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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... truth , the present discussion of emancipation considerably refines and elaborates on an argument I first made in one of those essays . Given the persis- tent misunderstanding of that crucial event , I thought it necessary to make the ...
... truth , black Americans came to regard Lincoln as a perfect , personal emancipator and kept pictures of him pasted on the walls above their mantelpieces . " To the deeply emotional and religious slave , ” as one man explained ...
... truth , Sandburg's became the most popular Lincoln work ever written , as a procession of plays , mo- tion pictures , novels , children's books , school texts , and television shows purveyed Sandburg's Lincoln to a vast American public ...
... truth of the old folk adage that a tree is measured best when it is down . " To a deep river , " writes Sandburg , " to a far country , to a by - and - by whence no man returns , had gone the child of Nancy Hanks and Tom Lincoln , the ...
... truth of its own -- a truth , however , that is different from historical truth , from what actually hap- pened . In the case of Lincoln , the myth is what Americans wish the man had been , not necessarily the way he was in real life ...
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 |