Abraham Lincoln: The Man Behind the Myths“There is no better introduction to current thinking about Lincoln and his place in history.” —Newsday An essential book for any student of Lincoln and American history, Abraham Lincoln: The Man Behind the Myths is acclaimed Lincoln biographer Stephen B. Oates's unique exploration of America's sixteenth president in reality and memory. In this multifaceted portrait, Oates, "the most popular historical interpreter of Lincoln" (Gabor S. Boritt, New York Times Book Review), exposes the human side of the great and tragic president—including his depression, his difficulties with love, and his troubled and troubling attitudes about slavery—while also confronting the many legends that have arisen around "Honest Abe." Oates throughout raises timely questions about what the Lincoln mythos reveals about the American people. |
From inside the book
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... Herndon , Lincoln's nervous , besotted law partner , when he read Holland's book . This prettified character was not the Lincoln he had known in Illinois . That Lincoln had never belonged to a church . He was “ an infi- del , " a ...
... Herndon embraced such tales as zealously as he did actual fact . As a consequence , Hern- don's Lincoln : The True Story of a Great Life , which came out in 1889 , brimmed with gossip , hearsay , and legend , all mixed in with Herndon's ...
... Herndon's an atheist ! ” With that , Herndon's partisans took on those of the Holland school in what David Donald has termed " a religious war . " And so the two mythical conceptions — one portraying Lin- coln as a frontier hero , the ...
... Herndon's Lincoln ) , " I'm the big buck of this lick . " He lifts barefoot boys so they can leave muddy footprints on the ceiling of the Lincoln cabin . Later , as a New Salem clerk , he walks six miles to return a few cents a customer ...
... Herndon's , is stricken with a lover's grief : he wanders absently in the forest ; he makes his way to the burying ground outside New Salem and lies with an arm across Ann's grave . " In the evenings it was useless to try to talk with ...
Contents
ManyMooded | 31 |
All Conquering Mind | 45 |
Mr Lincoln | 51 |
The Beacon Light of Liberty | 57 |
This Vast Moral Evil | 65 |
My Dissatisfied Fellow Countrymen | 75 |
The Central Idea | 89 |
The Man of Our Redemption | 111 |
Final | 149 |
Aftermath | 164 |
Acknowledgments | 189 |
Index | 215 |