Re: Heny Louis Gates Jr. on Lincoln

The Rev — Wed, 12 May 2010 00:50:40 GMT

I'm no fan of Lincoln, but you have to give him credit. If he personally was a racist, at least it didn't stand in his way of supporting equality and freedom for blacks in his political role. If only he'd been a huge personal supporter of the income tax and the draft, he may have done the right thing politically there, too. LOL

The Rev

Re: Heny Louis Gates Jr. on Lincoln

freebirdcjb — Wed, 12 May 2010 00:40:16 GMT

I've read 2 of Dilorenzos books about Lincoln. I may have to check this one out as it will probably be a bit more detailed than Dilorenzos books. What can you say, once a politician always a politician, Lincoln is no different than the criminals that run this place today.

Heny Louis Gates Jr. on Lincoln

John Ess — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:02:28 GMT

I just read about Gates's (yes the same one that was invited to the White House after a pig arrested him on his own property) 2009 book called Lincoln on Race and Slavery. Apparently, the guy is pretty good. Shows Lincoln to be a white supremacist and an ass. Looks to be a good book at around 400 pages of letters, documents, speeches, etc. along with commentary from the professor himself. Here is the product description.

Generations of Americans have debated the meaning of Abraham Lincoln's views on race and slavery. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation, authorized the use of black troops during the Civil War, supported a constitutional amendment to outlaw slavery, and eventually advocated giving the vote to black veterans and to what he referred to as "very intelligent negroes." But he also harbored grave doubts about the intellectual capacity of African Americans, publicly used the n-word until at least 1862, enjoyed "darky" jokes and black-faced minstrel shows, and long favored permanent racial segregation and the voluntary "colonization" of freed slaves in Africa, the Caribbean, or South America. In this book--the first complete collection of Lincoln's important writings on both race and slavery--readers can explore these contradictions through Lincoln's own words. Acclaimed Harvard scholar and documentary filmmaker Henry Louis Gates, Jr., presents the full range of Lincoln's views, gathered from his private letters, speeches, official documents, and even race jokes, arranged chronologically from the late 1830s to the 1860s.

Complete with definitive texts, rich historical notes, and Gates's original introduction, this book charts the progress of a war within Lincoln himself. We witness his struggles with conflicting aims and ideas--a hatred of slavery and a belief in the political equality of all men, but also anti-black prejudices and a determination to preserve the Union even at the cost of preserving slavery. We also watch the evolution of his racial views, especially in reaction to the heroic fighting of black Union troops.

At turns inspiring and disturbing, Lincoln on Race and Slavery is indispensable for understanding what Lincoln's views meant for his generation--and what they mean for our own.

It looks to be about the same iconoclasm as Dilorenzo or almost there. It's interesting to read some of the reviews on amazon . Some of them are intelligently written out. None seem to be "neo-confederates". And all the angry ones seem to be Lincoln cultists shooing people back to Harry Jaffa's work and Richard Stirner's ridiculously titled book Father Abraham. I have not read it yet, but I am thinking about getting around to it.

History

Re: Heny Louis Gates Jr. on Lincoln

Re: Heny Louis Gates Jr. on Lincoln

Heny Louis Gates Jr. on Lincoln