| Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 87.3

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| Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 87.3 | The History Cooperative

Movie Review

Who Was Abraham Lincoln? Prod. by Robert Bailey. Dir. by Graham Knight. BJW, Inc. in association with New River Media, 1996. 25 mins. (Films for the Humanities and Sciences, Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543-2053)

This educational film originated as an episode in Ben Wattenberg's television program, Think Tank. In Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C., where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Wattenberg interviews David Donald, Eric Foner, and Daniel Boorstin on Lincoln and his place in history. 1

Wattenberg introduces the subject with a capsule summary of Lincoln's career, making use of contemporary photographs and cartoons to illustrate the highlights. Wattenberg (or his scriptwriter) does a good job, and the visual materials are well chosen. The interview itself follows the pattern of Wattenberg posing a question, followed by one or more of the three historians answering it. His questions are broad and significant, such as: "Was Lincoln a visionary leader or just a practical politician forced to cope with specific problems?" "Was Lincoln a racist?" "Would Lincoln have embarked on a civil war if he had known it was going to cost 650,000 American lives?" "What accounts for the durable appeal of the Lincoln legend?" "What would Lincoln think of American politics today?" It is surprising how much ground the film manages to cover in just a few minutes. . . .

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