THE DAY LINCOLN LOST
An inventive historical
thriller that re-imagines the tumultuous presidential election of 1860,
capturing the people desperately trying to hold the nation together—and
those trying to crack it apart.
Abby Kelley Foster
arrived in Springfield, Illinois, with the fate of the nation on her
mind. Her fame as an abolitionist speaker had spread west and she knew
that her first speech in the city would make headlines. One of the
residents reading those headlines would be none other than the likely
next president of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln, lawyer
and presidential candidate, knew his chances of winning were good. All
he had to do was stay above the fray of the slavery debate and appear
the voice of reason until the people cast their votes. The last thing he
needed was a fiery abolitionist appearing in town. When her speech
sparks violence, leading to her arrest and a high-profile trial, he
suspects that his political rivals have conspired against him.
President James
Buchanan is one such rival. As his term ends and his political power
crumbles, he gathers his advisers at the White House to make one last
move that might derail Lincoln’s campaign, steal the election and throw
America into chaos.
A fascinating
historical novel and fast-paced political thriller of a nation on the
cusp of civil war, The Day Lincoln Lost offers an unexpected window into
one of the most consequential elections in our country’s history.
Goodreads description
MY REVIEW
I received a review copy of The Day Lincoln Lost from the publisher via Net Galley when I signed up for this blog tour. The Day Lincoln Lost is the second alternate history I've read by Charles Rosenberg. The first was The Trial and Execution of the Traitor George Washington which I reviewed here . Both books have titles which set up expectations of truly terrible events that happened in their respective alternate timelines. I feel that The Day Lincoln Lost didn't depart as much from established history as Rosenberg's earlier book. Yet it's still definitely alternate history. As an aficionado of alternate history, I was delighted to find another example of the genre that is well-researched and plausible.
Another aspect of this novel that I really liked is the strong female characters. My favorite was the real Quaker abolitionist speaker Abby Kelley Foster. See her Wikipedia article for some information about her actual life at Abby Kelley . Below is a public access image of Abby Kelley Foster from that Wikipedia article.
The forthrightness and alternative lifestyle of this Quaker woman activist as portrayed in The Day Lincoln Lost, reminded me of the 18th century Quaker abolitionist Benjamin Lay who pioneered the tactics of radical abolitionists in colonial America. See my review of Marcus Rediker's biography, The Fearless Benjamin Lay here. If Benjamin Lay could have time traveled to the 19th century, he probably would have considered Abby Kelley Foster a kindred spirit.
My readers will want to know about the characterization of Abraham Lincoln in Rosenberg's book. You should know that I'm not a huge fan of Lincoln. It seems to me that he was a pragmatic politician, and that he didn't intend to be the President who emancipated the slaves. See my review of the alternate history novel The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln here . I think that Charles Rosenberg shows us a Lincoln who could be pragmatic, but he also cared about justice and about the United States of America remaining intact. In this novel, Lincoln was a complex figure who was neither a saint nor a cynic, but somewhere in between.
A nuanced protagonist like this Lincoln is what makes The Day That Lincoln Lost an intriguing book. I recommend it to other readers who enjoy wandering into the rabbit holes of what if in alternate history. I also found it quite relevant to be immersed in reading about a crucial turning point for democracy in America while living through another such crisis.
Charles Rosenberg 
Photo by Deborah Geffner
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