Spielberg's Lincoln

[Liz Rosenthal]

I'd like to welcome you, too, Eva! You sound like you had a Lincoln "epiphany" similar to the one I experienced in 2009! In my case, it happened as a result of reading the one-volume version of Carl Sandburg's Lincoln biography. Suddenly, I'd entered a whole new world... and I couldn't get enough! Since then, I've amassed and read enough books to fill a large bookcase. (And I hope I don't run out of room - help!).

Anyway, I think you've perfectly expressed the true purpose behind the Lincoln movie. It was to give viewers a real sense of who Lincoln was. The story behind the 13th amendment really served as a backdrop. Even though the story of the 13th amendment was an important one to tell, it was actually a vehicle for learning about Lincoln the man and president.

During the time that Spielberg's Lincoln was in theaters, and the Oscar nominations and voting were happening, people both here and abroad surmised that the movie wouldn't mean as much to people outside of the U.S. But I thought that that was a ridiculous assumption. It seems to me that learning about Lincoln is a timeless, borderless enterprise. He's a man for the world, not just the U.S. A major reason for this is that he sincerely hoped that the U.S.'s experiment with democracy would not fail. If it did fail, he believed, democracy would not take hold anywhere in the world. He seemed to really care about the fate of humankind, not just Americans.

My understanding is that the Lincoln movie did pretty well overseas, despite its alleged Americo-centric subject matter.

Eva, which books about Lincoln have you read? I'd love to know!