Hay, the young Assistant Presidential Secretary, was like a son to Lincoln. The President, in the diary often affectionately and irreverently referred to as "The Tycoon", relaxed around Hay as around few others, giving the diarist an insight into the character of Lincoln which is almost unique. This alone would make the book worthwhile, but Hay's views on other personalities and events of those dramatic days are also valuable, and engagingly written.
Hay's diary has been published before, but incomplete and poorly edited. This is the first complete edition, with all the entries restored and with extensive explanatory notes, which are necesary to follow Hay's refernces to obscure persons and events.
Essential for the Lincoln scholar and highly recommended for anyone's Civil War shelf.

(The numerical rating above is an ineradicable default setting within the page. This reviewer does nort employ numerical ratings.)

We live in troubled times. The presidential candidate of one political p[arty is ridiculed for stating that Jesus is his favorite philosopher, and the vice-presidential candidate of the other political party is castigated for speaking about religion. What has happened to the moral tone of this country, which was founded by God-fearing men? Have we completely abandoned the idea that there is a Being who guides and guards us in all that we do? Abraham Lincoln, arguably our greatest president, believed that there was Someone watching over us at all times. He also believed vehemently that our governmental system was important, and that its structure was the best that could have been devised for the country. His words are eloquent, and call to us across the gap of 150 years. Reading this work, it is easy to restore some confidence in our governmental system, even though now it is being sorely tested by the eletoral events in Florida. This work could not have come along at a better time in our history, and it is well worth reading.

Burlingame's book is misnamed in my view - it is not 'The Inner World' as much as how Lincoln reacted to the outer world. The reader is left to judge ultimately for himself what Lincoln thought. This is a testament to Burlingame's restraint as a historian. He could have pounded away at all sorts of psychological concepts and explanations, but he does'nt Instead, except for some references to Carl Jung in the beginning of the book and a sprikling of psychological explanations throughout the chapters, he presents in a matter-of-fact way Lincoln's relationships with his wife, his sons, his generals, and discusses his temper, ambition, and parenting, with some, but not excessive, 'patient on the couch' pontificating.

The longest, and by far the most powerful, is the chapter on Lincoln's marriage. If only half, or even a quarter of what Burlingame recounts was true, then the potato-throwing, screaming, spendthrift Mary Lincoln must have been the worst wife on earth. In Springfield, Lincoln would often rush out the backdoor during Mary's 'episodes' - whisking his sons up with him and spending the night in his office, on a couch specially installed that was long enough to handle his tall frame. He was often beaten - a broom being Mary's weapon of choice. My God, the poor man needed his own Emancipation Proclamation!

The chapter on Lincoln's depression details how low this man could get. It was probably his Gloomy Gus outlook that saved Lincoln from completely cracking up; only a person familiar with depression and how to go on under difficult circumstances could withstand the strain of a war that killed 628,000 fellow citizens in four years. I am not a Lincoln scholar so I can't testify to the veracity of all that is in this book. But, reading it will provide you with a sense of how many trials this strange, ambitious, and great man endured - at home and in politics.

Burlingame does a great service with this book. He delves into Lincoln's psyche in a way that has perhaps never been done. This is not vain guessing on his part. He offers a virtual avalanche of sources throughout the book.

His Mary Todd Lincoln chapter is a welcome antidote to the "politically correct" version that somehow turns an emotionally and at times even physically abusive MTL into an endearing person.

Finally a work comes out that eschews the sugar-coated lies we have been spoon fed since grammar school regarding the fairy tale life of our 16th President. Mary Todd Lincoln is spared all revisionist attempts at painting her neuroses in a charming, adorable light and she is revealed for what she really was - a monstrous, chilidish, shrew of a woman! Great work, and I shall introduce it to my students as the defining truth of the Lincoln marriage and White House.