Hey, it's Empier's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. I'm generally suspect when people try to draw parallels between the political divisions we've got in the country today and the American Civil War.

But in today's interview, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer John Mietam brings up a point about divinity that might sway me. His new book

is a biography of Abraham Lincoln called And There Was Light, Abraham Lincoln and the American

Struggle. Lincoln's obviously had a book or two written about him before, but this one really

digs in on Lincoln's beliefs about slavery. Mietam gets talking to NPR's Steve Inskeep about how faith and belief in

God was at once a driving force for freedom, but also an impediment to democratic rule.

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In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors. On our new show, Sources and Methods. NPR

reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant

events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get

your podcasts. The historian John Meacham has known a few presidents. He wrote a biography of George H.W. Bush and

sometimes writes speeches for Joe Biden. Meacham says many presidents see Abraham Lincoln as a role model.

Lincoln was a politician, but he was a politician who ultimately was driven by conscience. This is my entire argument. If he had

solely been a cynical political creature, he would have made radically different decisions at critical

points. Meacham's book, And There Was Light, tells of the anti-slavery politician whose election as president in

1860 triggered the civil war. Lincoln struck back at the rebel states by ordering freedom

for their enslaved workers, the emancipation proclamation. But the first Republican president was

fiercely criticized by people who wanted less social change. And in 1864, he had to face the voters

for re-election. Henry Raymond, the editor of the New York Times and the chairman of the Republican

...