Book Review – Abe, by David S. Reynolds

David S. Reynolds, author of Abe, mentions in his preface that there are some sixteen thousand books on Abraham Lincoln, more than on any other historical figure except Jesus Christ. Reynolds’ book, an undertaking of more than 900 pages, is subtitled “Abraham Lincoln in his Times’” and that may be something that distinguishes this book from the other sixteen thousand. The book is filled with cultural goings-on and commentary by politicians, charlatans, journalists, and poets (like Emerson and Whitman) on the events of the times. The effect is amazingly like Facebook or Twitter, had there been such a thing in the 19^th century, and creates context for the decisions and actions that led to secession, civil war, and the Emancipation Proclamation.

But what’s most interesting to me is how this pastiche of social commentary illustrates that issues tearing our country apart in 2021 are the very same issues that drove public debates and polemic slander in the 19th century. Such as: Wealth inequality (between 1774 and 1860, the percentage wealth owned by the richest 1 percent rose from 12% to 29 percent) v. “wild-eyed” socialism; immigration to America of non-English people (the Know Nothings then, Trump’s wall now); the status of African-Americans (slavery then, institutional racism now); gender roles (then, the struggle of women to escape the status of property, now all things GLBTQ); religious leaders seeking special legal status for Christianity (then, a movement for a Constitutional amendment declaring America a Christian nation, and now, statutes and court decisions excusing compliance with law based upon “sincerely-held religious convictions”). The first-down line has moved, but the game hasn’t changed.

In terms of a bio of Abe, it’s a good one, and if you’re an Abe aficionado and/or obsessed with the causes of the Civil War, you’ll plow through this long book. But another reason to read it is to see how the cultural wars in 2021 are rooted not in the 1960s, but in the 1800s. Here’s what Kirkus Reviews says:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-s-reynolds/abe-reynolds/

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