It is fair to say that two of the greatest wartime leaders in Western history are Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill. They lived in different eras, fought different types of wars for national survival, and came from antithetical backgrounds, educations, and experiences; yet as war leaders they shared the common traits of integrity, perseverance, and grit; they knew how to lead by both physical and rhetorical example and were willing to sacrifice everything — even their lives — in the cause of freedom.

It is fair to say that two of the greatest wartime leaders in Western history are Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill. They lived in different eras, fought different types of wars for national survival, and came from antithetical backgrounds, educations, and experiences; yet as war leaders they shared the common traits of integrity, perseverance, and grit; they knew how to lead by both physical and rhetorical example and were willing to sacrifice everything — even their lives — in the cause of freedom.

Washington: A LifeBy Ron Chernow (The Penguin Press, 904 pages, $40) At the end of the Revolutionary War, as General…

Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point By Lewis E. Lehrman (Stackpole Books, 412 pages, $29.95)     The first Lincoln-Douglas…