Posted on 06/15/2010 12:04:20 PM PDT by winstonwolf33
I'm planning on reading a biography of Abraham Lincoln for a nice non-fiction change of pace. As you can imagine, there's so many Lincoln biographies out there I wouldn't know where to begin! Certainly, I would like to begin with the cream of the crop, but which one would it be? Even if I do a search in Amazon.com for Abraham Lincoln biographies sorted by five-star average customer reviews, a truckload of titles pop out.
Here's just a few of those titles:
Lincoln and His Admirals by Craig L. Symonds
Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words (Vintage) by Douglas L. Wilson
Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography by Jr. Philip B. Kunhardt, Philip B. Kunhardt III, Peter W. Kunhardt, and David Herbert Donald
The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words by Ronald C. White
Lincoln as I Knew Him: Gossip, Tributes and Revelations from His Best Friends and Worst Enemies by Harold Holzer
A. Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours by W. Emerson Reck
The Physical Lincoln Complete by John G. Sotos
Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years & the War Years (Library of the Presidents) by Carl Sandburg
The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: The Story of America's Most Reviled President by Larry Tagg
Abe's Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Doreen Rappaport and Kadir Nelson
Lincoln's Other White House: The Untold Story of the Man and His Presidency by Elizabeth Smith Brownstein
Abraham Lincoln For The Defense by Warren Bull (Paperback - June 9, 2003)
Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life : The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln by William Henry Herndon and Jesse William Weik
Abraham Lincoln: The Man & His Faith by G. Frederick Owen
Tell Me of Lincoln: Memories of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and Life in Old New York by James Edward Kelly, William B. Styple, and James E. Kelly
The Essential Lincoln by Tim Davidson
With Charity for All: Lincoln and the Restoration of the Union by William C. Harris (Paperback - June 24, 1999)
So after a while, I pretty much gave up on Amazon and decided to just jump in here and see if I can get some feedback from my fellow Freepers. Any recommendations?
In the 1770s the American people had no representation in the British government. In contrast the southern people had pretty much controlled the American government from 1800 until Lincoln’s election.
Then the Slavers threw a hissy fit and provoked a war which cost 600,000 lives. They destroyed their homeland over their addiction to slavery. Smart boys.
“Secession was never “legal”. The only way that it could be legal would be an amendment to the Constitution allowing it.”
Oddly enough, I agree with you on this point. Secession was not legal. And it still isn’t. But when you get to the point of rebellion, it’s long past being a matter of legality.
Well it is a matter of WHO is on the point of rebellion. The New Englanders of 1804 were just as wrong as the Southern ruling class of 1860 and with far more justification than them. After all Jefferson had destroyed their economy whereas the Slavers revolted before he even took office.
Those “aholes” would be the Jeffersonians.
George and Weezy?
Hahahahaha...you a funny sob...when the Federal Govt decides to change you’re whole way of life, let me know how you feel about it.
“There is a very small, very vocal, and uber-rabid coven of Lost Causers skulking around FreeRepublic. They’re amusing in short doses, but I would avoid prolonged contact...”
Yes, and thankfully they’re outnumbered by the Lincoln apologists who spend their free time fantasizing about the “Good Old Days” when they could put those uppity southerners in their place.
In either case, there was not the legal or Constitutional basis to secede.
“Justification” depends on perspective. The south was obviously angry enough to start shooting.
I didn’t say southerners - I said Lost Causers. I’ve learned that these losers come from all over.
Concurring Old Flag bump.
The federal government has continuously changed our whole way of life that is what it was designed to do in making “...a more perfect Union...” funny boy.
And the taking power of Jeffersonian democracy had a whole lot to do with it both from voters and from having to deal with its ultimate conclusion in 1861.
Before the RAT Rebellion the federal government was tiny. Its growth was, like every war since, almost entirely because of the demands of the war.
This one I read last year. It was the large hardback version. You kind of grow with it.
No, it's about all that knee-jerk Lincoln loathers like yourself deserve. And I also notice that you ignored my question as well. Par for the course.
But LIARS, like Non-Sequitur, are more comfortable citing revisionist history.
Revisionist history like David Herbert Donald or James McPherson or Doris Goodwin? Oh, I forget. Anyone whose position differs from historical giants like Tommy DiLorenzo or the Kennedy brothers is revisionist. It's easy to come to that conclusion when one's standards for accuracy are as low as your own.
Donald's description of Lincoln's trip make it clear that Lincoln traveled alone from the beginning. He notes that when Lincoln reached D.C. he sent a telegram to his wife in Harrisburg that he arrived safely. How could that have happened if she had originally been on the train with him?
...Mary Todd Lincoln. E.g. Turner and Turner’s Mary Todd Lincoln, Her Life and Letters...
Even your own source admits Mary Lincoln was on a separate train.
I have also quoted to him the reports of a NY Times correspondent allowed to ride with Lincoln (obviously a Lincoln supporter) and the report of Lincoln's own security guy, Pinkerton, who alerted him to the threats.
By all means post it again. Or for the first time, as the case may be.
You apparently haven't spent much time on Civil War threads posted around here.
I would put the accuracy of "The Real Lincoln" on a par with book mentioned in reply 21.
By all means post it again. Or for the first time, as the case may be.
No need to post these again. You can follow the links if you wish.
April 06, 2003 2:38:59 PM by ml/njYou could have found these yourself if you were really interested. But you're not. You're obviously more interested in blowing smoke.April 06, 2003 5:13:25 PM by ml/nj
Please don't bother me again with this, and your holier than thou remarks. I'm not the one making stuff up here.
ML/NJ
Actually the NY Times was a pro-Lincoln paper and the Times reporter was one of five people who knew about Lincoln's plans in advance. He was there. He was a witness. Donald is some guy who wrote a sugar coated history, apparently without footnotes, in 1996.
And the issue isn't whether Lincoln sneaked off a train in disguise. It is that he abandoned his wife and children letting then continue on on a train he believed might be attacked.
ML/NJ
any book on Lincoln written prior to 1960 will probably do
better yet, ask why so many FReepers, Beck and NeoCons and RINOS worship Lincoln too and treat Jefferson like the red headed stepchild
that is a twist in history different from my childhood
I wonder where you think these "distinguished historians" get their information from. They either see it, it's a giant game of telephone, or they make it up.
Another guy who just happened to see it was Allan Pinkerton. He was Lincoln's security guy. In 1866 he wrote:
Mrs. Lincoln, accompanied by Mr. Judd and the rest of the cortege, left Harrisburg and went through to Baltimore. Before she left, however, the news had been telegraphed all over, of the arrival of Mr. Lincoln in Washington. Upon arrival of the party in Baltimore they met with anything but a cordial reception. These things, however, you can glean from the Newspapers of that day.This paragraph is footnoted in the copy I have which comes from Lincoln and the Baltimore Plot, an edited collection of papers by Norma Cuthbert which I obtained because it was cited by McPherson and others. The footnote gives a much larger excerpt from the same NY Times article I quoted from earlier in this thread. To be fair, I would note that after the two page excerpt from the Times, the footnote includes a short paragraph about the recollections of another member of the party written 45 years after the fact [Cuthbert's observation, not mine] that no incivility was encountered by them in Baltimore.
Of course the issue isn't what happened or didn't happen to Mrs. Lincoln, but rather what Mr. Lincoln thought might happen. He obviously feared for his safety riding on that same train that his wife and family stayed on. Of this there is little doubt.
ML/NJ
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