What are you reading now?

[LincolnMan]

Foote ended the third volume of his Civil War trilogy very eloquently-I loved it.

[Joe Di Cola]

Bill,

Foote's work is still my favorite mulit-volume work on the war. Although, I also loved Catton's volumes that preceded Foote. It is too bad that many people today seem to have forgotten Catton.

Joe

[LincolnMan]

Joe: as difficult as it was to get through Foote-the ending made it worth it to me. Carton is actually my favorite-yes - forgotten now. Didn't he have a Michigan connection?

[mbgross]

I heard there is a place that has a three story tall list of Lincoln books in Washington. Has anybody been to it? Where is it? Would you recommend it? Is there anything else to see there? I have two days in Washington and I was thinking about seeing it. Thanks

[RJNorton]

Hi Mike. I think you are referring to this.

[Joe Di Cola]

Joe: as difficult as it was to get through Foote-the ending made it worth it to me. Carton is actually my favorite-yes - forgotten now. Didn't he have a Michigan connection?

Bill,

Yes, Catton had a Michigan connection, beautifully set out in his autobiographical "Waiting for the Morning Train." If you have not read this memoir, you would enjoy it.

Joe

[L Verge]

As time permits, I have been sneaking in a chapter or two of Clint Johnson's A Vast and Fiendish Plot. While the book is ultimately about the Confederate incendiary attacks on New York City, Mr. Johnson's background of the city's history from colonial times to the Civil War in terms of its pro-slavery, anti-abolitionist, Southern-leaning sentiments is fascinating. As we all know, economics was the driving force, but the author puts it in terms that are easily understood. King Cotton ruled that city just as much as it ruled the South -- maybe even more so -- from shipping to factories to trade with the South and even tourism as the richer Southerners traveled to the cosmopolitan city.

Chapter 3 ends with an interesting statement: "On the issue of continuing slavery in the South, New York would support the South." By Chapter 7, however, Ft. Sumter has been fired on; and the New York businessmen were turning their backs on the South -- not over the slavery issue, but over the impending loss of their income now that trade with the South was wrecked. Their allegiance with the South was switched to the Union in order to guarantee federal protection of their industries. New Yorkers did not especially want Lincoln as President, but they would follow whomever could offer protection of their investments.

More will be revealed...

[Rob Wick]

I'm in the middle of John Taliaferro's book on John Hay, which so far I'm enjoying. After that I have Caroline Janney's book on remembering the Civil War in the que and Jill Lepore has a book of essays called The Story of America: Essays on Origins that I want to read. After that I want to work in Lincoln's Citadel. Oh, and I have around 30 or so books I have to read before starting on my Tarbell book.

Best
Rob

[L Verge]

Rob,

If you have all that reading to do before you begin your Tarbell book, you better be a speed reader!

[Gene C]

Rob,

Here's an idea.
You don't have to read them. Just list them in your bibliography. Quote something obscure from each one and footnote it, and everyone will think you've read them all.

[Rogerm]

I am re-reading a biography of Aaron Burr entitled; FALLEN FOUNDER: THE LIFE OF AARON BURR by Nancy Isenberg. It depicts Burr in a positive light and claims that historians have given him a raw deal over the years. This is the first time that I have ever read anything positive about him.

[Gene C]

I'm reading the Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG3NZjRv2nM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSNJ-8ouQEM

In this case maybe I'll just catch the movie

[Rob Wick]

Rob,

If you have all that reading to do before you begin your Tarbell book, you better be a speed reader!

It's funny you should mention that, Laurie, because when I was in grade school that was when (at least in the Midwest) there was a speed-reading craze. We had to learn how to do it, and quite honestly I always felt it messed me up because I felt I didn't grasp everything the author was trying to say. Now I have to go back sometimes two or three times to get everything.

Best
Rob

---

Rob,

Here's an idea.
You don't have to read them. Just list them in your bibliography. Quote something obscure from each one and footnote it, and everyone will think you've read them all.

I just may have to do that Gene. I'll be sure and put in the acknowledgements that it was your idea.

Best
Rob

[L Verge]

Rob,

I remember the speed-reading craze also. I'm older than you by a bit, but I remember it in the 1960s; and I believe that John F. Kennedy was touted as being a speed reader. My generation emulated JFK, so we all checked out this speed reading. I was told to focus on the middle of the page and skim down, hoping my peripheral vision would finish the lines. I have great peripheral vision (it comes with being a teacher and a mother), but it did not serve me well then.

[Gene C]

Just finished "The True Story of Abraham Lincoln" - by Elbridge S Brooks, written in 1896. On the inside front cover it says "A merry, merry Christmas to Harold from Aunt Harriette. I thought it was cool, I have someone's Christmas present from over 115 years ago. Mr Brooks had seen Abraham Lincoln in a parade when he was on his way to Washington when he was elected president, and again when his coffin passed through the city on his way back to Springfield.

this is an illustrated children's book with about 230+ pages. Unfortuantely, Mr Brooks wasn't very kind to Thomas Lincoln.
"He was lazy as loafing, as shiftless as could be, and as poor as poverty. He was of the class long know in the South as "poor whites" was a carpenter without any trade, a farmer without any crop, a man without ambition, energy, or what you boys call "sand". He could not read; he could not write; and he did not care to learn. He loved to sit around and tell stories rather than work, and though he has some affection and some friendly ways, he was, after all, a hard drinker, a ready fighter and an uncomfortable sort of a father. He was of the class long known in the South as "poor whites" - and, of these, he was one of the poorest."

Mr. Brooks also got this wrong - " Sarah, the eldest child, was only twelve; Abraham was but ten, and little Dennis Hanks was eight. (Dennis was older than Abraham by several years)

Here is what Mr Brooks had to say about young Abraham Lincoln getting a flat boat aground on a dam at New Salem, when he was on his trip to New Orleans, " At a place called New Salem the flat-boat ran aground; but Lincoln's ingenuity got it off. He rigged up a queer contrivance of his own invention and lifted the boat off and over the obstruction, while all New Salem sat on the bank, first to criticise and then to applaud. Just what this invention was I cannot explain. But if you ever go into the patent office at Washington, ask to see Abraham Lincoln's patent for transporting river boats over snags and shoals"

Mr. Brooks had a lot of good things to say, this is only a sample. "Politics sometimes means low measures, underhand ways, doing things one may well be ashamed of - anything to secure sucess. But good politics means honorable measures, uprightness, truth, noble ambitions, persistence, patriotism and good character. Any boy may aspire to be such a politician - prefering defeat to dishonor, and feeling jubilant over success honestly obtained. Abraham Lincoln was this last kind of a politician. He worked hard for success; but he never stopped to do a mean, a questionable or an unfriendly act. He raised himself to success from poverty, and, because he was such a man, he won the respect and love of all."

There are several similiar statement throughout this book. All in all, it was an intersting book, focusing on the developing character of Mr. Lincoln from a child to an adult, overcoming difficulty and adversity.