Lincoln's Melancholy

[wpbinzel]

For $1, I would certainly add it to my library. However, my overall impression when I read the book (albeit 5+ years ago) was that Shenk fell into the same "Tripp trap" as other authors in construing the context and meaning of words written in the mid-19th Century in the same manner as they would be read today. Men, back then, wrote in a far more emotional and expressive manner than would be accepted today without assuming a sexual or emotional context. Trying to apply today's standards, and to read what was written then with that filter, in my view, misses the mark. Was Lincoln emotional, especially when dealing with death, absolutely. He would have been less than human otherwise. But was he incapacitated and "clinically depressed," no. In my opinion, Shenk's thesis and evidence is lacking.