AUTHOR

Brian McGinty

Biographies & Memoirs | History

Brian McGinty is the author of twelve books and almost 200 articles dealing with American history, the American West, and American legal history. One of his specialties has been books about Abraham Lincoln. Born and raised in California, he earned degrees in American history and law from the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the Best Writing Prize from the National Historical Society, the Editor's Award for Historical Scholarship from the Sonoma County (California) Historical Society, a nomination for the One Book Arizona prize for 2008, and Honorable Mention in the 2010 Scribes Book Award of the American Society of Legal Writers. McGinty believes that neither history nor biography need be dull or plodding--that they can tell true stories accurately and in a style that ordinary readers find absorbing, even compelling. His most recent books include "Archy Lee's Struggle for Freedom: The True Story of California Gold, the Nation’s Tragic March Toward Civil War, and a Young Black Man’s Fight for Liberty" (Lyons Press/Rowman and Littlefield 2020), "The Rest I Will Kill: William Tillman and the Unforgettable Story of How a Free Black Man Refused to Become a Slave" (Liveright/Norton 2016), and "Lincoln's Greatest Case: The River, The Bridge, and the Making of America" (Liveright/Norton 2015). His books have received enthusiastic reviews in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Review, and the Library Journal. His "Lincoln's Greatest Case" was described as "masterful" by both the Christian Science Monitor and Publishers Weekly and as a "lively account" of a central episode "in America's economic and political development" by the Wall Street Journal. Others of McGinty's books have received similar praise. McGinty's books are available at Amazon Books, from the book publishers, and from other sellers. See brianmcgintyauthor.com.