Abraham Lincoln: The Enigmatic President

In 1864, an anonymous hardbound pamphlet was published entitled “Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro.” The word "miscegenation" was coined by the authors who claimed it was a scientific theory describing how racial blending enhances humanity. The pamphlet encouraged the interbreeding of people from different racial or ethnic groups through marriage or sexual relations. During the Civil War period, the North was terrified that freed slaves would swarm their states. Racial bigotry was real and serious. Northerners were frightened for good reasons. For seven decades, slaveholders and their sympathizers in the North had exclaimed on the floor of Congress, in newspapers, in churches, and in pubs that emancipation would cause hordes of black men to migrate north to take the White man’s job and daughters. Tribal instincts were fanned until they were burned into the subconscious of most Americans. After their defeats at ...

    Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Volume 2) by Michael Burlingame To begin, I did not read Volume I because this was a research book for my current novel, Maelstrom , which is about Lincoln as president. I also did not read Volume II . I listened to it, so this is a review of the audio version. I think audio is a good test of writing style, and Burlingame has an excellent style that is so smooth and clear that I seldom rewound. The content is exhaustive. Listening to only Volume II took me over six months. Abraham Lincoln: A Life was my walking companion for untold miles, and Burlingame made every one of those miles enjoyable and educational. Despite voluminous detail, Burlingame made it all interesting. I especially liked all the quotes from newspapers and personal letters , which gave me a sense of the time and public mood.  I began to think of Burlingame as a talkative friend who made me look forward to my daily exercise routine. I identified the narrator's voice as Micha...

  Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America by Garry Wills Lincoln at Copper Union: The Speech that Made Abraham Lincoln President by Harold Holzer Each of these books covers a single important speech by Abraham Lincoln. The Cooper Union Address set a course for his presidential quest, and the famous Gettysburg Address reset the course of the war. The speeches were delivered about 3.5 years apart. The Cooper Union Address was given in New York City on February 27, 1860, prior to Lincoln’s nomination as the Republican presidential candidate. The Gettysburg Address was delivered on November 19, 1863, about four months after the battle. Both books are highly readable and well-researched. Wills won the Pulitzer Prize for Lincoln at Gettysburg, and Holzer won the Lincoln Prize for his book on the Cooper Union Address. It might seem hard to write an entire book about a single speech, but Wills and Holzer had no difficulty filling the pages. More importantly, readers wil...

  The Myth of the Lost Cause: Why the South Fought the Civil War and Why the North Won By Edward H. Bonekemper III The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War by Thomas J. DiLorenzo This post deals with two books on the “Lost Cause.” Thomas J. DiLorenzo presents the case for the Lost Cause in The Real Lincoln : A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, while Edward H. Bonekemper argues against the Lost Cause in The Myth of the Lost Cause : Why the South Fought the Civil War and Why the North Won. What is the Lost Cause? The basic tenants are as follows: the War of Northern Aggression had nothing to do with slavery; the South did nothing to provoke war; the Constitution included a right to secede and the South should have been allowed to leave peacefully; antebellum life in the South was prosperous, dignified, and just; slavery was already dying; Robert E. Lee deserved deification, U. S. Grant deserved demonization, t...

  LAND OF LINCOLN: ADVENTURES IN ABE'S AMERICA by Andrew Ferguson Land of Lincoln  is a fun memoir of a modern-day search for the real Abraham Lincoln. In childhood, Andrew Ferguson had been a Lincoln buff but had developed other interests in adulthood. The enigmatic and “shut-mouth” Lincoln provided pundits an open field for speculation. As a result, a plethora of interpretations have been tossed around that purport to explain his personality, beliefs, motivations, administration, family, and even sexual orientation. Glorifying tributes stand beside hate-filled censures. Ferguson trekked across the country to get a fix on the man. He traversed the Lincoln Heritage Trail with his family, visited major and lesser-known memorials, interviewed Lincoln collectors, gawked at Lincoln impersonators, and spoke with guides, academics, and park rangers. Lincoln remained elusive, but Ferguson’s wit and lively writing style kept the quest entertaining and educational … although the reader...