Lincoln's Sword

by Douglas L. Wilson.

NPR progam fulla hot Lincoln data action >>> an interview with heavy-hitter Douglas Wilson, co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College, and author of "Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln."

His new one focuses on language.LINCOLN'S SWORD is a hot new Lincoln title. Mr. Wilson was here @ The Library last week and he and Walter hit it off immediately. Walter approached him by asking his three Lincoln questions to see where he stands: 1) Pro or Anti Sandburg? As in, do you believe the basics of Carl Sandburg's Lincoln? 2) Does he believe the Ann Rutlege story? Which means, did Lincoln really love her and nearly kill himself? 3) Who is his favorite biographer? +++ Well, Mr. Wilson was clear on all three: Pro Sandburg, believe the Rutledge story, and fave biographer has got to be David Herbert Donald. Of course, we're only talking the one-volume sets. If you really want to learn, though, you GOT TO GO MULTI-VOLUME with the other boys. "When you're with a true Lincoln Guy, these are not flamboyant people. These people are deep into melancholy, because they're with his melancholy, cuz he was so melancholy practically all the time, and that's why I love the Oates. Donald's a great single volume, but I love the Oates cuz he keeps hammering you with the melancholy." And of course, now there's a new volume which is talking JUST ABOUT THAT! Great NPR interview HERE.

Walter continues: "He was a sick man! And he was able to do all this stuff! And you know [Oates] is telling the truth cuz he's got Lincoln saying it. This was my favorite biography. When I want to get to see Lincoln, he's right there. You can open to any page, you are in Lincoln's mind. The Donald is like looking at an archaeological site. He says, we're here in Greece, here's Athens, here's the Parthenon, you're going and looking and examining each exhibit, but you can surely see the difference between the separation. You have all the evidence gathered there, you got it. You got the Donald, you're all right. You want instant flash injection of Lincoln? POW! You get the Oates. You open it up: be prepared. From page one to the end, to the day he died ... and the last chapter on that last day?! Holy Moly! Oh my god! That's incredible! You are with Abe. Now, once you're with that universe, these are these people. This is who Douglas Wilson is: this is a super duper guy!"

Democracy Reborn

Garrett Epps has put together a full-length account of The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equal Rights in Post-Civil War America.

From Publishers Weekly
In December 1865, the 39th Congress had urgent business, says Epps in this passionate account of Reconstruction politics. If the former Confederate states were readmitted to the Union, ex-slaves would swell those states' congressional power, but without congressional protection, the freedmen would never be allowed to vote, and the Southern white elite would have disproportionate influence in the federal government. Epps follows every twist of Congress's response to this problem, and his energetic prose transforms potentially tedious congressional debates into riveting reading.

Read it?

Read It?
No, but You Can Skim a Few Pages and Fake It
By ALAN RIDING
~ from nytimes.com

Pierre Bayard, a professor, offers social guidance to the unread.

PARIS, Feb. 23 — It may well be that too many books are published, but by good fortune, not all must be read. In practice, primed by publishers, critics, teachers, authors and word-of-mouth, a form of natural selection limits essential reading to those classics and best sellers that become part of civilized intellectual and social discourse.

Of course, many people don’t get through these books, either, and too embarrassed to admit it, they worry constantly about being exposed as philistines.

Now Pierre Bayard, a Paris University literature professor, has come to their rescue with a survivor’s guide to life in the chattering classes. And it is evidently much in need. “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read?” has become a best seller here, with translation rights snapped up across Europe and under negotiation in Britain and the United States.

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