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Reviews
| Lincoln's American Dream: Clashing Political Perspectives. Ed. Kenneth L. Deutsch and Joseph R. Fornieri (Washington, D. C. [Dulles, Virginia]: Potomac Books, 2005. pp. xi, 500. Notes, index. Cloth, $60.)
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The editors of this imposing collection are political scientists. The book's organization is topical, each of its eight chapters presenting aspects of Lincoln's thought and behavior over which experts have taken different and sometimes opposite views. The titles of these chapters are: "Lincoln, the Declaration, and Equality;" "Lincoln and Political Ambition;" "Lincoln, Race, and Slavery;" "Lincoln's Democratic Political Leadership: Utopian, Pragmatic, or Prudent?;" "Lincoln and Executive Power;" "Lincoln's Religion and Politics;" "Lincoln, the Union, and the Role of the State; and Lincoln for Our Time." |
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Altogether, thirty-four scholars are represented here. Jean Bethke Elshstain contributes an appropriate if brief Foreword, and Allen C. Guelzo an Afterword; together they begin and end this large book with strong affirmations of Abraham Lincoln. The two editors have contributed a long introduction that frames all the issues, as well as short introductions for each chapter. The thirty-two articles that make up the rest of the book are mostly reprinted; six seem to be appearing for the first time. There are two essays from each of six scholars: M. E. Bradford and Harry Jaffa appear in an ongoing debate over equality as a political ideal; Richard Nelson Current is represented in two debunking essays on quite different topics, psychohistory and multiculturalism; from James G. Randall (1881–1953), the senior author in this collection, we have "Lincoln the Liberal Statesman" and "Lincoln in the Role of Dictator"; and Stephen B. Oates argues that President Lincoln was a true Republican rather than an Old Whig and defends Lincoln's evolving initiatives for reconstruction. |
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Most of the repeating authors are, not surprisingly, among the best in this collection, but one should be sure to read the single contributions of several others: for instance, T. Harry Williams, Reinhold Niebuhr, Don Fehrenbacher, and Herman Belz. One must read the stylish contrarian Bradford if only to appreciate Jaffa, and one should try Willmoore Kendall to judge whether he is the most opaque as well as the most conservative writer in the entire collection. Two contributors, George Anastaplo and George McKenna write very well, but tell us almost nothing about Lincoln. Anastaplo proves that however much Walt Whitman admired Abraham Lincoln, his writings, and especially the splendid poem, "When Lilacs Last in the Courtyard Bloomed," are not so much about Lincoln as about the poet's feelings. McKenna is a serious writer and he means well, but this reader does not believe Abraham Lincoln has anything at all to teach us about the question of legalized abortion. |
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