Abraham Lincoln’s World

1945 Newbery Honor Title

With her whimsical and informative illustrations and timelines, Foster has magnificently captured a remarkable age and a remarkable man. The author earned her reputation by her masterful display of “horizontal history” telling the story of world events in the geo-political sphere, while giving as much importance to advances in science, medicine, music, art, literature, and exploration.

Thus, while Abe Lincoln was a boy romping the woods of Kentucky, Thomas Jefferson was completing his eighth year as president, George III reigned in Great Britain and Napolean was about to meet his Waterloo. Beethoven and Sir Walter Scott were at the height of their creative powers, while Victor Hugo was staging plays at school. By the time Lincoln was old enough to help his father chop wood, other young boys and girls were being prepared for the future parts they would play. Harriet Beecher was reading anything she could get her hands on, Charles Darwin was collecting toads, crabs and shells, and the impoverished boy Dickens was working in a shoe blacking factory in London.

When Lincoln opened his shop in Salem, David Livingstone was exploring Africa, and thousands of Americans were opening up the West on the Oregon Trail. The spirit of freedom was moving around the globe as the abolitionist movement gained power in the States and serfdom saw its demise in Russia. Technologically the world was bursting with the invention of the telegraph, the railroad and the steamboat.