Author Kevin Peraino to Speak on Lincoln in the World

What can be left to learn about Abraham Lincoln? So much has been written about Lincoln’s domestic leadership, yet his deft diplomacy abroad is much less well known. In his recently published book Lincoln in the World: The Making of a Statesman and the Dawn of American Power, debut author and veteran journalist Kevin Peraino traces Lincoln’s early opposition to the Mexican-American War through his critical management of relations with Britain and France during the Civil War.

“Lincoln came into the presidency professing that, as a country lawyer, he knew nothing about foreign affairs. He had never been abroad,” says James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom. “Yet as Kevin Peraino shows in this penetrating account, Lincoln steered American policy through the shoals of potential foreign intervention in the Civil War and brought the U.S. triumphantly through this crisis as the exemplar of democratic freedoms in a changing world.”

Mr. Peraino will visit the Glencoe Public Library on Wednesday, December 4, at 7:00 p.m. to read from his book on the foreign affairs role of our 16th president. His book will be available for purchase and signing at the event from the Book Stall at Chestnut Court.

 “At once informative and interesting, showcasing the formation of specific slices of Lincoln’s foreign policy and portraying a very human Lincoln—as opposed to the demigod he has become in the popular imagination.... A perceptive work that is both entertaining and accessible to a general readership.” --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“In his workmanlike debut, veteran journalist Peraino examines Abraham Lincoln’s role in American foreign policy, ‘one of the few sparsely stocked corners of an otherwise massive library.’” --Kirkus Reviews

Kevin Peraino is a veteran foreign correspondent who has reported from throughout the world. He spent a decade at Newsweek, most recently as a senior writer and bureau chief in the Middle East. He was a finalist for the Livingston Award for his foreign affairs reporting and was part of the team that won a National Magazine Award for its coverage of the 2004 presidential campaign. Mr. Peraino is a graduate of Northwestern University and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations.