For book club this month I'm reading Jon Meacham's "And there was light; Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle." (Random House, 2022) By page 140 I was noticing a subtle hint of 21st century moral superiority and self- righteousness in the author's tone. I grabbed a second Lincoln book from my personal library, Ronald White, Jr.'s "A. Lincoln; a biography." (Random House, 2009) They are both massive books (676 pp. and 796 pp.) The bibliographies/notes sections are so huge and so different, it's almost impossible to check one against the other. I'm supplementing my reading with Paul Johnson's "A History of the American People," pts 3 and 4, which covers 1815-1870, which emphasizes links to England's history and our country's religious beliefs and formation. I was a little fuzzy on the Mexican War and the Nebraska-Kansas problem.
The bibliographies are incredibly difficult, but here are some rough, ballpark stats: Meacham cites Steven Douglas 27 times, White 106 times; Meacham cites Frederick Douglass 58 times, White 30 times. Both men were important, but for telling the story of pre-Civil War America and what Americans thought and believed, Steven Douglas is a better example of the pro-slavery forces Lincoln was up against convincing Americans (many of whom had never seen a black man or a slave) to stop the expansion and then ending slavery.
I've come away from this reading experience with a suspicion that all great heroes of our history will never pass muster because of the 21st century's race problems. They won't survive the Obama presidency and the George Floyd riots which were far more damaging to our national fabric than January 6 riot. Statues will continue to be torn down and schools renamed.
In this era of abortion up to the day of birth, maiming children in sex change surgeries, border sex trafficking, and energy and welfare policies that hurt the poor some of our scholars, publishers and activists find 21st c. American morals and ethics superior to the 19th and 18th centuries!
Although White never hides Lincoln's failures, he faithfully follows through on an outstanding study of his growth, integrity, and complexity, as well as his evolution in religious values and struggles. Plus, he's readable. Meacham does say good things about Lincoln but always "balances" with what his detractors from 3 centuries had to say. Cherry pickers for CRT classes will love it. Does Lincoln's passion for saving the country and destroying slavery have to be explained through a (failed) 21st century racialist lens?
I noticed the similarities to what we are going through today. In passionate love for their country, Lincoln and Trump are pretty well matched, regardless of what you think of their causes. And I can't think of any president more vilified than Lincoln except Trump. Lincoln was ridiculed, damned, hated with a passion, lied about, and feared just like Trump is today. There was more than one assassination attempt. The Republican party was in its infancy in 1860, lively and eager, and in its dotage in 2016 and 2020, careless and timid. The Democrats were racists then and they are racists now. The stakes were different, but slavery was embedded in every aspect of American life, even for northerners. The danger from non-elected entities in the deep state are as stubbornly embedded in our way of life as slavery was then. The desire to control others' lives it still with us today. To challenge the deep state today is as dangerous as challenging slavery was then. And abortion, although not a cause for Trump, is OUR moral issue overshadowing all other events and decisions just as slavery was in 1830-1860.
Trinity Forum Conversations | Lincoln in Private: Leadership Behind Closed Doors with Ron C. White (transistor.fm)
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