Studding this story are abundant examples of Lincoln’s determination at war’s end to blend justice with reconciliation, lest justice alone become punishing and reconciliation alone produce a peace that made the war’s horrendous loss of life “meaningless.” And, Avlon believes, the Lincolnian example could be a similar balm for our political wounds today.Īvlon devotes much of “Lincoln and the Fight for Peace” to the last six weeks of Lincoln’s life, from his eloquent Second Inaugural (and its memorable exhortation, as the Civil War folded to its close, to show “malice toward none” and “charity for all”) to his assassination on April 14, 1865. In this elegant, almost conversational, exposition of Lincoln the “soulful centrist,” the 16th president appears as the reconciler in chief, who not only saved democracy from destruction in war but also pointed the way to saving it from inertia and futility in peace. John Avlon - who edited The Daily Beast from 2013 to 2018, is now an analyst for CNN and has published serious studies of American political centrism - believes he has a solution to polarization, if not polar weather, and that is the figure of Abraham Lincoln. Political polarization and the weather have this in common: Everyone talks about them, but nobody seems to do anything about them. LINCOLN AND THE FIGHT FOR PEACE By John Avlon
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