. >> joining us on book tv is kevin peraino who is the author of "lincoln in the world" the making of a statesman and the dawn of american power. mr. peraino what is the tack you are taking with abraham lincoln? >> are 15,000 books about abraham lincoln but his foreign policy is almost never treated so my book is about lincoln and u.s. foreign policy. part of the reason that there hasn't been a book on his foreign policy in nearly 70 years kind of a holistic human narrative about it, that's before the lincoln papers were released in the library of congress in 1947. so there's a lot of water under the bridge since then but i think one of the reasons there hasn't been a book about lincoln lincoln's foreign policies he had a very strong incompetent secretary of state in william henry seward. he dedicated a lot to seward. he didn't do a lot in foreign affairs but the things he did do were really important. i sliced a little differently. i have taken a look at the things that lincoln do and foreign relations. without saying he did everything or without saying everything right, he made some

kevin peraino, what is the catch that you are taking with abraham lincoln? >> books about abraham lincoln but the policy is never treated as though my book is about lincoln and u.s. foreign policy. part of the reason is there hasn't been a policy in nearly 70 years, a kind of holistic human narrative about it and that is before the lincoln papers were released in congress in 1947, so there is a lot of water under the bridge, but i think that one of the reasons there hasn't been a book about the foreign policy is that there's a strong and competent secretary of state. he delegated a lot and so lincoln didn't do everything in foreign affairs. but the things he did do are really important, so i sliced it a little differently. i've taken a look at the things lincoln did do in the foreign relations but without saying he did everything right by the way. he made some mistakes, too. >> was the foreign policy all tied into the civil war? >> we treat the civil war appeared to in this book and i also have a chapter early on about the mexican war. lincoln was a freshman