Lincoln scholarship continues to flourish
by ulrich
Abraham Lincoln's birthday anniversary (Sunday, February 12) is an appropriate occasion to note the ongoing contributions to the historical appraisals and biographical investigations which are continuously amplifying the huge literature on the 16th president. Richard Carwardine's soon to be released Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power will probably be one of the most important Lincoln books of the next few years. Written by a British scholar, the book is a judicious, generally laudatory, portrait of Lincoln as man and president. Joshua Shenk's Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled his Greatness claims that Lincoln was a lifelong sufferer of depression, but that he used it to strenthen his resolve and commitment to the causes he fought for. A more controversial analysis of Lincoln's personality is C.A. Tripp's The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, by a well-known therapist and former Kinsey sex researcher, which argues that Lincoln was bisexual, and exhibited many homosexual traits.
The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words by Ronald C. White examines Lincoln's wartime speeches and pronouncements in great detail to show the power and sources of his rhetoric. A fascinating look at how Lincoln was perceived at the time is provided in Lincoln in the Times: The Life of Abraham Lincoln, as Originally Reported in the New York Times which shows how that newspaper portrayed him from the time of the Lincoln-Douglas debates to his death. Finally, James C. Swanson has penned a tensely, dramatic account of Lincoln's assassination and the frantic search for his murderer and accomplices in Manhunt: The 12-day Chase for Lincoln's Killer.
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