Liberal education ought to be less a matter of becoming well read than a matter of learning to read well, of acquiring arts of awareness, the interpretative or “trivial” arts. Some works, written by men who are productive masters of these arts, are exemplary for their interpretative application. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is such a text, [...]
Abraham Lincoln Philosopher Statesman, Joseph R. Fornieri (Southern Illinois University Press, 2014) The twin goals of this book are so closely intertwined that it would be easy to see them as a unity. To do so would be unfortunate, however, because it would blind the reader to the important lessons Prof. Fornieri has to offer, [...]
“Macbeth” was Abraham Lincoln’s favorite play. Although he had a passing acquaintance with many of Shakespeare’s plays, he was more familiar with some than with others, and thought himself as intimate with a few as the scholars and actors who made it their profession to study them. A few years before my grandmother died, she [...]
As we remember the Battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, it is worth reflecting on how and why these battles and the Civil War altered the course of American history. People at the time recognized that the War was a watershed. Retired Harvard professor George Ticknor felt like Rip Van Winkle [...]
Anyone who writes about Abraham Lincoln must confront the “Lincoln Myth.” To penetrate the legend that now surrounds Lincoln is a formidable task for, as M. E. Bradford noted, the events of Lincoln’s life and the circumstances of his death placed him “beyond the reach of ordinary historical inquiry and assessment.” He is, Bradford continued, [...]
Abraham Lincoln Harry Jaffa says Jack Kemp and I have been conducting an “uncivil war” over Abraham Lincoln’s character. Well, for my part, I deny it. Kemp called me one of the current “assassins of Lincoln’s character,” which I thought was a little rabid, inasmuch as I had given Lincoln praise as well [...]
America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation, by David Goldfield (Bloomsbury Press) Whether or not the American Civil War might have been avoided has long been a subject of debate among historians. Some, like Allan Nevins and Charles and Mary Beard, saw the war as “an irrepressible conflict,” in the words of Abraham [...]
The whole case for our commitment to equality as a national goal comes from an isolated phrase—”all men are created equal”—in the Declaration of Independence. Was Lincoln right in his exposition of this phrase in the Gettysburg Address? The idea is as old, of course, as that magical first sentence of the Gettysburg Address: “Fourscore [...]
Abraham Lincoln saw permanence that must endure in institutions through change, but also change the world so even ancient evil institutions like racial slavery would fall. This essay was presented at a debate sponsored by the Hillsdale College Republicans and the Fairfield Society in commemoration of President’s Day, February 20, 2011. —Editor Today I am [...]
One hundred fifty years ago today, the Union—or, what was left of it—was in an uproar. Two days earlier, after three days of debate, the South Carolina Convention declared itself independent of the American Union. Never before or since has a greater threat existed against the cohesiveness and integrity of the United States of America. [...]