A New Book Provides Vital And Vivid New Insights Into Abraham Lincoln

Matthew Pinsker’s “Boss Lincoln” looks at the man who used America’s party politics to help create the Republican Party to lead the way on emancipation.

Arthur Schaper | August 14, 2026

Lincoln the Emancipator.

Lincoln the Liberator.

Lincoln the Republican.

Lincoln the Democrat.

Lincoln the Colonizer.

Lincoln the Southerner, Atheist, Compromiser, Racist, etc.

Our beloved, bellowed, hallowed, and hated Sixteenth President has endured a host of labels, from contemporaries to modern luminaries seeking to crystallize his legacy, for better or for the worse.

One of the most consequential, if not the greatest, presidents in our history, it’s no surprise that more books get published exploring the man, the myth, and the manifest destiny of this seminal figure of American history than any other.

Lincoln the politician is certainly well-known and well-read. If you want to make a difference in government, you must get elected. Lincoln understood this obvious yet deceptively simple principle. Politics is the game if you want policy to hold your name.

Some negatives about Lincoln come from opportunists, some within his own party. Many have lingered from critical revisionists who have cast shade on his place in the presidential pantheon.

Yet one of the latest books written describing the inner and outer workings of this commanding president, one of his most plenary, extensive roles throughout his political life, was: Lincoln the Party Organizer, Lincoln the Hoss, or, to quote Matthew Pinsker’s latest book, he was “Boss Lincoln.”

Taking a unique, quieter biographical tour (and tour de force) of our nation’s greatest President through the view of his political workings, Matthew Pinsker reveals to us the quiet yet profound underpinnings of Lincoln the party man, who wanted to broker then build a movement, starting with his adopted state of Illinois to the national party campaigns, that would end slavery while also making room for internal improvements and ending the Jacksonian........

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