Saw the movie Lincoln this weekend. It was a fascinating look at him and the passing of the 13th Amendment.
V/R
Dave
Dave
What Would Lincoln Do?
Historians examine how Lincoln would have handled other eras' challenges, like the War on Terror
November 23, 2012
There is no end to literary projects examining Abraham Lincoln, one of our nation's most enigmatic heroes. ButLincoln: A President for the Ages, timed to complement the new movie by Steven Spielberg, parses our 16th president through a new lens. Historians, journalists, and scholars imagine in a compilation of essays how Lincoln would have faced varied historical challenges of other eras. One scholar, for instance, theorizes why Lincoln might have fit in well with today's celebrity culture. The book's editor, Karl Weber, who also edited Food, Inc. and Waiting for 'Superman', recently spoke to U.S. News about the multifaceted leader. Excerpts:
What does this book add to our understanding of Lincoln?
We tried to reflect the multiplicity of Lincoln, because he is obviously a very complex historical figure. Perhaps people are not familiar with Lincoln as a hard-nosed political wheeler-dealer, for example. We invited a dozen historians to speculate how Lincoln might have handled a historical challenge very different from the ones he faced. We thought this would be an opportunity to delve into his character, his political instinct, the values that shaped him—and then apply those to issues from other times. We asked historians: How do you think Lincoln would have dealt with women's suffrage? If Lincoln had been president at the end of World War II, would he have dropped the bomb on Hiroshima? Would he be an idol of the conservative Christian right or would he do battle with them? The essays give us a new look at Lincoln, and yet they ground what they say about him in things Lincoln said and did.
(Continued at the link below)
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