How Lincoln Saved The World?

There is an intriguing new book soon to be published by Michael Knox Beran, titled "Forge Of Empires 1861-1871: Three Revolutionary Statesmen and The World They Made" in which he proposes that Abraham Lincoln saved the world.

In an article from City Journal, the author gives a brief introduction to his belief that Lincoln did indeed save the world, not just the United States, from the evils of slavery. That in the end, if there had been a slave republic in North America (i.e. the Confederacy), that slavery may have spread throughout the Caribbean, and Central and South America. He claims that without a free America leading the fight for freedom throughout the world, our country would never have been able to morally fight the oppression within the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

As much as I love Abraham Lincoln, I'm not sure I'd agree that Lincoln "saved the world." On the surface, at least, it seems jingoistic at the least to claim this of Lincoln, and therefore America. This concept of "save the world" strikes me as a neo-conservative belief which leads us into unnecessary conflicts throughout the world.

Of course, it is impossible to judge the hypothesis of the author without a thorough reading and study of his forthcoming book.