Abraham Lincoln : The Man Behind The Myths Essay

In Abraham Lincoln, by George McGovern, McGovern summarizes and gives insight on one of the United States’ most well-known and highly praised presidents, Abraham Lincoln. McGovern thoroughly outlines Lincoln’s life, his struggles and how he became the great president that he was. One point McGovern continues to mention is how no matter how bad a situation was or even when people doubted Lincoln, he would take his defeats and preserve. In the beginning of the book, McGovern recounts Lincoln’s life as a kid and a young adult. He describes how no matter how bad Lincoln failed or how sad he was, “Lincoln would not resign himself to failure and loss; instead he learned from each experience and carried on” . In addition, McGovern continues to mention how Lincoln never stopped learning. From a young age, Lincoln loved to learn, read and expand his knowledge so he could fully analyze any situation. According to McGovern, this personality trait allowed Lincoln to work and rise up from a farmer’s son to the President of the United States. This trait, also, allowed Lincoln “to take a far more active role in managing military affairs” . Lincoln was able to come up with a new strategy for the Union to win the Civil War.

History class to many falls as a boring lesson, memorizing facts nobody will use in life. The day America got it’s independence, the dates of the end of World War 1 and 2. These facts may seem useless, but behind each one, their is a story with so many valiant people, a story with people who must be forever condemned, and facts that we can always use. In the book, Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, written by James L. Swanson, there is one such story about the death of Abraham Lincoln and the manhunt that followed. What is really important about this story is that there are heroes, who should be remembered, and attackers whose actions must always be condemned. Most importantly, this book shows how many people worked together in order to catch the escapees

As an admirer of Lincoln, O’Reilly shares similar conservative views in politics and religion. O’Reilly was a New Yorker born and raised, who attended private schools and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in history at Marist College, a masters in broadcasting journalism at Boston University, and a masters of public administration at Harvard University. He has been a history teacher, a newspaper columnist, and is currently a highly successful political commentator with his own show “The O’Reilly Factor”. In spite of his extensive background in history, when researching this subject, O’Reilly discovered more controversy than expected, as there are many conspiracy theories surrounding Lincoln’s assassination. He revealed the layers of proven and alleged conspiracies for the reader. Today’s ongoing debates of the facts played a part in O’Reilly’s decision to write this

Abraham Lincoln is best known for his great speeches and his role in the civil war, but what most people do not know is how he and his wife met and what effect her family had on his presidency. In Stephen Berry’s book House of Abraham: Lincoln and the Todds, a Family Divided By War, Berry tells about the life of Abraham and his wife Mary Todd. In this book, he includes the influence that the Todd family had played on his personal life as well as his presidency. This book begins with Mary Todd’s grandfather and eventually he ends with Lincoln’s assassination. The main focus of the author is to give the reader a better understanding of the Todd clan, and also to understand what it was like to be apart of the family. The content of the book allows for people to go into the mind of the Todd family. After reading this book, it is easy to see why Abraham had such a difficult time with the Civil War not just because he was president, but also because his wife’s family was split by it.

The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, by Thomas J. DiLorenzo completely shatters the illusion of the 16th President as the liberator of the slaves. DiLorenzo provides convincing evidence for Lincoln’s overt racism as expressed in his documented views on racial supremacy as stated in his desire to colonize all American blacks outside the United States (p. 4); Lincoln’s views were matched by the majority in the North who used such tools as state constitutional amendments to prohibit the emigration of black people into Northern states like Lincoln’s home of Illinois (p. 4); and that the Presidents war which killed 620, 000 Americans and destroyed 40% of the

Why would Richard Current explore this notion? To begin, if you examine who Richard Current is by profession, you will quickly see that he is a historian who specializes in Abraham Lincoln. This gives a quick glance viability to the argument, but at the same time invites the openness for bias or fact picking. Therefore, before reading the article it is

In the taxing process of saving the Union, Lincoln managed to write a document for the purpose of freeing the slaves. Though this operation aroused an overwhelming amount of controversy, the controversy is a significant part of Lincoln’s legacy. Despite the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation is considered to be one of Lincoln’s most admired achievements, some claim that he did not deserve this praise. Furthermore, they argue that the importance of his action was exaggerated. However, by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln assisted in freeing the slaves by encouraging them to free themselves. As “The Great Emancipator” mentions, “Lincoln’s proclamation was a moral landmark. It also was a political stroke of genius that began the long-overdue process of crushing slavery.” Throughout the entirety of his presidency, Lincoln invested himself in extinguishing slavery, one of America’s greatest

In Thomas DiLorenzo’s book The Real Lincoln, is about giving the people who want to know the real story about the “greatest” American President. When in fact he was not all that great of a president. People know him as the great emancipator. This is ironic because “Lincoln barely ever mentioned the issue of slavery before 1854, and, even then, he did not seem sincere” (3). This is what everybody knows Lincoln for is freeing the slaves, but it proves that he is given credit for something he did not do. What else was Lincoln given credit for that he did not deserve? Thomas DiLorenzo is a professor of economics in Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola College in Maryland. Specializing in history and political economics. He has

