Audiobook10 hours
Did Lincoln Own Slaves?: And Other Frequently Asked Questions about Abraham Lincoln
Written by Gerald J. Prokopowicz
Narrated by Norman Dietz
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Our most revered president gets a unique and uniquely engaging biography fashioned from the answers to the most frequent-and most unusual and surprising-questions asked about Abraham Lincoln.
What kind of law did Lincoln practice? Did he imprison his political enemies? What was it in his youth that put him on the path to greatness? These are some of the hundreds of questions that Gerald J. Prokopowicz was asked most often during the nine years he served as scholar-in-residence at the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In this book, he organizes the questions along the timeline of Lincoln's life to give us a portrait of the sixteenth president unlike any we have had before.
The questions range far and wide in subject matter and seriousness. Some are inspired by recent reinterpretations of Lincoln's actions (Was he a racist?), and some delve into what previous generations considered inappropriate (Was he gay?). Some are products of scholarly investigation (If he were alive today, could he get elected?), and others of idle curiosity (What were his favorite foods?). Some are drawn from today's headlines (Did his presidential actions violate the Constitution?), and others from today's tabloids (Did doctors really raise him from the dead?). Prokopowicz's authoritative, often surprising responses illuminate facets of Abraham Lincoln's life, work, and legacy about which people remain endlesly curious.
Eminently readable, informative, and entertaining.
What kind of law did Lincoln practice? Did he imprison his political enemies? What was it in his youth that put him on the path to greatness? These are some of the hundreds of questions that Gerald J. Prokopowicz was asked most often during the nine years he served as scholar-in-residence at the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In this book, he organizes the questions along the timeline of Lincoln's life to give us a portrait of the sixteenth president unlike any we have had before.
The questions range far and wide in subject matter and seriousness. Some are inspired by recent reinterpretations of Lincoln's actions (Was he a racist?), and some delve into what previous generations considered inappropriate (Was he gay?). Some are products of scholarly investigation (If he were alive today, could he get elected?), and others of idle curiosity (What were his favorite foods?). Some are drawn from today's headlines (Did his presidential actions violate the Constitution?), and others from today's tabloids (Did doctors really raise him from the dead?). Prokopowicz's authoritative, often surprising responses illuminate facets of Abraham Lincoln's life, work, and legacy about which people remain endlesly curious.
Eminently readable, informative, and entertaining.
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Reviews for Did Lincoln Own Slaves?
Rating: 4.2222225 out of 5 stars
4/5
18 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5pg. 90 "You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves." Ronald Reagan 1992 erroneously attributed to Lincoln.
pg. 172 Lincoln didn't believe the Constitution gave the federal gov. the authority to interfere with "domestic" arrangements within the states, including slavery."... "were it already existed." pg. 173
students are taught the Civil War was all about abolishing slavery, this book explains it wasn't, but the author also contradicts himself two pages later. pg. 175...:it put the Union on the side of freedom, and gave the war a new moral dimension. (emancipation procl.)
pg. 177 Q: "why didn't Lincoln pay slave holders for their slaves? That would've been easier than fighting a war."
A: Lincoln understood enough about Sothern concepts of honor and race to know how an offer like that would go over.
The truth is the war didn't begin over slavery and Lincoln had intentions of starting a black colony, but the men he discussed this with didn't have any interest. pgs. 178-179
pg. 180 Lincoln's valet was dark skinned and the light-skinned WH servants objected to his darkness. (there isn't information in this book as to the wage given to his valet). There is a female slave the Lincoln's borrowed, but again, no mention as to who received payment, the slave or the owners.
pg. 184 Restoration of white supremacy wasn't just in the South, the North had restricted neighborhoods.
pg. 226 In the era of reconciliation, the white majority in the North and South were ready to put the war and its causes (especially slavery) behind them: An unspoken agreement arose: The South would forget that it had seceded to preserve slavery, and the North would forget about enforcing the 14th & 15th amendments., which were supposed to guarantee civil rights and the vote to the former slaves.
pg. 238 there's a great joke about a current president and what Lincoln would recommend.
After each chapter are further reading suggestions for each topic; his early years, politician, emancipator, etc.
the author even suggests books he doesn't necessarily agree with, but feels they are good for comparison.
It's definitely worth the read if for nothing else the list of suggested reading. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Short and snappy biography of Lincoln in a Q&A format -- initially looks like pop history, but it is actually well researched, well written, and very interesting.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I really enjoyed this book. While a Lincoln scholar will not really learn too much about Lincoln (as the author comes out and says in the introduction), it does provide a very nice condensation of all sorts of facts about Lincoln presented in a breezy readable style. The book is is written in the style of a series of questions and answers (e.g., 'did Lincoln own slaves' to quote the title), then give a brief then a more detailed answer (e.g., 'No, he did not. He......'). The information is extremely accurate. There were a few places where I thought the author was going to slide into some pseudo-history that I was aware of, but he never did. If you want to learn 'just the facts, ma'am' about Lincoln without having to wade through a long biography, this would be a great place to start. This would be a great gift book for someone who is a history buff but doesn't know much about Lincoln. As an aside, I especially liked his answer to 'what is the worst book about Lincoln ever written?'. His second place worst book was "Lincoln" by Gore Vidal, a book I also hated and I have been surprised at the general positive reviews on this site. That book was pure crap, and this author calls Vidal on it. Hooray for Prokopowicz.