Lincoln and the fight for peace: John Avlon on a president in the shadow of new war

The statue of Abraham Lincoln is illuminated at sunrise as a visitor walks through the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

John Avlon has published a book about Abraham Lincoln and peace in a time of war. He sees the irony, of course.

“I’d like to think that sometimes I can look around corners,” says the CNN political analyst, a former editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast. “But I didn’t anticipate that Putin would invade Ukraine opposite the book.