<http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2009-01/Lincoln.html>Link
--Posted By johannes to <http://www.monochrom.at/english/2009/02/there-have-been-many-lincolns-over.htm>monochrom at 2/02/2009 03:08:00 PM
Except for the miracles of Sherman's and Grant's
decisive victories in the field, Lincoln would
have been defeated in 1864. How different things would look... but...
For a country said to be uninterested in its
past, this would seem to be a giant exception to
the rule. Yet the deeper reasons for such
enduring, even obsessive, interest in these
subjects, permeating both the scholarly world and
the general public, are not immediately obvious.
There are few if any decisive new facts remaining
to be unearthed, few glaring lacunae in the
historical record crying out to be filled, few
interpretive gambits that have not been tried at
least once. There continue to be bands of Lincoln
assassination enthusiasts who find it
irresistible to speculate about what did or did
not happen those fateful days in the spring of
1865. But they donât explain the passionate
interest in the man, any more than the popularity
of Shakespeareâs plays derives from the rather
tiresome search to ascertain their âtrueâ author.
