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Burlingame v. Thomas on New Salem
10-19-2013, 08:22 AM (This post was last modified: 10-19-2013 08:24 AM by Rob Wick.)
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Rob Wick Offline
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Burlingame v. Thomas on New Salem
Started reading Benjamin Thomas's small book Lincoln's New Salem last night, alongside the relevant chapter from Burlingame's two-volume biography. As anyone who knows me is already aware of, I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Thomas's work (I still classify his single-volume life of Lincoln as the best of its kind). That said, I think Burlingame comes closer to what life was actually like, warts and all, in the region. It seems Thomas is following other biographers in showing the region as rough and crude, but Burlingame gives more in the way of concrete examples and detail. Of course, Burlingame's is far more graphic, which Thomas could not have been in his day.

Would be interested in other reactions to either account..

Not sure if the embedded links worked, so here they are.

http://www.knox.edu/academics/distinctiv...-life.html

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln2/0566928.0001.001

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Rob
Abraham Lincoln in the only man, dead or alive, with whom I could have spent five years without one hour of boredom.
--Ida M. Tarbell

I want the respect of intelligent men, but I will choose for myself the intelligent.
--Carl Sandburg
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Burlingame v. Thomas on New Salem - Rob Wick - 10-19-2013 08:22 AM

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