| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 211 words from this article are provided below; about 366 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Lincoln's Quest for Equality: The Road to Gettysburg. By Carl F. Wieck. (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2002. x, 214 pp. $36.00, ISBN 0-87580-299-0.)

Carl F. Wieck, who teaches at Tampere University in Finland, has made a worthwhile contribution to Lincoln studies in his mistitled Lincoln's Quest for Equality: The Road to Gettysburg. The author summarizes the book's subject matter on the opening page:

up until now the intellectual, philosophical, and linguistic roots of Lincoln's clarion call for full equality and democracy, though often matter for discussion and debate, have remained less than clear. In the pages that follow I suggest that the Unitarian minister and prominent abolitionist Theodore Parker (1810–1860) exerted pivotal but almost unperceived influence on Lincoln's thought and moral development, culminating with the Gettysburg Address and revealing that Lincoln had considerably stronger ties to abolitionism than has previously been suggested. (p. 3)

The two elements of this thesis—that Theodore Parker influenced Abraham Lincoln's thought and language and that therefore the Great Emancipator's tie to abolitionism is stronger and more direct than hitherto supposed—are supported chiefly by examining Parker's 1854 A Sermon of the Dangers which Threaten the Rights of Man in America and by exposing Parker's correspondence with Lincoln's law partner, William Herndon.

. . .

There are about 366 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.