![]() ![]() Lowenstein ably chronicles the myriad economic problems facing each side. This led to widespread inequality and inefficiency, hampering the South’s ability to wage war. (For more on Chase, turn to Walter Stahr’s recent bio.) The economic differences between the North and South were vast, with the South essentially a monoculture of cotton exports, dependent on the North’s manufacturing base. Even before the war, just as Lincoln was assuming office, a recession loomed, and he tapped one of his rivals, Salmon P. ![]() His experience writing about financial matters, on display in such books as America’s Bank: The Epic Struggle To Create the Federal Reserve and The End of Wall Street, informs this fresh look at the president’s essential Republican roots as a self-made man, rather than slaveholder, and belief that anyone could be successful in America. Lowenstein is not a Lincoln scholar, but no matter. How Lincoln’s administration effected a significant expansion of the federal government to pay for the Civil War. ![]()
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