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Title: Lincoln Reconsidered: Essays on the Civil War Era (Vintage) by David Herbert Donald ISBN: 0-375-72532-6 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 13 February, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Not so iconoclastic after all -- but an interesting study
Comment: Donald starts off his book as an iconoclast, intent on reversing the apotheosis of Lincoln. Lincoln was not, he asserts, the god among us that many ardent admirers believe. He gives examples of this uncritical adulation and states that Lincoln has been claimed by Mormons, vegetarians, and other disparate groups anxious to claim a popular figure as their own.
But, as it turns out, Donald's iconoclasm is a bit false. He reexamines Lincoln's more controversial points, and casts his verdict with the purveyors of the Lincoln legend. Did Lincoln imprison thousands of people without charges or trial? He did, but they deserved it. Did Lincoln destroy the Constitution by starting a war without the approval of Congress? Yes, but he had to abrogate the Constitution in order to save it.
Donald starts out bravely but in the end, cops out in favor of sentimental Lincolnism. I thought it a bit disappointing.
Rating: 5
Summary: 40 Years of Life; Lincoln Reconsidered fires the brain
Comment: Lincoln Reconsidered is a collection of provactive essays that probe the multiple depths of Abraham Lincoln--life and mythology. He paints Lincoln's portrait onto the background of the sectional conflict that led to the Civil War. Originally published about 1961, Donald's stories remain fresh and relevant. In fact the reader will encounter the thesis and outline for his recent prize-winning biography of Lincoln. I first encoutered LR in 1962 when I taught Advanced Placement American History and assigned portions of the book to my students. They loved it; you will. Donald is a superlative historian and stylist. Listen to these chapter headings: Getting Right With Lincoln, Reconsideration of Abolitionists, Herndon and Mrs. Lincoln, Folklore Lincoln, An Excess of Democracy. Readers of Donald's Lincoln will want to have this as a companion reference piece. It's rare for an historian's essays to experience such a rich and extended publishing history. Here's a quote from my faded copy of LR, a touch of wisdom for our parlous times: "...Lincoln knew that there were limits rational human activity, and that there was no virtue in irritably seeking to perform the impossible. As President, he could only do his best to handle problems as they arose and have a patient trusdt that popular support for his solutions would be forthcoming. But the ultimate decision was beyond his, or any man's, control. 'Now at the end of three years struggle,' he said, 'the nation's condition is not what either party, or any man, devised, or expected. God alone can claim it.'" Page after page runs like this, and virtually every theme connected to the Civil War gets enough discussion to stimulate and edify.
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Title: LINCOLN by David Herbert Donald ISBN: 068482535X Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 05 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution by James M. McPherson ISBN: 0195076060 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: May, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War by Thomas DiLorenzo ISBN: 0761536418 Publisher: Prima Lifestyles Pub. Date: 26 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil by James Bovard ISBN: 1403963681 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: The Lincoln No One Knows by Webb Garrison ISBN: 155853847X Publisher: Rutledge Hill Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
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