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Lincoln in the World:

The Making of a Statesman and

the Dawn of American Power

By Kevin Peraino

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Abraham Lincoln is not often remembered as a great foreign policy president.  Yet, during the Civil War, Lincoln and his team skillfully managed to stare down Europe's great powers - deftly avoiding their intervention on the side of the Confederacy.  In the process, the United States emerged as a world power in its own right.   

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Lincoln in the World is a tale set at the intersection of personal character and national power.  This is a tightly written narrative that focuses on five distinct, intensely human conflicts that helped define Lincoln's approach to foreign affairs.  They extend from his debate, as a young congressman, with his law partner William Herndon over the conduct of the War with Mexico through his deadlock with Napoleon III over the  French occupation of Mexico.  

With research into overlooked archives, this book reveals the 16th president to be one of the key architects of America's emergence as a global superpower.  Lincoln in the World develops the under reported role he played on the world stage during those tumultuous years of war and division.

Kevin Peraino is a veteran foreign correspondent and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He is a graduate of Northwestern University.     

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