Lincoln and Ann Rutledge

[Gene C]

(06-26-2014 09:23 PM)Lewis Gannett Wrote:  Lincoln scholars have performed spectacular interpretative flip-flops over not only almost EXACTLY the same evidence, but also--it's amazing--a very SMALL body of evidence. I'm talking about the Rutledge-related interview material gathered by Herndon after Lincoln's assassination. A bright high-school student can read ALL of it in just a couple of hours. But: how peculiar: Herndon extracted one picture from it, decades later J. G. & R. P. Randall and David Donald extracted a completely different picture, decades after that J. Y. Simon and Douglas L. Wilson extracted yet another picture (similar to Herndon's but with important differences). From the same small set of extremely short interviews! How is that possible? that old problem of seeing what one wants to see.

There's a little more to it than that. Each of the writers you mentioned had more material to examine than their predecesor. They had more facts to consider, and more material to sort through. Some of them were more talented in their tasks than Herndon. Whether your agree with R P Randall, we have all acknowledged that she is a talented writer. Did Herndon consider how reliable his informants were. Did he cross check the accuracy of what they told him? Many of the writers you mentioned have, and naturaly they have used that additional info in reaching their conclusions. So it's not so much a flip flop as it is reaching a different conclusion by using additional information.
(and sometimes the additional info is not correct)

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(06-26-2014 09:23 PM)Lewis Gannett Wrote:  For example, why did Lincoln Studies reverse itself on the Rutledge story? I find that kind of question enormously interesting. It's the subject of my next book.
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Sounds interesting. I find it interesting to see the changes in how Lincoln is portrayed in literature over the past 100 years. His life is examined in more dertail now than ever before. There are exceptions, but the attention to his personal character still seems to be a key factor.