Is There Anything Left to Be Said about Abraham Lincoln?

ß Historically Speaking · September/October 2008 Is There Anything Left to Be Said about Abraham Lincoln? Vernon Burton From time to time I am asked, "Why do we need yet another book on Lincoln?" First, let me share an anecdote about a particular dissertation proposal defense at the University of Illinois. The student defending his topic, a biography of an obscure, 19th-century Illinois politician, argued that there had never been a dissertation on his particular subject, in contrast to the ever so many books on Abraham Lincoln. One of my colleagues , an acerbic and astute scholar of urban history, asked that student to ponder all the good reasons why we are so interested in all aspects of Lincoln and why no one was interested in a biography of his politician. Already Lincoln is the most written about American, and on the world scene ° is only behind Jesus and Napoleon, and we shall see where he ranks in a couple years since we have just commenced the bicentennial celebration of his birth. Thus, it was no surprise to me that an editor of Historically Speaking asked what is different about my new book TheAge of Lincoln. TheAge of Lincoln does several things differently. For one, I have never accepted the separation of Reconstruction from the Civil War. It is part and parcel of the whole era. I also disagree with the timing of the end of Reconstruction . To blend all the strands of 19th-century history and present it as a piece, The Age of Lincoln uses Abraham Lincoln as a fulcrum to put together the story of sectional conflict, the "long" Civil War, and Reconstruction. The formation of his ideas before the Civil War, his leadership and the development of his thinking during the Civil War, and how those ideas played out, for good and bad in the years following the Civil War into our own modern America , set the organization of this story. Another difference in this interpretation is the focus on liberty . As opposed to focusing on emancipation as Lincoln's greatest legacy, I place emancipation as one point on a long continuum of freedoms, thus emphasizing the importance of a meaningful vote. My analysis of religious sentiment in the 19th century relies upon its role in the coming of the war, the fighting, and aftermath. Finally, I think it is significant to see Lincoln as the Southerner he was and the role of very many Southerners, white and black, who supported the Union and Reconstruction . At stake during the Civil War was the very existence of the United States. The bloodiest war in our history, the Civil War also posed in a crucial way what clearly became persistent themes in American history: the character of the nation and the fate of African Americans (writ large the place of minorities in a democracy, the very meaning of pluralism). Consequently, scholars have been vitally interested in the Civil War, searching out clues therein for the identity of America. But if the identity of America is in the Civil War, the meaning of America and . what we have become is found in Reconstruction, and the Civil War cannot be separated from Reconstruction any more than the sectional conflict can be separated from the war. Already Lincoln is the most written about American, and on the world scene is only behindJesus and Napoleon. It matters profoundly when a period of history is said to begin and end, a professional historian's truism particularly evident when discussing America 's 19th century, sectional conflict, the Civil War, and Reconstruction in particular. Scholars have separated a story that to be properly understood has to be seen as a whole, especially to understand its influence on us today. Even in colleges and universities we bookend American history so that the Civil War closes out one era of our history, and Reconstruction begins the next period or second half of American history. And yet, as important as Reconstruction is, classes often do not even get to it in the first half of the history survey, and teachers skip over it altogether in the second half of the survey because they assume it was covered in the...