On April 4, 1864, Abraham Lincoln made a shocking admission about his presidency during the Civil War. ""I claim not to have controlled events,"" he wrote in a letter, ""but confess plainly that events have controlled me."" Lincoln's words carry an invaluable lesson for wartime presidents, writes Andrew J. Polsky in this seminal book. As Polsky shows, when commanders-in-chief do try to control wartime events, more often than not they fail utterly.In Elusive Victories, Polsky provides a fascinating study of six wartime presidents, drawing larger lessons about the limits of the power of the Whit |