Book recommendations

[RJNorton]

I'd like to second what Laurie just said. Bill Richter's book really helps those of us brought up in states like Illinois have a much better understanding of Booth and his mindset. If I were still teaching, and were trying to give the students a more comprehensive perspective of the driving forces in Booth's mind, I would use Bill's book as a resource for this. I certainly recommend it. It could lead to a great class discussion in which the students compare/contrast Bill's book to what they are reading in their own textbook.

From Bill's website:

"In a new, provocative study comprising three essays, historian William L. Richter delves into the psyche of Booth and finds him far from insane. Beginning with a modern, less adulating interpretation of President Abraham Lincoln, Richter is the first scholar to examine Booth's few known, often unfinished speeches and essays to draw a realistic mind-picture of the man who so intensely believed in common American polital theories of his day, and acted violently to carry them out during the time of America's greatest war."