About Lincoln

I anticipate reading books about Lincoln the rest of my life. But currently I am getting tired of reading about our 16th President. I need a Lincoln break!

The book I'm finishing now is THE BEST HISTORICAL ESSAYS ON LINCOLN edited by Sean Wilentz, one of our leading 19th century historians. This volume collects what Wilentz thinks is the best on Lincoln.

Richard Hofstadter's essay "Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Made Myth" is the BEST short treatment of Lincoln bar none. Hofstadter gives us a conservative Lincoln who was pushed by events and who created the American myth of the self-made man. My conclusion likewise is that Lincoln was very much a conservative on race and slavery (even by the standards of the 19th century) though his Whig economics (goverment spending for infrastructure development which is anathma to today's Republicans) is quite liberal by today's reckoning.

James Oliver Horton's "Naturally Anti-Slavery" puts Lincoln's anti-slavery positions in proper historical perspective. Horton seems to believe that Lincoln abandoned colonization because he said no more about it after December of 1862. I'm not sure about this. It's funny to make an assumption about the mind of Abraham Lincoln based on his silence!

Richard Current's piece on Lincoln the politician is the best treatment on the subject. The same can be said---the best treatment---of McPherson's discussion of Lincoln's policy of unconditional surrender.

All in all this is certainly a handy and necessary addition to the Lincoln canon.