A dual portrait of two of America's most popular presidents describes the different ways they grew up, their respective political approaches, the historical events they helped shape, and the things they shared in common.

"An intimate study of Abraham Lincoln's powerful vision of democracy, which guided him through the Civil War and is still relevant today-by best-selling historian and three-time winner of the Lincoln Prize Abraham Lincoln grappled with the greatest crisis of democracy that has ever confronted the United States. While many books have been written about his temperament, judgment, and steady hand in guiding the country through the Civil War, we know...

"On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter. Master storyteller Erik Larson...