What did Lincoln read?

[Gene C]

Laurie wrote:
"I admire the Lincoln writings of Douglas Wilson. In the following, lengthy discussion of Jefferson, he makes sense of what Betty and I continue to preach: Judge history and its men by the times in which they lived - not by the standards of today. Please try to read it in its entirety."

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/iss...aractr.htm



I like Doug Wilson, but I don't agree with everything he says.

I don't know now whether Jefferson has sexual relations with his slave or not. And I disagree about judging history. If you mean understanding history, I can agree. If you really mean judging history, to go further in this conversation would cause me to take it to a moral and religious level that is not the purpose of this forum.

So getting back to what Lincoln read, I was surprised in reading Louis Warren's book "Lincoln's Youth" how much of what Lincoln read as a young person, even the school books of the time, emphasized patriotic, moral and spiritual values. And if you go back to Rob Wick's post #3, a fair portion of what Lincoln chose to read as an adult was of a similar nature. Several historians have commented that the most influential book he read was the Bible