The recognition of Lincoln’s great job in rebuilding the ruins of a nation torn apart in the Civil war years is worldwide known. His genius plans and brilliant contributions made him the first beloved leader of the American people. His unexpected assassination contributed more to make Abraham Lincoln as the Martyr of the union. Therefore, Lincoln’s stamp of creating a nation build upon the Founding Fathers with brand new ideals did not vanishe with his death. It extended to become a symbol of unification. The last part of this chapter will explore Abraham Lincoln as The Martyr of the

Abraham Lincoln has been remembered, both in his own lifetime and thereafter, by the nickname, “Honest Abe.” His characteristic trustworthiness, nevertheless, has not necessarily permitted historians to easily interpret all aspects of his personal life and political career. One such topic that has been somewhat shrouded in mystery is Abraham Lincoln’s religious views. The prolific American theologian, Reinhold Neibuhr once referred to Lincoln as “unquestionably our most religious president,” who was “superior in depth and purity to those, not only of the political leaders of the day, but of the religious leaders of the era.”[i] On the other hand, a contemporary of Lincoln, William Herndon, attempted to combat the idea that Abraham Lincoln changed his views about believing in a personal God by dismissing the existence of any evidence for such a claim.[ii] However, Wayne C. Temple’s more recent tome, Abraham Lincoln: From Skeptic to Prophet, has compiled scores of evidence to outline the religious views of Abraham, which were by no means static throughout

Abraham Lincoln was known to be a hard working, driven man which led him into politics and eventually presidency. Throughout his childhood, Lincoln had grown up in very rural areas and knew of nothing other than “frontier simplicity” therefore, he experienced little interaction with others (Lincoln World Biography par. 5). As a child, Lincoln experienced a great deal of death as well as his family’s frequent moves. The painful death of this mother, brother, and close family friends shaped Lincoln into becoming a strong, mature, and respectful man. Due to his frequent moves, Lincoln earned an opportunity to explore parts of the country he previously never even knew existed. At age 22 Lincoln left the “agrarian lifestyle” and traveled to New Orleans where he would volunteer for a militia he would go on to successfully lead. (par. 4). While in New Orleans Lincoln would partake in jobs in which he proved to have a plethora of skills such as militia

In 2010 Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was published. This novel offers a look into Abraham Lincoln’s life in a very gothic way. Even though Abraham Lincoln never actually vowed to end the world of vampires, he did end one of the most inhuman practices in American history, slavery. Even though the vampires in the novel Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter were not real, there are many similarities between this novel and Abraham Lincoln’s real life.

Fittingly born on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, James L. Swanson has always had a fascination of our 16th president’s life. At only ten years old, Swanson’s grandmother gave him a very peculiar gift for a child: “a framed engraving of Booth’s Deringer pistol, along with an April 15, 1865 Chicago Tribune clipping.” The newspaper story he received relived the terrible day of Lincoln’s death, but as Swanson read, he realized the ending of the story was lost. Swanson was fascinated, and felt a need to know the fate of his favorite president, and the hunt for knowledge began. As the author continues to recount in his acknowledgements, that gift sparked a passion within him culminating with the publication of Manhunt on 2006. Despite the author’s obvious enjoyment of the subject, a resurgence of interest in the life and death of Honest Abe has recently gripped the United States. In the twenty-first century so far, dozens of novels, including Abraham Lincoln: A Life, The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows, and Swanson’s own Manhunt have gripped the nation, some of them being New York Times Bestsellers. Even the film business has profited by this surge of attention with 2012’s Lincoln starring Daniel Day Lewis.

The book starts with talking about Abraham Lincoln’s childhood. Abraham was born in Nolan Creek, Kentucky in 1809, to his parents Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln. Abraham 's father Thomas was described as “a tinker- a piddler- always doing but doing nothing great” (2). During his childhood, the family would move several times, first to Indiana and later to Illinois. Abraham’s mother, Nancy Hanks, died when he was still a boy. The following year his father, Thomas remarried to Sarah Bush Johnston, because he needed help taking care of the motherless children. Lincoln and his stepbrother John Johnston and his cousin John Hanks were employed to move goods down the Ohio River. Soon afterward, he moved to New Salem, Illinois. For the most part this was Lincoln decision to leave his father forever. After arriving In New Salem he described himself as “a piece of floating driftwood that had washed up on the towns shores” (11) In New Salem Lincoln set up as a store clerk to try to support himself. When the Black Hawk War broke out in 1832, he became the captain of his volunteer company, serving but seeing no active duty “never even saw a hostile Indian” (17).

In this film, Steven Spielberg portrays Abraham Lincoln like a great master of charisma and elegant manners, a mankind with the inherent leader’s stratagem of making others wishing to gladden him. According to the plot, he speaks in an unpredictably easy and clear voice, using a specific language that in some parts reveals his humble personality and influence of his upbringing, that is nevertheless passing into the monologue of an elder person, who is fatigued by war and personal issues. This film describes President Lincoln as an individual lacked social success, but who had substantial acquaintance and intelligence of human nature. Moreover, film focuses on the last several months of Abraham Lincoln’s life, including all the important events as the passage of the 13th Amendment