Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates that Defined America
buy bestselling books in print, audio books
|
 |
List Price: $26.00
Our Price:
$17.16
You Save: $8.84
|
| [ + Zoom ] [ Buy Now ] |
Book : Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates that Defined America Customer Reviews
|
|
|
|
♥♥♥♥♥ |
A Very Good Book (but it could have been better)
|
I thoroughly enjoyed Allen Guelzo's latest offering, "Lincoln and Douglas." He does an excellent job of recreating the most turbulent era in our nation's history and immersing the reader in the lives and controversies of the participants. You can almost hear the hecklers at the debates and smell the smoke each time Douglas fires his "little giant" canon from the back of his campaign train. However, I think the book could have been a bit better.
First, I would like to have seen more critical analyses of the positions the two candidates advanced during the campaigns. The little chart the author provides at the conclusion of his summary of each debate--a chart that notes the points made and rejoinders offered by Lincoln and Douglas--was not enlightening.
Second, Mr. Guelzo is quick to underscore the flaws in Douglas' "Popular Sovereignty" doctrine and his defense of the Dred Scott decision, but all too often he gives Lincoln a pass, glossing over his missteps and ignoring the flaws in his arguments. Some examples:
--He frequently accuses Douglas of playing the "race card" (which, of course, Douglas did), but attempts to explain Lincoln's opening remarks at the Charleston debate--where Lincoln expressly states that the black race is inferior and can never enjoy the same civil liberties as white people--as a "carefully calculated statement."
--He conveys the impression that the decision of the prominent Whig politician, John Crittenden, to publicly voice his opposition to Lincoln's candidacy during the final week of the campaign was a Douglas dirty trick, his "October surprise." But Mr. Crittenden's views were not the product of Douglas' nefariousness; rather, they had their genesis in Crittenden's visceral reaction to Lincoln's "House Divided" speech at the Republican convention--a speech that all the major Republican leaders advised him in advance to tone down, but Lincoln refused.
--He fails to explore the inherent inconsistencies in Lincoln's notion that blacks enjoy natural rights, which prevent their enslavement, but can never enjoy the same civil rights as white people, which means the best they can hope for is second-class citizenship.
--Lincoln's reliance on the Declaration of Independence lacked any credible legal foundation, and his assertion that the Founding Fathers clearly intended to confine slavery to the south and set it on a course of ultimate extinction was a bit of a stretch. Even Lincoln privately acknowledged at the end of the campaign that he was making a moral, not a legal, argument and that the Declaration of Independence imposes no legal obligations on anyone. And if the founders had truly devised a system to contain and eventually exterminate slavery, it would not have been necessary to amend the Constitution and spill the blood of 620,000 Americans.
I do not mean to diminish what Lincoln accomplished during this campaign, and he truly was our greatest president (George Washington, however, was the greatest American; there is a difference). But we do ourselves and our history a disservice when we fail to critically assess the words and deeds of our saints as well as our sinners.
One final word: don't just read this book; read the debates themselves. I promise you that you will profit from the exercise and that you will find yourself disagreeing with Mr. Guelzo on several points (though, as I noted above, he has written a terrific book). |
|
Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates that Defined America Books In Print, Audio Books.