th president. Meacham reads his own book, however, with a tone of voice that oozes with paternalism and might turn off someone who is not a devout Christian. Fortunately, there were many anecdotes that were charming and rich additions to Lincoln's life story. These were gratifying to collect, like pretty shells one finds on a walk on the beach.

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19 people found this helpful

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  • Samuel W. Huxford
  • 2022-11-01

Meacham Is Great

Having read a biography of every American President up through Obama and a half dozen or so biographies of Lincoln - I would sayAnd There Was Light ranks among the best. Perhaps it is because Lincoln’s story is so amazing or his times were so demanding, but this was a “can’t stop listening” audio book. Meacham himself reading it was certainly a plus.

It could also be that the parallels in that age and our own are worth paying attention to.

It is a fabulous book every thoughtful American should read - on both sides of the great political divide.

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15 people found this helpful

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  • Barbara or Jerold Gendler
  • 2022-10-30

Masterpiece

I’ve read a number of books on Lincoln but none like this . I believe we can now put this vreat man to rest as there’s nothing further to say about this man’s life & death . Jon Meacham has given mankind a gift for the ages to be savored & studied for ever & ever . Amen

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11 people found this helpful

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  • JMNE
  • 2022-10-30

New insights into the remarkable, complex 16th President

I have always been a fan of Abraham Lincoln’s. This book gave me a new insight and reason to respect and admire the man and the leader, even more. It reveals the human as well as the leader in new light that reveals a moral compass, often missing in today’s politics.

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9 people found this helpful

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  • J. Spence
  • 2022-10-22

Really enjoying this

Incredibly well written and researched. Always fun to hear another angle on Abe. Yeah you feel like you’re on a first name basis after listening to this book. My only gripe is the monotone author maybe isn’t the best suited for a self-narrative.I find my mind drifting away too easily

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9 people found this helpful

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  • CHRIS
  • 2022-12-21

Jon Beachum

Very one sided “woke” opinionated point of view with very little factual insight as it should’ve simply been titled “1619 part 2” never again will I arbitrarily choose a book from audible without fact checking both author-novel. I can remember a time when you could trust that what we were reading was credible and not politically inspired. Sad!

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  • stanley m Yantis
  • 2022-11-11

A Story Well Told

I love reading anything written by John Meachum.
Nevertheless, this book offered a retelling of the Lincon Saga without breaking new ground or revealing much that I didn't already know.
If you are new to biographies of Abe Lincoln and want to learn more about him, this is a very good initiation.

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  • David Rabren
  • 2022-10-29

Lincoln from Mortal to Immortal

Very educational and listening to the narration by Jon Meacham himself was a wonderful bonus.

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  • HDB
  • 2022-11-12

Not his best work

It’s a given that Jon Meacham is brilliant. This book, however has been done over and over again. Maybe some of the anecdotes and firsthand points-of-view are new-ish. The conclusions he draws, while timely and extremely important, are already well known. Well, we SHOULD know them.

And please either pretend to be interested in your own book or get a voice actor. Meacham could make a killing on one of those apps that are supposed to make you sleep.

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3 people found this helpful