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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... Sandburg be believed ? What in fact are we to make of Sandburg's immensely popular biography ? Was Lincoln a lifelong white supremacist , as many blacks and whites contend today ? Did the Emancipation Proclamation free any blacks ? Did ...
... Sandburg's Lincoln to a vast American public , until that Lincoln became for most Americans the real historical figure . Yet , ironically enough , Sandburg did not set out to write an enduring epic . When he began his project in 1923 ...
... criss - cross lines , and its doughnut complexion . " Then he wrote something that was to affect Carl Sandburg enormously : " My notion is , too , that underneath his outside smutched mannerism , and stories from third - class 8 MYTH.
... Sandburg's imagination , setting many of the expecta- tions in treatment , mood , and archetype , as Justin Kaplan has pointed out , which Sandburg would try to satisfy in his biography . " In Lincoln , " Sandburg himself wrote , " the ...
... Sandburg said , “ to take Lincoln away from the religious bigots and the professional politicians and re- store him to the common people . " Sandburg became completely absorbed in his Lincoln enter- prise , so much so that at times he ...
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 |